Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague has just asked me a very important question. I touched on this matter in my speech.
Last spring, we in the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade had a special meeting on the Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon. We were concerned at the time about the Canadian government beginning or pursuing free trade negotiations with the state of Israel, which was then bombing civilian populations in southern Lebanon and openly violating the internationally recognized borders of another sovereign state, Lebanon. We asked officials in these departments if they intended to suspend negotiations. All they said was that negotiations were suspended anyway, since they were waiting for the results of the Israeli election.
We then found out that negotiations had not been suspended, that the agreement was in fact ready for signing as early as March. This shows the government's contempt, if I may use this word, for the members of this House and the committee, as we should never have been told negotiations had been suspended when the agreement was in fact ready to be signed.
We did express reservations about the signing of this free trade agreement with Israel, given the Israeli government's somewhat intransigent attitude toward the Arab populations both within and beyond its borders.
This is why we ask that this agreement be extended to the Palestinian populations of the occupied territories, in the hope that this will eventually improve their economic situation. We also want to improve the social climate in the Israeli occupied territories.