Mr. Speaker, I was asking myself, given that the panel has been around for 40 years, why is there a rush now? Why are we suddenly at a great trade disadvantage.
I think the answer was actually given to us just a few minutes ago by my Conservative colleague. At the beginning of my speech I said the whole scheme is predicated on two suppositions. One is that we believe that the World Bank is somehow an arbiter of international credibility and second, that we believe that chapter 11 and all its failings somehow will be transformed into a bonus to help average Canadians.
What we have seen with the Conservative response is that those members have their knickers in a knot over comments about Paul Wolfowitz. So clearly, we are at a distinct disagreement about what the World Bank's role is and second, we are being told, in fact to our face, chapter 11 is great.
If a corporation wants to go dump toxic waste in Mexico the corporation's right should be protected. If we want to go after a country that is trying to stop toxic chemicals being sprayed on lawns, we should be protected. If we want to go after a government in Canada to stop medically harmful additives in gasoline and we are corporate investors, we should be protected.
As for the rest of folks back home, they can just sit back and lump it. That is the Conservative vision that is actually being backed by the Liberals. And our friends in the Bloc seem to be saying, as long as they can sign onto the treaty, the Parti Québécois will sign on to anything.
However, folks back home will understand that a trade deal that takes away the ability of the public to participate, that takes away legal precedent in the country to examine and cross-examine, and a trade agreement that takes away any ability for appeal is not in the interests of folks back home, average people and neither is it in the interest of our sovereignty as a nation.