I want to get to the heart of the matter. The matter before this committee today concerns the specific issue of the legislation passed by this Parliament. It required the preparation of a report, to be tabled by May 15 of this year, containing an assessment of the trade agreement provisions and the impact they would have on human rights. As we know, there's none of that in this report.
You've heard the previous testimony. The government has basically said that they didn't have enough time. The government knew in 2010 that human rights impact assessments were going to be called for. They knew that human rights was a major issue in terms of the desirability or not of entering into a free trade agreement with Colombia.
This agreement came into force on August 15, 2011. The rationale given is that from August 15 to December 31 was not long enough for the government to have produced a sentence, even a sentence, on what impact the trade agreement may have had, in any way whatsoever, on the human rights situation in Colombia.
I want to put that to you. Do you accept that as a legitimate excuse?