Canada Halts Fish Talks With France
Canada suspended talks with France on their fishing war Friday, the day after a Newfoundland trawler was stopped at sea and taken to a port on the French-held islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
Foreign Secretary Joe Clark summoned French Ambassador Philippe Husson and made a formal protest of what John Crosbie, minister of international trade, described in Parliament as a “provocation by France.”
In St. Pierre, charges of illegal fishing were filed against the trawler Maritimer, and its five crewmen were released after the Canadian government posted bail of $28,350.
Opposition parties demanded that Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government suspend negotiations with France for the purchase of 10 nuclear-powered submarines and 34 European Airbus jetliners.
A French trawler, the Croix de Lorraine, was detained last month when it deliberately penetrated Canadian inshore waters to protest fishing restrictions. All 21 men aboard, including four French politicians, were jailed in St. John’s, Newfoundland, until the French government bailed them out.
Canada and France disagree over the international boundary of the islands and quotas for cod and other fish in nearby waters.
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