Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mrs. Pickard and Mrs. Wood, for being here today.
I am not a regular member of this committee but I have been given some information. I have been told that 2,690 trade unionists have been killed in that country since 1986. I have been told that the US State Department and Amnesty International have concluded that 305,000 people have been displaced in 2007. In other words, they have been removed from their homes, their communities, their jobs. In 2008, that figure reached 380,000.
You have been on the ground and you have observed the electoral system of that country. I sometimes hear it said in Canada that two or three votes might sometimes be stolen in our ridings. This is like comparing a firecracker to an atomic bomb. There is absolutely no comparison. Canada is a country with democratic rules that are respected, which does not seem to be the case over there. You went to that country, you reported the results of your observation of the electoral process, and we are being asked to let Colombians decide. I agree with that. Let us let Colombians decide but, if they have no credible democratic system, how will we know that they were really the ones deciding? That is my question.