International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to come before you to talk about some of these important issues about the free trade agreement that's currently being negotiated with Colombia. I want to make a few points,

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. I don't think I said that the human rights situation will get worse. My point really was that there is no causal link between a free trade agreement and improving human rights. The trickle-down argument actually has not been proven to be true. If w

International Trade committee  Right now, a lot of corporations have voluntary codes of conduct. The point I was making was that in the studies we've done in relation to voluntary codes of conduct, those regimes--the codes and the social reporting that's done--are voluntary codes with vague provisions that are

International Trade committee  No, not those ones, companies that aren't actually present there. The thing about this free trade agreement is that it's mostly about protecting investment. We heard that the trade is actually a minimal part of it. There's $3 billion or so worth of investment in Colombia right no

International Trade committee  It could be in a side agreement, but I would prefer to see it in the basic agreement. If they have all these rights--for example, the right to national treatment, and if that is breached, the right to take the state to binding arbitration--they should also have obligations. So pe

International Trade committee  To answer the second question first, no, I don't think it's an effective way of dealing with human rights issues that there be some sort of fine. I find it rather appalling. In terms of the free trade agreement, as to whether that will benefit or somehow reward corporations if t

International Trade committee  In that context, then all it does is provide corporations with more protections. It does nothing for human rights. So it will not do anything that.... There are a number of ways Canada could address this. They could start by implementing the consensus agreement, the consensus re

International Trade committee  I didn't say that having rules-based trade wasn't an option. What I said was that if you want a free trade agreement to actually have an impact on human rights, then one of the things that need to happen is that you need to regulate corporate activity as well. You need to impose

International Trade committee  I'm certainly not an expert on Colombia and the Colombian government. I do know that there have been links to the paramilitary within Congress--

International Trade committee  Right--but I'm not an expert on Colombian politics, so I don't feel qualified to answer that question.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Thank you very much for inviting me to appear before the committee. I'm an associate professor of international law and international human rights law at the University of Ottawa. I also teach corporate law. I specialize in the human rights impacts of extraterritori

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, I certainly understand the companies' concern about this. The point is--and I did make this point already--that they already are being tried in the court of public opinion. Providing a mechanism whereby you can have proper investigation, proper procedures, evidence put forw

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. This idea that somehow corporate social responsibility can't become a part of law...I mean, corporate social responsibility has always been the initial way of developing expectations and norms that can then become legally entrenched. The point is that if you leave i

Foreign Affairs committee  As I said in my testimony, I think there's always a concern that companies will use corporate structures to try to move to different jurisdictions or avoid regulation. My point is that with extractive companies, I think there are a significant number of incentives for them to st

Foreign Affairs committee  I assume that if this bill comes into law the government will resource it properly. I would have to assume that. I can't speak for what the government will do, but if you create a mechanism that is actually enacted into law, and it's actually supposed to do this, then they will h