Thank you to our witnesses for coming in and for your patience this morning. Unfortunately, our committee time has been cut short by votes in the House, but we appreciate your testimony.
I want to start off by saying that we've had many witnesses come before committee speaking to us about human rights. Among them was Ms. Bertha Oliva from COFADEH, who was quoted by Mr. O'Toole in the last committee meeting thus:
We are not proposing isolation for Honduras. We don't want that. We don't want Honduras to be isolated from Canada or from the world. What we are saying is that we want governments of the world and the Government of Canada to monitor the situation more regularly....
However, when pressed further on whether or not she supported engaging Honduras in trade, she said:
No. What I am saying is that businesses cannot be placed above development and the production and advocacy for human rights and respect for human rights. Things cannot be that way. There cannot just be economic progress if at the same time there is a violation of human rights.
I wanted to put those on the record because I think it's unfortunate that some of our Conservative colleagues are trying to make our witnesses say things they are not in fact saying.