International Trade committee  If I understand the question correctly, you are asking if the new President and the new Government of Colombia will respect the commitments...

International Trade committee  I cannot speak for the Government of Colombia, but I do know that all parties in Colombia have signed on to the democratic security policy. The democratic security policy of President Uribe is engagement with the international community to monitor the human rights situation. All

International Trade committee  We have seen enormous engagement by the Colombian government on a number of international agreements, as well as bilateral. Yes, we believe that largely they have been respected and followed through. There have been occasional setbacks where they have not been able to complete ag

International Trade committee  I can answer the part of your question that concerns our ability and our contacts with NGOs, but I'm not in a position to comment on... I'm sorry, I don't know the word for “amendment”. At any rate, I'm certainly aware of the conversations that have taken place in the House, b

International Trade committee  We have always been very open with this committee with regard to the contacts we have in Colombia, with regard to the various unions as well as NGOs. We are happy to share those lists with you. We have to be very careful about giving any commentary on the various organizations,

International Trade committee  I don't have much to add to what my colleague has already stated, but we are aware intensely of the U.S. interest in completing its free trade agreement with Colombia. In fact, Defense Secretary Gates just made an announcement yesterday about continued support for Colombia, not o

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for that question. We take very seriously our obligations, whether in Colombia or in other parts of the region: the necessity to monitor, survey, report, and more importantly, I think, to build capacity within civil society to ensure that they're able to kee

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to add to the remarks of my colleague and to provide some insight on Canada's broader engagement in Colombia. Canada has a long-standing, rich, and diverse connection to Colombia that includes a broad range of academic, cultural, and civ

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much for that question. When we joined the Organization of American States over 20 years ago, one of the first measures Canada took was to establish a unit for the promotion of democracy. It has different names now, but that office has continued to develop and gro

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think it would weaken those relations, because there's a lot of joint activity through the Organization of American States as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Every three or four years, a summit of the Americas is organized to bring leadership together to

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Prior to the election, at least with regard to the public media, access to it was far greater. There certainly wasn't this tendency to target media stations. That has been a major change since President Chávez has come into power. There have been changes on the other side as wel

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  He is very popular with the lower classes, who have seen some material benefits during his presidency, and we are the first to acknowledge those efforts. What we take umbrage with is the fact that such changes require the suppression of basic human rights and democratic rights. W

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Our embassy is extremely active in Caracas. On a regular basis, on an almost daily basis, it meets with various civil society groups. It obviously listens to the media, and it goes out into the streets. We're well served in the sense of the degree of information. There are still

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm going to let Jeff search that one out. I'll speak a bit more generally. I'll let Jeff look for more particulars on the actual unions.