The difficult I'm having here, and please bear with me, is that when we speak of Colombians who are supporting this agreement, when we speak of the government members themselves, including President Uribe and his cabinet, I get the feeling from you folks that you're painting them all with a very broad brush, that they're all members of some type of right-wing extremist government who are bearing down inordinately on the poor in Colombia. When you look at that cabinet, and I've met them, they represent every facet of the political spectrum—every facet. There are former socialists; there's a former editor of a socialist newspaper who was kidnapped by the FARC or the paramilitaries, I'm not sure which one right now. There are groups that have been kidnapped by the FARC, kidnapped by the paramilitary, and people who have been incarcerated for a year and a half, or two years, or three years at a time. The president's father was assassinated in front of him.
These people have been injured during this period of violence in Colombia. They come from all political backgrounds and have one thing in common: they want to see a better Colombia. They want to see a Colombia that deserves and is ready to take its place in the world.
The only way we can help them do that is to put clear rules in place to assist them to provide jobs and opportunity for their people, and I truly and quite honestly believe that. If we don't do that, then I think we're not doing our job as Canadian members of Parliament and we're not doing our job for our own citizens.