The CAQ on Tuesday rejected a motion by Quebec solidaire which asked the government to initiate steps with UNESCO to obtain a Quebec seat within this international institution.
However, in an interview published Monday in the Duty, the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, had suggested that Quebec would ideally have its own delegation to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). However, he had made it clear that he did not intend to wage this battle during his term of office.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the government opposed the motion tabled Tuesday at the Blue Room by Quebec Solidarity MP Ruba Ghazal. It proposed to recognize that “Quebec has full and complete jurisdiction over its cultural policy” and implored the government to “take all the necessary steps to obtain an official delegation to UNESCO”. This motion was presented jointly with the PQ and the Liberals. Only the CAQ rejected it.
“Big talker, little doer! Ruba Ghazal decried after his motion was defeated. “For a government that calls itself nationalist, it is incomprehensible that it does not even want to take the necessary steps to obtain a permanent seat at UNESCO. What a lack of ambition for Quebec and its voice internationally,” added the MNA for Mercier.
Restricted to independent states?
In interview at Duty last week, Minister Lacombe said that he was fine with the current system of representation of Quebec within the Canadian delegation to UNESCO. Remember that under an agreement reached in 2006 with the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, Quebec appoints a delegate general to UNESCO, who is part of the Canadian delegation.
With the exception of Palestine, only independent nations have their own delegation to UNESCO. The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, had also affirmed on Tuesday that Quebec would never have a real seat at UNESCO until it is sovereign. The sovereignist leader had also accused Minister Lacombe of “lack of coherence and courage”.
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