International Trade committee  Not in my view. We are doing the right thing already in the sense that we already have a commercial relationship there, and I think our commercial relationship with Colombia has been contributing to the progress that's being made. This free trade agreement would simply open a lo

International Trade committee  I think I made the observation earlier that Mr. Julian's party opposed even free trade with the United States. I don't think they did that on human rights grounds, but the fact is I don't think they've ever seen a free trade agreement that they like. On the other hand, I think i

International Trade committee  Well, again, I think Canadians respond as human beings who obviously care about the welfare of themselves, their families, and therefore look at what the economic opportunities are that they have, that their enterprise, their employer has; and they care about their jobs. But I t

International Trade committee  If I may, I think I have made the point already. Are there serious and ongoing legitimate concerns in Colombia? Yes, as there are in many other countries. What are Canadians doing to improve the situation? In my view, we will be helping to improve that situation for Colombians by

International Trade committee  If I may, I think you've raised an important point. Colombia has made a huge amount of progress and it still has a great deal of progress to make. But assuming all goes well there and that they achieve the level of prosperity, safety, human rights, and well-being of their citiz

International Trade committee  If I may, I think there are two parts to that answer. The first is, why do we need to do this for Canadians? I think in that sense, again, it's important to move ahead with Canada-Colombia free trade not simply because of the benefits of that single agreement with that single par

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, members of the committee, for inviting us here to testify and to discuss Bill C-300. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives represents the heads of large globally engaged enterprises in every sector of our economy. We have spoken cle

Foreign Affairs committee  I wasn't involved in those particular discussions, so I can't speak to what went into that.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think what's important to address here is that we're taking a concept of corporate social responsibility and trying to turn it into a matter of law. I think Professor Simons made the point that CSR gives one a competitive advantage. It is something that companies do inherently

Foreign Affairs committee  No, but the point is what I'm trying to get at here. I mean, the essence of this bill is to try to turn corporate social responsibility, which is inherently a voluntary activity, into a new vehicle for changing what is required, for raising the minimum that is required by law.

Foreign Affairs committee  Just to be clear, I'm sure we had member companies who were involved, but probably through their sector associations. We, as a council, were not directly involved.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll give you a quick answer: kill it.

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, you seem very good at assuming funding; I'm not sure that's a good assumption either.

Foreign Affairs committee  No. I think the bill suffers from a fundamental flaw, which can't be fixed by amendment. Frankly, I think it comes back to some of the issues that have been raised both by Professor Simons and by our colleagues from Harvard here. Essentially, in the examples they were talking a

Foreign Affairs committee  You're going to get companies to do it--