Trudeau slated to speak with Macron amid furor over his response to attacks in France

Following a transatlantic media backlash, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron today.

Trudeau has been criticized in both countries for not speaking forcefully enough to defend freedom of expression in response to last week's murder of three people in a church in Nice.

The prime minister had earlier waited more than a week after a French school teacher was beheaded before expressing solidarity with France.

And after the recent knife attack, Trudeau hedged his condemnation by stressing that free speech has its limits.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet says the conversation will start to rebuild bridges between the two countries, but worries that it may come off as inauthentic.