Status of Women committee  What I'm saying is that the language and terminology that is being used by the international community and that Canada continues to use includes both of those concepts. So I think the Government of Canada is encompassing all of the concepts that we have traditionally used and that the international community uses.

Status of Women committee  The answer to your question is no.

Status of Women committee  Of course, it's entirely up to the committee to decide if it wishes to analyze the magazine further. I would simply state that there has been no change in the terminology that the Government of Canada has used. It hasn't changed since the terminology was used under the Liberal government, and it certainly hasn't changed under this government.

Status of Women committee  No, there are no changes in terms.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Alan Kessel. I am the assistant deputy minister, legal, for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I don't have a presentation this morning. We are certainly available to take any questions the committee may have.

Status of Women committee  I'm a public official, not a politician. I wouldn't base my entire analysis on what a newspaper says. I'm sure that newspaper articles get written about each member in this room. I'm sure you found some of it valid and some of it not. I'm telling you that the article you based your entire meeting upon is inadequate.

Status of Women committee  Maybe we could just go back a little bit, because I think I'm at a disadvantage here. I'm not aware of a change of policy. You've expressed that you're basing your position on the work done by Laura Munn-Rivard. Is that the document that I have as well, which is the analysis that you have before you?

Status of Women committee  No. What I'm saying is that I'm unaware of.... You phrased your question as if there is an actual change in policy in the Government of Canada.

Status of Women committee  Nothing has been stricken. In trying to prepare for this, I read what you had before you. I just try to put myself, or maybe you put yourself, in the position of, say, a professor at university. There seems to be only one reference in your analysis that you have before you. I don't see any reference to a review of speeches by ministers or positions the Government of Canada has taken internationally.

Status of Women committee  There is no rebranding. There's no change. The government--

National Defence committee  What we discussed in Ilulissat was that all the countries around the Arctic circle--Canada, the U.S., Russia, Norway, and Denmark--would conduct their activities within an international legal framework and that we would cooperate with each other to ensure that we deal with disputes within that process.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure I understood the question. The conference on the United Nations Law of the Sea has developed the convention, and there are obviously states that get together now and again to review specific aspects of it. But I'm not quite sure what the question was.

National Defence committee  That's a very interesting question that people have raised, and it usually comes from NGOs that would prefer there were some kind of international regime in our territory, rather than allowing Canada or the U.S. or Russia or Norway or Denmark to basically apply their domestic law.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Blaney. All the waters inside the Canadian base lines fall under the authority of Canada, and as such, any security, policing, or other activity would be entirely consistent with the exercising of our sovereignty.

National Defence committee  The red line is the extension of our economic zone to 200 nautical miles, which is permitted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The white line is actually a guesstimate--an attempt to see where the extension of our continental shelf would lead to. The area between the red and the white will amount to the size of the three prairie provinces once we finish doing the mapping.