Highlights:
Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2004
Coalition Representatives Meet
With PM Martin in Montreal
CThe challenge
of maintaining Canada’s leadership in the campaign to secure the
international convention on cultural diversity was the main theme of a
March 17 meeting between Prime Minister Paul Martin and representatives
of the Canadian Coalition for Cultural Diversity.
Minister of Canadian Heritage Hélène Scherrer also took
part in the meeting, as did the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary,
Francis Fox, and his Deputy Chief of Staff, Policy, Paul Corriveau.
Representing the Coalition were co-chair Pierre Curzi, executive vice-president
Robert Pilon, and director of external relations Jim McKee. They were
joined by André Bureau, chairman of Astral Communications Inc.,
and a member of the cultural industries Sectoral Advisory Group on International
Trade (SAGIT).
Prime Minister reaffirmed the commitment his government made in the recent
Speech from the Throne to continue that it will work to secure an international
convention on cultural diversity, and expressed his desire to concentrate
on specific action that Canada can take to advance the file.
With the process to develop the convention now underway at UNESCO, Coalition
representatives stressed the importance of Canada shifting its established
leadership on this file into even higher gear to ensure that the end result
was a strong convention and was adopted and ratified quickly. In this
regard, they urged Minister Scherrer to continue Canada’s leader
role in the INCP culture ministers’ network, and noted the importance
of continuing to work in concert with established leaders on the file,
such as France, while building strategic alliances in regions around the
wold.
One concern discussed was the growing challenge arising from bilateral
negotiations pursued by the United States, and the danger that liberalization
commitments secured by the U.S. in these deals had the potential to greatly
attenuate the potential scope of the convention.
Prime Minister Martin concluded the meeting by urging the Coalition to
continue its discussions with his office and with Minister Scherrer regarding
the most effective ways by which both the Canadian government and cultural
professional organizations through the CCD could keep the campaign for
the convention moving forward.
Heritage Minister Invites Coalition Reps to
Talk Strategy
on the Convention Campaign
Canadian Heritage
Minister Hélène Scherrer invited representatives of the
Coalition to a follow-up meeting March 24 to discuss in further detail
some of the main issues discussed during the initial meeting with Prime
Minister Martin.
The lunch meeting was held in Ottawa and included Deputy Minister Judith
Laroque Assistant Deputy Minister Jean-Pierre Blais and the Minister’s
Senior Policy Advisor for Cultural Development, Jess Dutton. The CCD was
represented by its co-chairs, Pierre Curzi and Scott McIntyre, executive
vice president Robert Pilon, and director of external relations Jim McKee.
The meeting was in essence a strategic planning session focusing on how
the Canadian government and the Coalition could best coordinate their
activities to advance the campaign for a convention on cultural diversity
in the critical 18-month period leading up to the 2005 General Conference
at UNESCO.
This included discussions of how to work most effectively with long-standing
champions of the convention such as France, the INCP, and the International
Organization of La Francophonie, as well as how to build new alliances
in regions such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Coalition representatives laid out the CCD’s priority events and
missions for 2004-05 geared to mobilizing cultural professional organizations
in Asia, South America and Africa, and is plans to coordinate, with France’s
coalition, missions focused on Europe. Plans for expanding the discussion
at the provincial level in Canada were also explored.
PM Martin, Premiers Charest, Lord
State Support
for Cultural Diversity During Visit by Abdou Diouf
to Montreal; Coalition Reps Exchange Views
on State of the Diversity Campaign
with Abdou Diouf at Roundtable Lunch
With Abdou Diouf, the Secretary
General of the International Organization of La Francophonie in Montreal
for celebrations marking the International Day of La Francophonie, the
Premiers of New Brunswick, Quebec and the Prime Minister of Canada all
used the occasion to underline the importance of cultural diversity.
La Francophonie has been a key champion of the campaign for a convention
on cultural diversity. Its Summit Declarations in 1999 and 2002 marked
the first occasions in which heads of state had endorsed the principle
of a convention on cultural diversity and of taking culture outside
the ambit of international trade agreements.
Prime Minister Martin told an audience of approximately 1,000 people
on hand for the day’s events at the Université de Montréal
that ‘in the context of increasingly intense globalization, we
have placed cultural diversity at the very centre of our preoccupations."
(our translation)
Premier Bernard Lord stated that ‘with the trade agreements that
are being concluded everywhere in the world, we must ensure that cultural
diversity is a true thing."
