Mr. Speaker, it is a rather petty issue, but evidently officials in my department did understand that visits were being discouraged and relayed that information to the Prime Minister's office.
As a result, we all know that the Prime Minister was able, with the leaders of the opposition parties, to get much closer to the scene, to witness it firsthand as opposed to, for example, President Chirac who had to fly over it in a helicopter. What we really want to remember is that 25 Canadians lie buried in that rubble. We should show a little respect for their memory.