Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition calling upon Parliament to require Canadian companies operating internationally to meet clearly defined corporate accountability standards, including existing international human rights and environmental standards, as a precondition for both public and political assistance of any kind through Canada and its agencies and departments.
The petitioners urge that Parliament develop effective monitoring verification and compliance mechanisms to ensure that Canadian companies operating internationally meet these standards, and that Parliament develop legislation to hold companies and their directors accountable in Canada when found complicit in human rights abuses and environmental destruction abroad, and to offer victims of such violations a forum where their grievances can be addressed.