Premier Charest of Quebec reiterated his government’s support for
the convention, emphasizing that ‘culture is not mere merchandise’.
"We will be party to every battle to preserve our culture and we
will always refuse to abandon our identity."
Secretary General Diouf has been a strong advocate of the convention
on cultural diversity as an important instrument for maintaining the
identity of francophonie nations in general but has also championed
the convention as a critical instrument for developing nations in general.
Recognizing the Secretary General’s concern that the process now
underway at UNESCO result in a strong convention, Quebec’s Deputy
Premier and Minister of International Relations Monique Gagnon-Tremblay
convened a luncheon in his honour to discuss the current state of the
campaign.
In addition to Minister Gagnon Tremblay and senior officials from her
department, the lunch was also attended by Minister of Culture and Communications
Line Beauchamp and her senior officials and advisors, officials from
La Francophonie, Mireille Cyr, Assistant Deputy Minister, Francophonie
and Official Languages of New Brunswick, Professor Ivan Bernier, and
Pierre Curzi, Robert Pilon and Jim McKee of the Coalition for Cultural
Diversity.
One of the key issues discussed with respect to the content of the convention
was the importance that it clearly assert the right of nations to employ
policy measures designed to nurture the growth of strong independent
cultural enterprises capable of producing and distributing domestic
content. Without such measures, it was noted, the capacity of nations
to truly contribute to a genuine exchange of cultural expression among
nations will be greatly constrained, and that this would be particularly
true for developing nations.
Secretary General Diouf pledged his continued personal engagement to
move the convention campaign forward and to this end expressed his intention
to reach out to other organizations such as the Organization of Ibero-American
States as well as the Arabic-language states.
Coalition Meets With New Brunswick Cabinet
Minister Mockler to Discuss Cultural Diversity File
On March 9, representatives of the Coalition held their first meeting
with a senior cabinet minister of the New Brunswick government to discuss
the campaign for the convention on cultural diversity.
CCD co-chair Pierre Curzi, executive vice president Robert Pilon and vice
president Nancy Juneau represented the Coalition at a meeting with Percy
Mockler, Minister of Inter-Governmental Affairs and International Relations.
New Brunswick is a participating government in the International Organization
of La Francophonie and it was in Moncton at the conclusion of the 1999
Francophonie Summit that the heads of state of a multilateral organization
for the first time issued a declaration endorsing the principle of cultural
diversity.
The meeting with the New Brunswick Minister follows on a presentation
made last May by the Coalition during a federal-provincial ministers of
culture meeting convened by then Heritage Minister Sheila Copps.
Quebec Ministers Beauchamp, Gagnon-Tremblay
Convene Planning Session with Coalition
CCD representatives met with Quebec’s Minister of International
Relations, Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, and with Minister of Culture and
Communications Line Beauchamp on March 23 for a strategy session focused
on how to most efficiently pursue the campaign for a convention on cultural
diversity.
Quebec has been a major supporter of the concept of a convention on
cultural diversity from the very beginning, and has sponsored some of
the earliest efforts at laying out a legal rationale for the convention—notably
through a 2002 document jointly written by Professors Ivan Bernier and
Hélène Ruiz Fabri.
Quebec intends to continue sponsoring work of this sort geared to defining
the form and content of a truly effective convention, but Ministers
Gagnon-Tremblay and Beauchamp also expressed their government’s
resolve to remain active advocates building support for the convention
at the international level. This includes work in the context of La
Francophonie, in which Quebec is a participating government, but also
includes initiatives coordinated through Quebec’s foreign delegations
such as last December’s seminar on cultural diversity in Guadalajara,
Mexico, as well as its activities as a member of the Canadian delegation
at UNESCO and at the INCP culture ministers’ network.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Minister Beauchamp—who had earlier
that day made cultural diversity the focus of her speech at the annual
conference of ADISQ, the Quebec independent music producers’ association--emphasized
the importance of holding such sessions on a more regular basis. As
a result, the next meeting has been planned for late April.
Update is published by
Canada's Coalition for Cultural Diversity.
154 Laurier Ave. West, Suite 240
Montreal, QUE H2T 2N7
T. (514) 277-2666
F. (514) 277-9994
www.cdc-ccd.org
e-mail:
Editor: Jim McKee
Contributors: Robert Pilon,
Mélanie Marron, Sylvie
Riendeau