Thank you so much, Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
I'm going to pick up, Professor Shariff, where you left off.
It's good to see you again. It's been a long time—probably 30 years or maybe longer. It's great to see you.
I want to pick up where you left off in terms of talking about the importance of making sure that we are able to attract and keep our best and brightest minds, regardless of some of these criteria. Some of these criteria may be important, but we should not index on those in making sure that we have the best folks around the table,.
What, in your view, is the best way for Canada to approach poaching talent—I'm going to say it bluntly—from the U.S., where folks are feeling uncomfortable right now about the threats to academia and there is this pervasive attitude that you have to think a certain way or else your funding is going to be cut? What do we need to make sure that we aren't falling into the wrong traps on either side of this conversation, to make sure that we're attracting the best talent—without leaning in on this perceived attack on “woke ideology”, which I want to get to, whatever the hell that means—in a way that gets us the best talent here and allows us to do the best types of research while also building an inclusive environment for academics?