Foreign Affairs committee  Beginning with some of the definitions, we did start on some of them. In subclause 2(1), under “Interpretation”, you talk about a “corporation” including “any company or legal person incorporated by or under an Act of Parliament or of any province.” We're not clear about whether

Foreign Affairs committee  I haven't really got into the bill.

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, sir, not in my understanding.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. My understanding of Bill S.891, the Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009, is that this is an act introduced recently--the end of April, if I'm not mistaken--and it has been referred to committee, so it's at quite an early stage in the process. It's an act designed to

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm sorry, can you clarify a bit? Is that their ability to get insurance through EDC?

Foreign Affairs committee  I wouldn't want to speculate on whether or not other institutions would follow suit, but certainly EDC would be placed, I think, in quite a great deal of difficulty.

Foreign Affairs committee  Possibly.

Foreign Affairs committee  I haven't read in here anything that would compel participation.

Foreign Affairs committee  From my understanding of what the bill says, the minister would conduct an examination or an investigation into the complaint, including, as it says here in subclause 4(4), “evidence from witnesses outside of Canada”.

Foreign Affairs committee  Without compliance from the company, yes. The consideration, though, is how that would be done outside of Canada. Generally in international law it's understood that if you are going to investigate in another country, that constitutes an enforcement activity.

Foreign Affairs committee  We would normally go through their courts for that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, but we would normally ask the courts of the host government--

Foreign Affairs committee  Right; yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, sir.