Thank you very much.
And thank you to the witnesses for coming today, and to our videoconference guest.
I have actually three questions to various witnesses, so I'll put them all out there, if you could respond to them.
First of all, Mr. Pennings, I know you're here listed as an individual, and I was certainly interested in your remarks. I just want to see if I'm correct that you actually head up an organization called the Work Research Foundation, that you've previously done work for the Canadian Alliance, and that you're a leading proponent on the right-to-work issue. I'd just be interested if you could illuminate us in terms of your background.
Secondly, to Mr. Bedard—and to the steelworkers who are here today—you raised the issue of the ILO and its importance and you raised Convention 87 concerning freedom of association, to which you felt this bill would be in opposition. I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's a lot of international jurisprudence on this issue and ILO legal experts have stated that the hiring of replacement workers to break a strike is a serious violation of freedom of association. I'm not sure if you're aware of that opinion. Maybe you could comment on that—and the steelworkers could comment as well.
In fact, while we're talking about the ILO, there's another convention, Convention 98, the right to organize and to bargain collectively. Canada has not yet signed on to it. I wonder, Mr. Bedard, if the Canadian Employers Council would actually support the Canadian government signing on to it, because I think you said you did support that.
My third question is to Mr. Vaydik, from the Northwest Territories. You've talked about the northern experience, but it seems to me there's an even stronger argument to ban the use of replacement workers when there's a labour dispute and strike in a remote location. In those situations, as I think we've already seen by experience, it's very hard to set up a picket line; you're talking about flying people in thousands of miles, which was certainly the case at the Ekati Diamond Mine. It's much easier for the employer to then bring in replacement workers. So I actually think that experience has shown us in those situations that not allowing replacement workers is a very important measure to ensure there isn't violence and a prolonged dispute as a result of replacement workers being brought in, because it's easier for the employer to do that there.
Those are my three questions, if the witnesses could respond.