Mr. Speaker, upon the recent return of the Minister of Foreign Affairs from a trip to Paris, the government claimed that relations between France and Canada had never been better. And yet, Mr. Alain Juppé, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in the French National Assembly that Bill C-29, which Canada had just passed to control overfishing, was unacceptable and that he intended to challenge it with the help of other European countries.
Can the Deputy Prime Minister explain how it is that the recent visit to France of her foreign affairs minister has resulted in a vigourous and open challenge of the measures proposed by Canada to control overfishing?