First of all, thank you very much for the invitation. I would have liked to have other associations that deal with violence in Colombia participate as well.
In the past 30 years, legislation was developed with the co-operation of Canada, which is called pan-American dialogue, and it's made up of lawyers. This legislation is very favourable to the multinationals. It's very tolerant of mining companies in this climate, given the difficulties they face.
The co-operation agency, lawyers, and politicians have changed the labour contracts. They have created specific charges for workers. These are based on the technical co-operation they were able to get from the workers, so control of security measures is a concern. For instance, the Drummond Company has done this, and this resulted in many deaths. The right to collective bargaining no longer exists. It was put in parentheses. They're suspended, as you know. About 4,000 people were assassinated, most of them union leaders.
There are three groups in the energy sector, in the mining sector, who all have horrible working conditions. They're only interested in profit. There's violence. There's the marginalization of the poor and of all the people, in fact, who gravitate around mining operations.
In 2010 illegal measures were taken, which meant that workers were largely laid off. These companies had benefited from investments from many Canadians. Some 1,500 workers saw their rights violated, got sick, and experienced confrontation. Many of them had no contract, and they were just gobbled up. They cannot be members of a union. They cannot avail themselves of collective bargaining. They do not benefit from the same working conditions as their peers. There's no social stability. These are determinate contracts for a short duration. They have to pay their own social security and pensions.
As well, these companies give them no benefits whatsoever and no subsidies to the workers to do so, so what is paid to workers represents 10 times less than the average salary paid in the same sectors worldwide.
These corporations do not pay taxes, don't pay for social security, and do not respect the protection measures that should be in place. Yet these people work underground, with very heavy machinery, in order to extract the minerals to be processed. These are situations of quasi-slavery—very poor working conditions that have been decried by a Canadian organization that wanted to change legislation in extractive industries.
To the level of $3 million, in 2015, article 227 was introduced, which favours the president's family. The corporation went from Canadian hands to Colombian ones. Between Canada and Colombia, measures were taken to facilitate the transportation of people to Canada. This happened when Mr. Martin was prime minister.
The conditions are very precarious for the workers, as I explained. Demonstrations have been organized. People have been expelled from the territory. Military groups have intervened and exerted illegal pressures on the families as well. People have to abandon what they're doing, otherwise there are reprisals against them and their families.
In addition, Colombia was asked for $700 million as guarantees for operations in zones where government authorities knew there was illegal activity going on and criminals had been involved. It should be pointed out that there were violations of human rights on the part of people who are now in the U.S. and in England. Paramilitary groups also put contracts on the heads of quite a few people, and they have relationships with the army: 82% were victimized by all this, especially in the region where most of the coal comes from that goes to Canada.
There's a research institute that was established. We want to issue a request here for Canadians to come to Colombia to assess all these irregularities. We should have officials from the Canadian government, from the embassy, and from multinational corporations with head offices in Canada, to produce a detailed report on the situation so that measures can be taken and developed, so that you can assess what is happening in our country and so that we can achieve peace and social justice in a country that has experienced great upheaval, movements of populations, assassinations, and other things.
We're asking workers' organizations and NGOs in Colombia to be part of this group and to describe the impact of the actions of Canadian corporations. We want parliamentarians to take into account the recommendations issued.
We could recommend the creation of an ombudsman's office that would discuss environmental law and labour law with the population of Colombia.
Thank you so much.