International Trade committee  Sure.

International Trade committee  No, and I think a free trade agreement with Honduras would do more harm than good.

International Trade committee  I read the environmental assessment that was updated prior to the FTA.

International Trade committee  It's a side agreement. It's useless.

International Trade committee  It's because there's no enforcement. It's trumped by the international arbitration mechanism that companies can resort to and that communities have no access to that could be used to undermine greater protections to the environment and to their water supplies, in particular.

International Trade committee  I believe there is no strong protection for human rights, be they environmental, labour, economic, social, or cultural rights built into this free trade model that you're currently discussing.

International Trade committee  It is utterly inadequate to protect the living environment and especially the water supplies of mining affected communities. I think there is a level of ineptness that was demonstrated particularly in the case of the San Martin mine, around dealing with both health and environmen

International Trade committee  We work with mining-affected communities to provide them with technical support to better protect their lives, their interests, and their water supplies, and to help them ensure—

International Trade committee  There's not a clear black and white answer to your question, and I don't think it's relevant to this debate.

International Trade committee  No, my point in mentioning Carlos Amador and in also mentioning the threats that are being faced in the community of Nueva Esperanza and in other communities around Honduras right now is that right now the current operating and mining sector in Honduras is a situation in which ca

International Trade committee  I'd like to hear what you have to say about the structural problem that Canada has helped to create and enforce in Honduras through sponsoring the current mining law, which is the legal regimen that Canadian companies or any other company is going to be operating under now in Hon

International Trade committee  There would still be a structural problem within the mining sector that Canada has helped to create through the passage of the new mining law and that any mining company would be operating under. It would be reinforced by the free trade agreement that any company with a subsidiar

International Trade committee  A similarly weak mining law that communities, especially spurred on by the impacts of Goldcorp's operations in the Valle de Siria, have been fighting to change since 2002, and that's why there was a mining bill that was on the table prior to the military-backed ouster of Manuel Z

International Trade committee  I currently think there's an inadequate framework in Honduras to protect the lives and the communities that are being affected by mining companies wherever they come from. Thank you.

International Trade committee  I don't see the relevance of your question, but our work is directed at providing technical support to mining-affected communities to better ensure protection for ecology, for lives, for water, and to also advocate for stronger corporate accountability here in Canada. We work bot