The Canadian Minister of Culture, Marc Miller, “believes well”, but cannot assure that he will support Quebec next week at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in its attempts to have an international legal tool adopted in response to the digital giants.
“To be clear, this is a decision that is being made at the moment,” underlined the Montreal elected official during a parliamentary committee session in the House of Commons on Thursday. In the morning, particularly in the pages of Dutyhis Quebec counterpart, Mathieu Lacombe, said he did not know if the federal government supported him in his ambitions at UNESCO.
Mr. Lacombe wishes to take advantage of an intergovernmental meeting in Paris next week to convince the members of the UN organization to apply the principles of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions to the digital world.
This would give more strength, he believes, to tools like the law he passed in December to showcase French-speaking content on the platforms of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM).
In June 2025, Quebec was one of the most active member states in having a “binding protocol” adopted at UNESCO. However, around twenty countries, including Canada, had instead voted for continued reflection on this subject. Nine months later, Mathieu Lacombe says he still does not know if Ottawa will support him in Paris.
“You know that this is a potential protocol that is not unanimous,” Minister Miller replied Thursday from the federal parliament. And in this area, if we do not do things together, success will be mixed. »
Questioned by the Bloc member for Drummond, Martin Champoux, Mr. Miller assured that he wanted to “row in the same direction” as Quebec. “Let’s put it this way: I look at it favorably. I take note of the position of my colleague Mathieu Lacombe, which I will support, I believe, but our position is in the process of being finalized,” he repeated.
The 19e session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions will be held from February 17 to 20.
date: 2026-02-13 00:05:00
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