Thank you very much.
I think we'll all agree that Canada holds human rights high in this country, the rule of law, democracy, and all of the good things that we've come to enjoy. We've had struggles in our country to get there, but nothing like those of Colombia and some other South American countries that have had decades of civil war and huge abuses of human rights.
It seems to me that Mr. Julian and the folks from the Bloc are saying that until Colombia agrees to accept the conditions that we enjoy in Canada in the area of human rights and law, we don't want to deal with them. They don't want to deal with them until they say, yes, we'll sign on to whatever level you want to impose.
I'm suggesting that maybe they are unable to come that far ahead in such a short time because of how far back they may have been in things like human rights, labour, and the rule of law. Maybe they aren't able to. They're suggesting that we cast them aside in the meanwhile, step out of the lineup, and let all of the other countries take our place and take the seats in the trade show to the point that maybe when we want to come back, there won't be any room for us.
The very people they would sign agreements with may not hold anywhere near the values that we do. We may never ever get to try to influence them with our values and our rule of law because we're simply not going to be in the same theatre as they're playing in now, having had all of their trade requirements filled by other countries that may be so far back from us in human rights, the rule of law, and democracy, that we would maybe think that those trading companies are backwards, but they're going to be there in our place.
That's the big fear I have about holding this thing up and standing back while we insist that they embrace this ideal package before we'll even deal with them. Someone else will go in there and get the trade with a package that may not compare in any way to what we could have offered them.