March 26, 2009 was a bad day for International Human Rights.  It was a day that showed the Government of Canada is more interested in protecting the rights of mining companies than protecting human rights in Colombia. That day, the Stephen Harper Government introduced the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement into Parliament. 

CUPW is asking you to join other Unions, faith based organizations, Indigenous groups, and community associations here and in Colombia to defeat this free trade agreement.  

We have to defeat the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement.

Please contact your MP and ask her/him to vote against ratifying the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement. The Bloc québécois and the NDP will vote against it.  We have to concentrate on Liberal and Conservative MPs.

Remind your MP that Harper ignored the Parliamentary Standing Committee on International Trade recommendation that an independent human rights impact assessment be carried out before signing a free trade agreement with Colombia.

A few facts about Colombia

1. More labour leaders are killed in Colombia every year, than in the rest of the world combined.
2. The Colombian Government is supporting a brutal form of privatization, where the military and para military surround a public workplace, escort the workers out, and hand over the business to a numbered company.  They have done this with the Colombian post office, and are currently using this tactic to privatize hospitals.
3. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights found Colombian security forces engaged in “widespread and systematic killings of civilians”.

We have a short time frame to lobby our MPs and to defeat the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement.

The Canada-Colombia free trade agreement ratification clock started ticking on March 26, 2009.  There is a 21 day time frame for this agreement to be voted on in Parliament.  This will not be extended.

Thank you for supporting human rights before free trade.