Before I answer that question, I forgot to mention about the Fair Labor Association. The women who work in Gildan's factories, or that have formally complained about the conditions, they have complained before the Fair Labor Association. In response to the complaint, the Fair Labor Association did an analysis of the program that Greg Chamandy of Gildan has in place to deal with labour conditions, but there was no engagement with the workers in any way. Workers were not involved in that evaluation. So in February of this year, the human rights organization that represents the workers formally complained about how the Fair Labor Association had done their evaluation and their results about what was going on in the factories.
In terms of your question, the Honduras elections are approaching in November. I think things are going to get dramatically worse between now and then because of the polarization of Honduran society and because of the significant social movement that is proposing a candidate for the presidency.
What Canada needs to do is to absolutely stop funding the police and any state forces. Canadian companies are actively, as we speak, funding the police. The companies were mentioned by Mr. Blackwell, and almost everyone who has spoken in front of the committee has said that the police force and the military are committing a lot of human rights violations. That's the very reason they're doing a security reform. Canada absolutely has to stop funding a state institution that is committing these violations.
Another thing I think Canada should push for in Honduras is some sort of independent international body that could help mediate these concerns and push forward investigations of some of the key human rights cases. The truth commission put forward that they should have a presence from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In response to the truth commission, they put in a representative from the office of the high commissioner, but it's just a representative, not an office. They have a very limited mandate and they are not able to do many things.
I would propose that Canada work towards something like they have in Guatemala, which is called CICIG, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. This is a special prosecutor, an international body with the ability to investigate crimes. They've had a lot of success in Guatemala. It's not a perfect process, but it's a way of monitoring what is happening in the investigations and the judiciary.