Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise in this House to speak to the motion which represents, for me, more than three years of work and meetings with groups from countries where mineral, oil, gas and other resource exploitation is the cause of blatant human rights violations and environmental catastrophes. I am very glad to be able to participate in the debate on my colleague's motion. First of all, I would like to provide a brief overview of what led up to the round tables report.
When Paul Martin was in power, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade established the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Development. The mandate of the latter was to examine human rights throughout the world and report to the committee. In 2004-05, the subcommittee heard the testimony of several witnesses about the practices of Canadian mining companies abroad, in particular the case of TVI Pacific in the Philippines.
The subcommittee's report was devastating and led the standing committee to table its 14th report in the House, which called for the establishment of national round tables to examine the practices of Canadian companies abroad. The Martin government's response to the 14th report was underwhelming but the round tables were put in place. Elections were called in November 2005 with the Conservatives winning in January 2006. The round tables convened in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver in 2006 and the round tables report was tabled on March 29, 2007.
Since then, the Bloc Québécois and Quebec and Canadian NGOs have been peppering the Conservative government with questions and, on several occasions, have applied pressure to the government to respond. In addition, at a G8 meeting in June 2007, the Conservative government promised to position Canada as a leader in regulating corporate social responsibilities. In March 2009, two years later, there is no sign of any action. There is absolutely nothing.
Clearly, the Conservative government is completely uninterested in the work of thousands of Quebeckers and Canadians who participated in the round tables. The issue of respect for human rights and the environment is no longer a priority for this government.
Yet there is no shortage of examples. Consider Colombia, in particular. Since June 2004, the Bloc Québécois' foreign affairs critic and international trade critic have met with more than 20 groups of citizens, spiritual leaders and aboriginal peoples that have come forward to bear witness to the disastrous state of human rights in their country, against a backdrop of ongoing civil war and the exploitation of subsurface resources. All of the evidence was consistent in saying that, in Colombia, the right to make a profit takes precedence over human rights concerns, and corruption exists at the highest levels in the government and the military.
In that regard, the very fact that the Conservative government has signed a free trade agreement with that country clearly demonstrates that Canada does not care about human rights when money and profits are at stake. Fortunately, the Bloc Québécois' unrelenting pressure pushed the government to include a clause stating that the agreement would be reviewed in a few years to look at improvement in the human rights situation in that country.
Another excellent example of the limited importance the Conservatives attach to human rights is their decision to remove several African countries from the list of countries given priority for international aid and to add Colombia to that list. Although governments have the right to ensure their economic well-being, a so-called responsible government should not do so at the expense of the environment, public health and human rights.
Another example I would like to point out comes from the Philippines. In the spring of 2008, the Bloc Québécois, to be specific, my colleague from La Pointe-de-l'Île and I, met with a group of Filipino parliamentarians who came to inform us about the disastrous state of human rights in their country.
The fact that the Philippine government is ultra-conservative and terrorizes the people does not help, but the main reason for its behaviour is the exploitation of the country's national resources.
Various civil society groups have criticized the meagre royalties that foreign companies pay to local populations to exploit their subsurface resources. I should also note that some companies hire militias to protect the sites, often to the detriment of local populations, particularly if the latter protest the companies' actions. Violence and brutality perpetrated by Canada's TVI Pacific were at the heart of the subcommittee's report that led to the creation of the round tables.
In May 2007, the Bloc Québécois presented a motion in the House about the situation in the Philippines. This is what Development and Peace said about it:
In support of the motion moved today by the member for La Pointe-de-l'Île, the Bloc Quebecois' Foreign Affairs critic, and supported by the Conservative Party and the New Democratic Party, the Canadian Stop the Killings coalition is strongly urging the Government of Canada to apply pressure on President Gloria Arroyo to take concrete action to end the political assassinations and impunity in the Philippines.
It is imperative that the Canadian government condemn these killings, and take action to ensure that Canadian tax dollars are not complicit in funding the political assassinations and human rights violations perpetrated by the Philippine government.
That is what Dominique Caouette, organizer of the Stop the Killings campaign and a political science professor at the University of Montreal, had to say about it.
The motion presented by my colleague from La Pointe-de-l'Île is in response to the serious deterioration of the human rights situation in the Philippines following President Arroyo's election in 2001, and the systematic political assassinations of more than 850 human rights workers, lawyers, journalists, church workers, labour organizers, peasant leaders, and leaders of political organizations that have since ensued. The motion noted reports issued by Amnesty International, the Melo Commission in the Philippines, and the United Nations special rapporteur on extra-judicial, arbitrary and summary killings, all of which link these political killings to the Philippine military.
In March 2007, representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and several MPs, including the Bloc critic, met with a delegation of Philippine church leaders and human rights activists. The delegation called upon Canada to stop supporting the Philippine government with bilateral funding and to stop cooperating on security aspects in the war against terrorism.
As stated in the motion of the hon. member for La Pointe-de-l'Île, Canada has considerable influence on the government of the Philippines, enough to call upon it to take action and to remedy the situation, because “Canada provides aid to the Philippines”. At the present time, CIDA provides approximately $25 million Canadian to the Philippines, and bilateral trade between Canada and the Philippines represents close to $1.5 billion yearly.
The urgent need for action as described in the motion by the hon. member for La Pointe-de-l'Île has been seen in daily reports from the Philippines documenting the escalation of political assassinations, kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, detentions and other human rights violations as the country prepares for an election on May 14. Human rights groups attribute this escalation to the campaign of intimidation being carried out by the Philippine army.
I would emphasize that there has not yet been any change in the situation in that country.
I could also refer to the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where similar cases are being reported: human rights violations, an alarming environmental situation, health problems and displaced populations.
Once again, there is likely a link to the corruption in which foreign mining companies are involved. Moreover, this is the situation in Darfur as well.
To summarize: 60% of the world's mining companies are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange; there are numerous examples of Canadian companies with quite dubious behaviour in various developing countries as far as respect for human rights and the environment is concerned; there is no legislation in place at this time to require those companies to behave in a socially responsible manner; and lastly, those companies are very often the only connection, the only contact, that the people in those countries have with Canada.
Has Canada turned into a country that encourages profits at the expense of human rights ?
Is Canada, thanks to the Conservative government, now to be perceived as a state that tolerates, or worse yet encourages, this kind of actions?