ACTION ALERT: Demand Senate hearings on Canada-Colombia free trade deal

Updated June 15, 2010

Despite public pressure to put human rights before free trade in Colombia, on June 14 Liberal and Conservative MPs voted ‘yes’ to the third and final vote on the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (Bill C-2).

This agreement has been a source of considerable controversy for both Parliament and the public because of the serious and persistent human rights crisis in Colombia. A side-agreement on human rights, tabled on May 31st in the House of Commons, is wholly inadequate according to most accounts. But the Commons Committee on International Trade didn’t get a chance to hear those accounts.

On June 1, Liberal and Conservative members of the committee abruptly shut down debate on C-2 without hearing from a list of Colombian witnesses ready to testify! They are trying to rush an agreement that demands more careful scrutiny.

We need to demand that the Senate hear from these witnesses who were scratched off the committee list. We need due process on Bill C-2!

The Senate has a responsibility to consider whether the human rights side-agreement to the Colombia free trade deal contains adequate safeguards to protect human rights. If it doesn’t, the Senate should send Bill C-2 back to the House of Commons with a requirement that a human rights impact assessment be carried out before the deal is ratified – just like the all-party Commons trade committee recommended in June 2008, and just like thousands of Canadians have been demanding ever since.

For more background on the Canada Colombia Free Trade Agreement, click here.

Letter from Maude Barlow to Chairs of the Senate Standing Committees on International Trade and Human Rights, regarding Bill C-2, ratification legislation for the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. June 15, 2010

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Recipients	andrer@sen.parl.gc.ca; bakerg@sen.parl.gc.ca; brazep@sen.parl.gc.ca; dyckli@sen.parl.gc.ca jaffem@sen.parl.gc.ca; johnsj@sen.parl.gc.ca; kochhv@sen.parl.gc.ca; mitchg@sen.parl.gc.ca mcgeed@sen.parl.gc.ca; dininc@sen.parl.gc.ca; pdowne@sen.parl.gc.ca; finled@sen.parl.gc.ca fortis@sen.parl.gc.ca; mahovf@sen.parl.gc.ca; meighen@sen.parl.gc.ca; nolinp@sen.parl.gc.ca smithd@sen.parl.gc.ca; stollp@sen.parl.gc.ca; wallinp@sen.parl.gc.ca
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Dear Senator, The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement has passed third reading and will arrive at the Senate very soon – much sooner than it should have. That’s because on June 1, the Commons International Trade Committee abruptly stopped hearing from witnesses on the deal and a human rights side agreement tabled in the House of Commons the day before. I was furious that MPs voted in favour of C-2 in the House of Commons on June 14 when the trade committee only got to 10 per cent of its clauses before shutting down debate. The committee simply didn’t have time to adequately study whether the side agreement on human rights will actually protect human rights. I urge you to hear from these witnesses who were scratched off the committee list on June 1, and to bring in as many witnesses as necessary to decide whether the human rights side agreement to the Colombia free trade deal is sufficient. If the Senate hears that as suspected by most observers the human rights agreement is insufficient, it should send Bill C-2 back to the House of Commons with a requirement that a human rights impact assessment be carried out before the deal is ratified. This is what an all-party Commons trade committee recommended in June 2008, and what experts and thousands of Canadians have been demanding ever since. There is no reason to speed this trade deal into law. There is every need for due process. Let’s put rights before trade for once and set a global example Canadians can be proud of. Sincerely,
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