The Canadian envoy to the United Kingdom said Ottawa will not issue a "veiled threat" or suspend trade talks over concerns that Britain may have violated the agreement that ended decades of conflict in Ireland. Last week, the Irish political party seeking to unify the island asked Ottawa to halt negotiations on a trade deal following Britain's exit from the European Union. Sinn Féin also argued that London is undermining the agreement that mediated peace between Catholics and Protestants. However, Ralph Goodale, the Canadian High Commissioner in London, said the federal government has no plans to suspend talks. Goodale also said in an interview last week: "We believe it is helpful and more practical to offer assistance in finding the right answer, rather than perhaps a veiled threat." Additionally, the 1998 Good Friday Agreement largely ended three decades of armed conflict over the status of Northern Ireland, a British territory. The agreement maintained largely invisible borders between the region and the Republic of Ireland, which remains part of the EU. Experts argue that the absence of a hard border helped prevent conflict. The invisible borders were supposed to remain in place under an agreement signed by Britain with the EU when it left the bloc in 2020, with customs inspections instead conducted between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. But earlier this year, the British government introduced legislation limiting those rules. The European Commission says Britain is violating international law, while the US government postponed trade talks, citing those concerns. In this regard, Goodale said Ottawa will not follow the Americans and pointed out that Canadians like General John de Chastelain played a "pivotal" role in reaching the 1998 agreement, adding: "We tell the United Kingdom on every occasion that we feel strongly about this." NDP MP Charlie Angus hosted John Finucane, a Sinn Féin member of the UK Parliament, during his visit to Ottawa last week, and said he supports Belfast MPs’ calls for Canada to halt trade talks. Angus said, "I don't think there is any need to overcome the complete failure of the British government." He said Canada has more leverage with the UK than the Americans. Additionally, Angus said he is working with the Catholic political party because his Irish relatives, both Catholic and Protestant, despise sectarianism, adding: "The risks are huge, I mean, we do not want to return to a hard border. And we do not want to return to the violence that shattered a generation of people in Northern Ireland." Meanwhile, Goodale said Canada is ready to assist Britain in resolving its border issue, suggesting that Canada's unarmed border with the United States may provide some insights, saying: "We are offering constructive assistance wherever we can help find a solution to the tensions that have found their way back into the relationship."