Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. We're pleased to be here.
In 2008, about a month after this committee was in Colombia, I had the privilege of visiting Colombia for nine days with three other public sector trade union leaders, going throughout the country and meeting with a variety of folks.
We began our work with Colombian trade unions and NGOs in 2000 under the banner of Public Services International. It's a 22-million-member public services global union. Since 2003 we have funded the work of the Association for Social Research and Action in Cali. They do human rights training for workers and citizens in Colombia.
When I revisited my tour of two years ago, it brought back a lot of memories of the people I had met in Colombia and the grave concerns that we have with Canada lending its name at this juncture in Colombia's history to a trade deal with that country. I recalled meeting some of the four million people who have been displaced from their lands—Afro-Colombians and indigenous Colombians--who are living in squalor on the outskirts of Medellin and Cali.
Of interest to me as a trade unionist, and a barometer of the state of the nation of Colombia, is the fact that out of a workforce of 18 million—very similar to that in Canada—fewer than 200,000 workers are covered by collective agreements as we know them in Canada; that is, by enforceable contracts, notwithstanding Colombia having signed the same ILO covenants that Canada and all ten provinces have signed.
Moreover, in the eight days I spent there, the poverty was evident and in our face. There are also three million children currently outside the formal or informal education system in Colombia.
Why are any of these statistics relevant to parliamentarians here in Canada? Won't the trade deal make things better so that these statistics can be improved? I argue that at this juncture in the history of Colombia, the opposite is true.
In terms of displaced persons, the recent reports of the UN and Amnesty International have raised serious concerns about escalating violence against indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. Over four million people have been displaced from their homes, for a variety of reasons. In particular, just last week, on April 29, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, ONIC, testified at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Washington that 80% of indigenous territories have been conceded for the implementation of economic projects, without respect for indigenous rights or without consultation.
There have been threats against human rights defenders. The United States Office on Colombia, USOC, reported last month that threats have become common practice in Colombia. The Colombian NGO “We are Defenders” documented 125 cases of threats against human rights defenders in the last year, and 32 of those persons have since been assassinated.
On rates of unionization, I have a couple more statistics. We met with Dr. Fabio Valencia Cossio, the minister responsible for labour, whose formal title is Minister of Interior and Justice. We asked him how Colombia could sign the ILO treaty in respect of free collective bargaining rights—the same treaty signed by our country in the early 1970s and by all ten provinces and the territories—yet have fewer than 200,000 workers with enforceable collective agreements, in which, for example, you could challenge your rate of pay, a right that all Canadian workers with collective agreements have. He had no answer to that.
We asked him why all the Colombian trade union leaders had their own independent security guards and could not travel in the same van with Canadians. Why were the threats to trade union leaders still so evident, with 2,729 trade union leaders being assassinated since 1986 for what trade unionists regularly do in other countries--that is, to gather, protest, and petition parliamentarians?
I have one comment on the NGO that we fund, which does human rights training in Colombia, NOMADESC. We've asked this committee to hear from the director of NOMADESC, Berenice Ceylata. We'll ensure her presence here. Her most recent work began on April 8, when eight artisanal miners in the department of Cauca were murdered.
NOMADESC has been warning the Government of Colombia for years about the increased violence against workers, trade unionists, human rights defenders. Over the last several months, representatives from international human rights organizations and others have petitioned the Colombian government to take action, including investigating multinational corporations active in the region of Cauca. The connection between the government and paramilitaries and narco-traffickers has been documented and paints a very disturbing picture of a failed state.
We are asking that this committee hear from the International Pre-Electoral Observation Mission, who undertook a mission to Colombia from February 3 to February 15. They've asked to appear before this committee, and I'll give you a couple of observations from their findings.
The most recent evidence is shown in the report of the International Pre-Electoral Observation Mission to Colombia. This committee may be aware that numbers of Congress and Senate representatives have been charged with criminal offences. When I was in Colombia in 2008, one third of the Congress--102 members--were either incarcerated or had been charged, 90% of them from the governing coalition.
What were they charged with? They were charged with criminal offences related to drug trafficking and paramilitaries. The Pre-Electoral Observation Mission from this past February reported that 35 candidates elected recently to the 102-person Congress are linked to former Congress members identified by the courts as linked to paramilitary groups. They go into great detail in their report from that February mission. We had two members of CUPE on that mission in February.
Their final report has four highlights: one, the involvement of illegal armed groups in the elections; two, electoral fraud and corruption; three, illegal campaign financing; and four, the manipulation of social programs designed to assist the poorest of the poor. Recipients of such programs have been told to vote for certain candidates; otherwise the state-funded programs would be cut, and their benefits with them.
From our research and my first-hand observations, our country's determination to move so quickly on this trade agreement is either naive or blatantly disregards mountains of evidence of a failed and corrupt state, complicit in repression against those who speak out. As stated in our report that I sent to all members of Parliament in the fall of 2008, we met with the Office of the Public Defender, which has been publicly financed since the new constitution in Colombia of 1991. He expressed his frustration that his reports to the Colombian authorities on violations of human rights go undealt with.
Finally, Mr. Chair, as reported by John Ruggie, United Nations special representative of the Secretary General on business and human rights, to the UN Human Rights Council, the worst corporate-related human rights abuses occur in conflict-affected areas, and even reputable firms may be implicated in abuses.
Mr. Ruggie, under the banner of the UN, has convened a representative group of states, which includes Canada, to brainstorm how to prevent and mitigate such abuses. I believe it would be important for this committee to hear precisely what suggestions are being made by that UN representative.
Finally, the contemplated amendment to the agreement, apparently from the Liberal Party, proposing to have each country report on the human rights situation in their own country would seem to me to be not where the committee stood in 2008. It falls far short of a human rights impact assessment before any trade deal with Colombia is implemented.
This was the position of this committee coming out of your hearings in the spring and early summer of 2008. It is imperative, in CUPE's view, that Canada take every possible step to ensure that human and labour rights for Colombians are respected, that land clearances are ended, and that the killings stop. We're committed to working to this end, and we ask this committee and parliamentarians to join with us.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We'll answer any questions that come up.