International Trade committee  Well, I would certainly defer to Mr. Yussuff with respect to the trade union movement. But more widely, there are a number of initiatives the government has taken to try to work with the human rights community, as well. No one is suggesting that the Colombian government doesn't have initiatives that they've launched.

International Trade committee  I think we would say that there are perhaps some fronts where you could say that there is some effort, some movement. There are other areas where the crisis remains very real, and we're not seeing action. I would again come back to the situation of indigenous peoples, because this is an area we've been following very closely.

International Trade committee  I just wanted to pick up on that, because I don't think the question of whether or not they have started walking is the full question that needs to be asked. What we need to ask is whether they have started walking and whether we have a full sense of the path they need to be walking on.

International Trade committee  I think there are many sources to look at. I think the guidelines that have been tabled now at the UN Human Rights Council by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food provide a very strong starting point and lay out the clear criteria that should guide this sort of assessment.

International Trade committee  That's unclear to us. As I say, throughout these past many months, we have repeatedly sought information about what framework, what criteria, what norms, what standards are going to guide this process, and we've not been able to get that information.

International Trade committee  I won't comment on what other members of Parliament may or may not have said. What I will highlight is that Amnesty International takes the stance—and I think the human rights community largely takes this stance—that we are not at all opposed to trade. We're not opposed to freer trade.

International Trade committee  We did not oppose the Canada-Colombia free trade deal. We never said that this trade deal should be axed. What we said was that this trade deal raises very significant, troubling human rights challenges, and this is what needs to happen to ensure that this trade deal goes forward in a way that will both avoid contributing to a worsening of human rights violations, and beyond that, hopefully, promote and encourage human rights change and improvement in Colombia.

International Trade committee  I think the conditions are absolutely crucial, though, because trade done poorly can be bad news for human rights protection. Trade done well can at least be neutral and perhaps, in some circumstances, can absolutely help promote and safeguard and improve human rights protection.

International Trade committee  We have regular contact both with the embassy in Bogota and officials here. And we certainly make sure that any time Amnesty International has a new report or press release or an urgent action, it is brought to the attention of government officials. We've not been in a position, we simply don't have the resources or capacity or presence in Colombia, to have been able during this time to do our own on-the-ground research with respect to Canadian companies themselves.

International Trade committee  We were not, and as I said in my remarks, we actually asked for the information several times. What is the process? How can we make contributions? How can we tell front-line grassroots organizations with which we have relationships within Colombia how they can participate and contribute?

International Trade committee  No, we don't feel that it's a legitimate explanation for why there's no human rights analysis in this report. As I said in my comments, international best practice, coming from such experts as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur, who has submitted guidelines on human rights impact assessments to the UN Human Rights Council, is that the process of developing that sort of assessment should begin even before the trade deal comes into effect.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, and good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Let me begin by succinctly capturing what Amnesty International's overarching message will be. It is a message about the crucial importance of due diligence and accountability with regard to Canada's human rights obligations, particularly with regard to the duty to ensure that Canada's economic and investment activities do not in any way contribute to human rights violations.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm sure you will probably have already heard, and will probably continue to hear, from individuals who do refugee work on a daily basis—refugee lawyers, people working with front-line organizations—who I'm sure can tell you very powerfully that speed is so valuable, absolutely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It does indeed. For many, many years, advocates, and I think government officials, have recognized that the humanitarian and compassionate process offers a valuable avenue to ensure that a whole variety of concerns, often involving serious human rights issues that don't necessarily fit easily into other processes—they don't naturally satisfy the refugee definition, for instance—will not go unaddressed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have an authoritative or statistical answer to that question. I think we should pride ourselves, yes, on being generous. I would argue that in our generosity what we are doing, though, is complying with our international human rights obligations. It's not a question of charity; it is a question of living up to rights obligations.