I want to welcome our guest here today. It's certainly appreciated.
You're right, and Mr. Sweet is right. In the testimony from Gildan that he's read back here, for example, the Fair Labor Association that's supposedly giving them such high marks, it's pretty much like-minded corporations that have banded together, similar to the ILO, the International Labour Organization, but it's almost like the fox going after the chickens while they're judging them, so it's really concerning.
From a philosophical point of view, and we get into the free trade agreement and the OAS, Mr. Blackwell was talking about if there was a free trade agreement, it would benefit the people there.
One of the problems we in the official opposition have had with the trade agreements that have been signed so far by this government is the fact that they haven't included human rights and they haven't included labour rights in the body of the agreement. They're side agreements and they're not enforceable in law. There's no sense of accountability. If we're going to go into trade in a legislative way, we need to have enforceable human rights standards in there to ensure.... I'll give you an example. You may well be aware of this.
Mexico has some of the best environmental laws on earth, except they don't enforce them. We have a situation in that country where it's very clear that anybody who stands up to their government in any way is putting their life at risk. You've said it yourself: Honduras is the murder capital of the world. I'd like you to expand a little, but more particularly in the case of Gildan, in the case of the situation as it's perceived there of Canadian companies.
Canadian extractive companies in some parts of the world are being questioned about working with the death squads or the paramilitaries, and in some cases hiring paramilitaries as their security. If you could comment on that aspect of the relationship of Canadian companies, I'd appreciate it.