Canada says close to trade deal with Colombia

Source: Reuters

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is "very close" to concluding free trade negotiations with Colombia, Trade Minister David Emerson said on Monday, calling those opposed to the deal on human rights grounds as simply "dogmatic."

Emerson also presented legislation to Parliament to enact a free trade pact with the European Free Trade Association, comprised of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The EFTA accord, completed last June and signed in January, is the first substantial trade agreement signed by Ottawa in over a decade.

Emerson said several other bilateral negotiations were under way, of which those with Colombia were the most advanced.

"I would say that in the case of Colombia we're quite close, very close," Emerson told reporters.

But political approval could be a tougher task. At the request of the opposition parties critical of the deal, a parliamentary committee is now studying the environmental and human rights concerns surrounding the talks with Bogota.



Read more: http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAN0541066720080505

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Not so fast!

Yet they love to denial that they represent only the wealthy.

From a recent Canadian article:

Colombians pay price for our comfort and complicityPublished Tuesday April 15th, 2008


C8By TRACY GLYNN
For The Daily Gleaner

Coal extracted from mines in Colombia has been dubbed "Colombian blood coal" because of assassinations of union leaders and violent displacements of communities at the country's coal mines.

Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for people active in trade unions; 2,510 trade union leaders have been murdered in the last 10 years.

NB Power's Belledune plant burns coal produced in the Colombian Cerrejón mine.

Approximately 16 per cent of the power in our province is generated from Cerrejón coal.

On March 22, Adolfo González Montes, a worker at Cerrejón and union leader with SINTRACARBON (the National Union of Coal Mine Workers), was tortured and killed at his home.

He's survived by his wife and four small children.

Other union leaders and their family members live in fear as unknown people prowl around their homes and they receive threatening phone calls.

In many cases where the perpetrator has been identified, government-supported paramilitary organizations, the armed forces or the police have been found responsible.

The Colombian government's failure to act on such crimes allows the perpetrators to kill trade unionists with impunity.

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/268044

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If they end up officially looking the other way and signing this thing they'll be no better than scum like _Bush and his fellow monsters.

exploit their workers. My God, it's somewhat important, or isn't it?

F'r example, they can take a look at this news which has been kept out of the mainstream so long it's not "news" any longer:

AFL-CIO and Guatemalan Unions File First-Of-Its Kind Complaint Under CAFTA
Complaint calls for Guatemalan government to protect workers’ rights and act promptly to end violence against union workers

WASHINGTON, DC- April 23 - Today, the AFL-CIO, along with six Guatemalan unions, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Trade & Labor Affairs alleging violations of the labor chapter of DR-CAFTA. The complaint is the first of its kind under the labor provisions of DR-CAFTA. It lays out five separate cases where the Guatemalan government failed to effectively enforce its own labor laws and has fallen short of its commitment to respect international workers’ rights.

The complaint demands that the Bush Administration formally initiate dispute settlement proceedings and require the government of Guatemala to take all measures necessary to assure that trade unionists in Guatemala can exercise their rights to freedom of association without intimidation, threats of violence, illegal dismissals by employers, or targeted assassination. The petition calls on the U.S. government to closely monitor the implementation of all remedies.

The Guatemalan government made several promises, prior to the ratification vote by the U.S. Congress, to substantially improve the administration of labor justice in the country, according to the AFL-CIO’s complaint. Yet these changes never materialized, and the United States has applied little visible pressure on the country to comply with the labor provisions of the trade agreement. The government has yet to conduct a serious investigation into a number of murders, attempted murders and rapes directed at union workers and their families, according to the complaint. No one has yet been arrested in the two murders and numerous threats described by the petition.

“This petition will demonstrate that… labor conditions in have remained unchanged or have worsened since the trade agreement was ratified. The level of physical violence against trade unionists increased markedly since the agreement entered into force in July, 2006. Violations of freedom of association and collective bargaining continue apace, and access to fair and efficient administrative or judicial tribunals remains elusive,” charges the complaint.
(snip)

In 2008 alone, four union leaders and/or their family members have been murdered in Guatemala, and many others have been victims of attempted murder and/or have received death threats. Workers who attempt to form or join a union, bargain collectively or conduct a strike are still routinely fired. According to the complaint, the Ministry of Labor does little to undertake serious investigations of workers’ claims and labor courts infrequently punish those employers who violate the law.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0423-07.htm

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As someone who scours the internetS every day, I can tell you a LOT of loaded stories just don't get into the news services until they are almost ancient, as if keeping them out of the public eye long enough just might make them seem less important. This story is another one of them. If it weren't for commondreams, we STILL wouldn't have heard this information.

Guatemala: bishop recieves death threats for defending campesinos
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Thu, 04/17/2008 - 01:13.

Rights workers in Guatemala are calling upon the government to protect a Roman Catholic bishop from assassination after a rash of threats. Mgr. Álvaro Ramazzini, Bishop of San Marcos, has been warned that he will be killed unless he withdraws his support for landless peasants who are protesting the issuance of mining permits to a Canadian multinational corporation (Goldcorp Inc.).

On March 31 a nun was stopped while driving her car through the town of San Marcos and given a note to deliver to the bishop, warning him of the consequences of his actions. Bishop Ramazzini is president of the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference of Guatemala and the Church's representative to the "High Level Commission" formed to coordinate exploitation of the region’s natural resources with local communities. He has drawn the ire of landowners for backing the campesinos' land claims in the region.

In January 2005, Guatemalan President Óscar Berger blamed Bishop Ramazzini for riots in San Marcos after police shot a campesino during anti-government protests. President Berger said the bishop was an "authentic leader" who should have controlled the protesters.

Along with other bishops, Ramazzini also played a keu role in the 1996 Peace Accords that ended Guatemala's 36-year-long civil war. He also co-authored a 1998 report detailing human rights abuses. Two days after the report was released the principal author of the report, the Archbishop of Guatemala Juan Gerardi, was bludgeoned to death.

Bishop Ramazzini was a witness in the Gerardi murder case, which saw three army officers and a priest convicted in the murder. In 2005 he testified before the US Congress on rights violations in Guatemala and urged rejection of CAFTA, saying it would serve only to exploit the campesinos, who make up 95% of the population.

More:
http://ww4report.com/node/5364