Evidence of meeting #46 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witnesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Harvey, in your talk, you described recent dictatorships in Panama, and you mentioned Noriega and Torrijos. When would you say the dictatorships ended?
President, Canadian Council for the Americas
What was the year Noriega got grabbed? Was it the early nineties? I don't have it off the top of my head, but it was in the early nineties that Noriega went down. After that, things changed for the better very, very quickly.
NDP
President, Canadian Council for the Americas
Yes. Obviously democracy's not a yes-or-no thing; there are different gradations, even in Canada, but it's a fully functioning democracy.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
You also referred to the judiciary as becoming “more and more independent”.
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I take it that the flip side is that they don't have a fully independent judiciary today.
President, Canadian Council for the Americas
I don't think “fully independent” judiciary is a yes-or-no answer either. I think it's a judiciary that's moving in the right direction. There are corruption problems, as there are anywhere.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Would you say there are corruption problems in the Canadian judiciary?
President, Canadian Council for the Americas
I was a lawyer for about a year before I got into....
Conservative
President, Canadian Council for the Americas
There's a corruption commission working on things in Quebec right now, but obviously there's more corruption in Panama than there is in Canada. I'm saying it's a move in the right direction.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Yes, but I don't think it's looking at the judiciary, though, is it? It's not looking at corruption in the judiciary.
President, Canadian Council for the Americas
No, no, and I understand what you're saying. My argument is just that things are moving in the right direction. My argument is not that there's no corruption in the Panamanian judiciary.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Fair enough. I'll grant you that point, but you would grant my point that obviously you wouldn't describe them as having a fully functioning, independent judiciary at this point in time, although they may be moving in that direction.
President, Canadian Council for the Americas
I don't like the term “fully functioning, independent judiciary”. I think these things are levels and not yes or no.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Fair enough.
Mr. Tilk, I'm sorry, I have three different press releases that I'm looking at. I'm trying to make sense of them. Is Minera Panamá a subsidiary of Inmet?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Inmet Mining Corporation
That's correct. Minera Panamá is a subsidiary of Inmet Mining. Minera Panamá holds and operates the project. We own 80% of that, and we have a Korean partner that owns 20% of Minera Panamá.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I'm reading from a press release that says:
...Panama's Supreme Court of Justice made public its decision of July 18, 2011 in which it denied Minera Panamá an injunction against the creation of the Protected Area of Donoso, which is part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor along the Panamanian Atlantic.
Does that refresh your memory about a subsidiary of Inmet seeking—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Inmet Mining Corporation
Yes, of course. I wasn't sure—
President and Chief Executive Officer, Inmet Mining Corporation
Of course I do, yes. Was that your earlier question in the beginning?
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Earlier you didn't have any knowledge of an injunction application, sir, which I referred to in my first line of questioning.
