Elizabeth May : Mr. Speaker, like me, members are concerned that we would be doing a trade deal with a country that is now the murder capital of the world. Since the coup, journalists, trade union workers, members of the clergy, anyone who is speaking out for justice and democracy is at risk of being murdered with no effort being made by the state to bring the murderers to justice. That means that this trade deal would sanction a government that is behaving in ways that we should not encourage.
Does my hon. colleague think there is still time to get the current administration to rethink this trade deal?
Alex Atamanenko : Mr. Speaker, there always has to be time and we always have to hope.
Yes, I believe that the government could look at this agreement and say that it would give them some time to clean up these violations. We could send in a team to observe what is going on, have a look at our companies that are there, and make sure that they are observing the laws of Honduras. If all of that was put in place, then the government could sign on the dotted line.
That would be the reasonable thing to do. It would respect the people of Honduras and go against the human rights violations that are currently in place.