The Canada-Colombia free trade agreement currently before the House of Commons Trade Committee has all of the elements of a fast-paced action novel.

In the last week alone, breaking news of a forged letter of support from Canadian activist Maude Barlow was distributed to all Liberal MP's and there were emerging allegations of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez's brother, Santiago, being directly involved in brutal murders by the government`s paramilitary forces. It should be enough to put the scandals around the agreement on pages of the nation`s newspapers.

So why are Canada's big corporate media refusing to pay attention and cover the issue?