Foreign Affairs committee  I'll be very brief. We fully support the comments of Mr. Neve on this. There has been a disappointing lack of evidence that voluntary compliance works. We feel it is necessary that there be more teeth put into compliance mechanisms and enforcement, which we feel is the necessit

Foreign Affairs committee  With respect, I don't fully agree with that position because I don't necessarily see that this would be a competitive disadvantage for Canadian companies to have a higher standard of compliance. We tend to be in agreement with what Mr. Neve was saying earlier, that this would pro

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not able to give you a precise figure. What our information is based on is an alarming number of cases in different countries in which we work. A number of our partners in communities affected by mines have brought to our attention that this is a concern in their communities.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. We heard the same objections in other testimony given in committee. As Mr. Neve said in his presentation, the impact of our requests to reinforce government oversight of mining companies is negligible. The important thing for us is to have an ombudsman to lend the bill

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of examples, I had mentioned a couple in our presentation. We have done extensive work in Honduras in particular, working with our partner there in documenting the effects of the activities of the Entre Mares mine. We had research done to demonstrate the level of toxicit

Foreign Affairs committee  I have one last comment. The passage of Bill C-300 is a necessary step to ensure that Canadian companies respect environmental and human rights. This bill, as law, would make Canada a leader in corporate social responsibility in an era where the status quo is not sustainable. I

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm just taking advantage here of a computer failure on the part of my colleague, who graciously offered us the opening slot to speak while he prepares his notes by hand from memory. Development and Peace is the official international develo