Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to indicate, on behalf of the New Democratic Party, our pleasure in supporting this bill. It is work that needed to be done for some time. It is a significant step forward in governing the responsibilities we have to control the illicit use of diamonds.
The certification process, that is being developed and would become part of the Kimberley process, would go some distance in avoiding the use of diamonds for trade in armaments. Historically some of the civil wars in Angola, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo have been or are still being fuelled by the use of diamonds for the purchase of armaments.
I want to acknowledge the work that has been done by the member for Nepean—Carleton. He has done a lot of work in this regard. He has travelled to Sierra Leone and is a major reason why we are seeing this legislation come before the House now.
I also want to acknowledge the work that has been done by some of the NGOs, in particular Partnership Africa Canada. It has done an outstanding job of bringing this point up the political agenda and assisting in the actual drafting of the legislation in terms of some of the criteria that needed to be in it. The work it has done needs to be acknowledged in that regard.
It has worked extensively with Global Witness Limited, an international NGO. It has been monitoring the situation of the use of diamonds for illicit purposes around the globe and has brought the issue to the forefront internationally. It needs to be acknowledged and credited for all the work that it has done.
I have one final point in terms of acknowledgments and that is our former ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Fowler. Some of us have read some of the speeches that he gave at the UN and internationally. They were quite impassioned ones at times, and that is something we normally do not see from an ambassador, one of our international representatives. He felt strongly about the issue and was able to communicate that inside Canada but more important to the international community. His work needs to be acknowledged and commended.
The use of the certification process that has been established under the Kimberley round of negotiations is one that would benefit the diamond mining industry in Canada. We have never had a problem. Our diamonds have never been used to purchase armaments or in illicit trafficking. However, it will acknowledge that fact. It would allow Canadian diamonds to move forward as part of the international market. Our share of that market is growing and this process would only lend more credence to our industry and would allow us to expand even further. That has been a particular advantage to people from the western territories and would give them a much needed shot in the arm.
I want to address one of the weaknesses not so much in this legislation but in the process internationally. We must be clear that Bill C-14 is an internal law to regulate almost 100%, the use and trade of diamonds in this country. It only, in a rather small way, deals with the importing of diamonds; there are some provisions in the bill for that. What it does not deal with, and was not intended to but it will be the next step in the Kimberley process, is the major weakness that still exists at the international level, that is, an effective meaningful monitoring of the industry at the international level.
To date there are several countries in the world who are suspect in the trade of diamonds. They are shipping significant amounts of diamonds into the international market; however they have no mining industry for diamonds in their home country.
This process as it stands now does not deal with those countries, with how to monitor that and, more important, with how to enforce the Kimberley process to avoid this trade that has caused so much pain and suffering, particularly in Africa. That still needs to be done. I think the member for Nepean--Carleton is well aware of this, as is the foreign affairs department and a number of people at the international level.
The bill does have a provision for review in three years and then within six months of that a report to the House. Hopefully the government will not wait for that entire period of time to set in place our own monitoring to deal with other countries around the globe that are concerned about this, to deal with the NGOs like Partnership Africa Canada, Global Witness and Amnesty International, which are all monitoring this on their own at this point. Hopefully it will get information from them and perhaps move ahead with an international monitoring process that we would all contribute to and use and then have some type of enforcement mechanism against those countries that continue to trade in illicit diamonds.
I will conclude by again acknowledging the work of the member for Nepean--Carleton and those NGOs that have done so much to move this up the political agenda and get this law before us at this time.