Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have to say, Mr. Minister, Mr. Pallister tossed you a softball question and I was very disappointed that you dropped the ball on the answer.
When we talk about Canada and Colombia, we're not talking about human rights violations from 10 or 15 years ago; we're talking about human rights violations that are being condemned this year. Dozens of trade unionists have been killed. The Colombian military have been guilty of hundreds of summary executions this year.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN Commission on Human Rights have all condemned human rights violations, widespread human rights violations, in Colombia this year, and the ties of the government to the paramilitaries have been condemned this year. What we have, from far and wide, from the experts, those who actually monitor human rights conditions in Colombia, is condemnation of the government this year. This is a current problem. If the government is moving forward to sign a trade agreement that contains a few paragraphs on human rights, essentially what we're doing is rubber-stamping those gross violations of human rights that are occurring right now.
I didn't see anything in the estimates that talked about monitoring of human rights. So you've used the phrase rather loosely, I believe, talking about protecting human rights. You used it again, I believe, in response to Mr. Pallister's question.
What is your ministry doing to actually monitor the human rights situation in Colombia to ascertain whether or not this would actually be, in a very real sense, condoning what are widespread violations of human rights in Colombia?