International Trade committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to present to you this afternoon. I will do my best to keep my remarks short. I do hope that Juan Diego has a chance in the questions and answers to continue his recommendations to the committee. The

International Trade committee  Our perspective is that this agreement has strengthened the current legislative framework for Canadian investors in Colombia, particularly speaking about the mining sector, and that civil society in Colombia, together with organizations here in Canada, are identifying serious ris

International Trade committee  No.

International Trade committee  I think it's an unacceptable excuse. The negotiation and ratification of the Colombia free trade agreement took a considerable period of time because of the tremendous controversy over the serious human rights crisis in Colombia. There was a lot of serious deliberation that led

International Trade committee  I certainly can't comment on the Colombian flower industry, and I kept my comments focused on Canadian investment in the mining sector. Certainly I do think the report that was tabled in May was a bit of a “see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil” type of report. Clearly my comm

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity to present to the committee today. My comments are going to focus on the investment aspects of the free trade agreement in relation to the Canadian mining industry and related services in Panama. In short, MiningWatch's concerns haven't ch

International Trade committee  The environmental protection was the link. There were significant protests following Law 30, which is referred to as the “sausage law”, because they tried to jam so much into it. Protests at the time actually resulted in some significant repression. Environmental protections i

International Trade committee  I'm sorry; could you repeat that?

International Trade committee  The channels for the resolution of these disputes have generally been limited, and communities have seen a necessity to protest massively in order to reach a resolution to these disputes. In the case, first, of Law 30, it was not passed, as a result of massive protests througho

International Trade committee  No. We share a similar concern. The Panamanian government has not shown the will to consistently apply environmental measures and protections within the country. I think one good example of this is how it has dealt with the protected area in the district of Donoso within the Meso

International Trade committee  MiningWatch Canada is a public interest initiative that came together in 1999. We're composed of environmental, social justice, indigenous and union organizations from across the country. We came together to coordinate a public response to the impacts of the mining industry on co

International Trade committee  What mining operations in Panama and around the world have we supported? In what fashion? I don't understand.

International Trade committee  The conditions for mining in many parts of the world right now have been seriously eroded by the implementation of mining code reforms over the last number of decades that do not make serious efforts to ensure protections for the environment, for water, and for community rights.

International Trade committee  The way the free trade agreements have been designed so far shore up protections for industry rather than for the collective rights of affected communities and workers, unfortunately, and unfortunately the labour and environmental side agreements do not provide binding measures o

International Trade committee  Not that I am aware of, and I might highlight that some of our trade agreements have been implemented at times when there has been significant violence in which Canadian mining companies have been involved. Such was the case of Peru, where some 33 indigenous people and police off