Canada is a key player at UNESCO headquarters in Paris this week, as the United Nations cultural agency is poised to enact a convention on protecting cultural diversity worldwide.
According to Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, Canada has been a key architect for the policy since 1998.
"Our efforts to get this convention adopted by member states of UNESCO are driven by our unshakeable commitment to protect and promote Canada's rich cultural diversity," Frulla said in a statement.
"We have to be able to identify ourselves as Canadians, to be able to present ourselves and to be able to sustain our creativity. This is a fundamental right," she told CBC News on Monday.
The goal of the proposed convention, formally titled the Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions, is to protect a nation's cultural diversity and its culture from any negative effects of globalization. It also seeks to promote a country's ethnic traditions and minority languages.
According to the draft text, cultural expressions are "distinctive" and countries should be allowed "to maintain, adopt, and implement policies and measures that they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory."
The member states of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization overwhelmingly support the draft text, which has been in negotiation and amended for several years. However, vocal objections have come from the U.S., which rejoined the UN agency in 2003 after leaving almost two decades ago when it accused UNESCO of anti-American bias and corruption.
U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO Louise Oliver has complained about not having enough time to discuss the text, which she has called "ambiguous" and "open to wide misinterpretation," or to propose a series of further amendments.
"Under the provisions of the convention as drafted, any state, in the name of cultural diversity, might invoke the ambiguous provisions of this convention to try to assert a right to erect trade barriers to goods or services that are deemed to be cultural expressions," Oliver told the Associated Press.
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The main concern from the U.S. is that if ratified, the convention could prove to be a barrier against U.S. cultural exports and drastically affect its powerhouse film, music and book industries.
