Mr. Speaker, I do not know the details of the comments made by my former colleague from Kamloops. It is not just the right of elected officials, parliamentarians, to participate in extra-parliamentary activity in solidarity with ordinary citizens. It is an absolute responsibility.
Furthermore, most of the major struggles that have taken place in our lifetime which resulted in important human progress came about in exactly that way: through an active, creative partnership between progressive parliamentarians or legislators together with citizens engaging in direct political action. That is how we brought an end to the apartheid system. Universal suffrage is another example. I could go on and on.
I was profoundly disappointed with respect to the comments made a few weeks ago by Prime Minister Tony Blair. I guess out of ignorance or out of an agenda that had to do with the fact that he was making this a stop on the way to meet George Bush, he absolutely and erroneously talked of the FTAA as if it were the same as the European model for free trade.
I had the opportunity to say to Mr. Blair very directly that I was very disappointed about that, and that it was very important that he keep in mind there was no way in the world that he or any other European leader would get away with signing on to an agreement like the FTAA. The European model is based on a fundamentally different concept. It is based on raising standards, not lowering them. It is based on improving, not eroding, working conditions, environmental protections or human rights.
The European model may not be an approach that is perfect, but if the government wants to bring forward a fair trade agreement based on the principles of the European Union, it will have our support for doing so. However until it does that, we will stand up and put forward an alternate model and try to persuade the government that a citizens based model and one not based on the corporate demands for how trade should take place, is the model we will be advancing and the one which increasing numbers of Canadians are willing to stand up and be counted on to fight for.