Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party certainly is not listening to human rights organizations. It certainly is not listening to civil society groups. It certainly is not listening to labour representatives. We have seen case after case of the escalating, the rising rate of killings of human rights advocates and trade union members. Those are indisputable facts, and the Liberals just seem to want to go along, once again, I guess for the 80th time, with the Conservatives.
However, the question that is of real concern is that there is simply nothing in this agreement that would protect those labour activists and those human rights advocates.
According to the comptroller general of Colombia, it is estimated that drug traffickers and paramilitaries now “own” about half of the agricultural land in Colombia. Quite simply, they are pushing off indigenous peoples, African Colombians, from their land and forcing them to be displaced people, four million of them.
How can the Liberals reconcile a trade agreement that would not protect those people and, in fact, would enforce and enhance corporation rights at the expense of individual human rights that only the NDP seems to be advocating?