Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, April 26, 1998 Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi was murdered. His crime was to release a report on human rights abuse under a former military regime.
Guatemala participated in the summit of the Americas where the Prime Minister of Canada indicated that leaders of 34 democratically elected governments in the hemisphere committed themselves to respect human rights everywhere in the Americas.
But unfettered globalization is bringing the clashes between trade and human rights to the centre of international activities. Sadly our country is taking the position that trade is ahead of democratic development and human rights.
We wish to alert this government that its foreign policy of constructive engagement is not fostering human rights with our trading partners but is bringing the social values of repressive regimes into our own country as expressed by the autocratic attitude of the Prime Minister and evidenced by the attack on University of British Columbia students during APEC.
The citizens of this country are demanding that our deeper obligations are to promote and defend international human rights, not to support the abusers.