Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for appearing before the committee. We believe on this side—and I think there are others, too—that the bill has some serious flaws. For instance, we all have a colleague who formerly was an international trade lawyer. He looked at the bill and his interpretation was that it's going to be challenged under international law. Those are some of the areas.
The other thing that concerns me is as a law professor, Professor Macklin, I'm sure that you teach your students the law of unintended consequences. We hear that a lot here. You know, it's right. Oftentimes we'll think of a law that really sounds good, and the opposition will come back and they'll say, “Listen, this is what could happen”. That's an area we have some real serious concerns about too. The other, which hasn't been mentioned at all and it should be mentioned, is that the CSR counsellor is in place to do a lot of the things you've talked about.
I appreciated your presentation. I thought you gave a balanced approach. You mentioned, too, that the intent—again that intent—is fairly obvious. But what about the argument that the bill doesn't go far enough? For instance, could it be argued that a shipping company that takes the extracted minerals would also fall under this as well? That's directly responsible.
Just let me finish my thought. I guess the point I want to make is what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If we're going to encourage our way of life, the very things we hold dear, the things we cherish, and our rights in the democracy we live in, why wouldn't we take that further? Why wouldn't we include, for instance, the service sector, which is I believe at this point the largest part of our economy, or what about telecommunications in a country like Saudi Arabia, which has serious human rights violations? Wouldn't that apply as well? I'm asking you generally. If this is right for the mining industry, why wouldn't it be right for all those other industries?