Absolutely.
I was struck, in two west African countries, to know that there were CSR people at our embassies and that these people were non-Canadian. When I tried to talk to them about the round-table process, they knew nothing about it. How can they be the spokespeople for Canada if they don't know? Who do they represent?
This question of mining policy becoming foreign policy.... Recently a journalist who was in Burkina Faso got in touch with me because he wanted to talk to people. I gave him names. I said to speak to the people at the embassy. He said that he wasn't allowed to speak to the people at the embassy. How are the Canadian people allowed to know what's going on? What are our policies if our journalists can't speak to the people at the Canadian embassy?
I will also share with you a personal story related to Canada's reputation, if I can. This is a difficult one for me. It is about our international reputation and what's going on. My life is full of stories, every day, from Peru, from Ghana, and from the DRC. I happen to have a son who is a young lawyer from McGill. He's in Colombia, and he's going around with other young lawyers about impunity. He went recently to a site, Gran Colombia Gold at Marmato. What happened there is absolutely incredible. A young priest was killed. People have been assassinated. Exploration was stopped because of local protests. This Canadian company is going to go on to another place, and there's going to be more violence.
What is happening to Canada? It's another generation, which is already picking up the mess in terms of human rights abuses, violations of the environment, etc. And we, of our generation, sit back, and we have no mechanisms for accountability for what our companies are doing. How long was this going on? In 2007 there was a report. In 2005 there was a report. We are still not even interested in holding our companies accountable for the most basic human rights.