Mr. Speaker, I know the hon. member is committed to preserving cultural diversity in Canada as she knows I am as well.
Last Thursday when I was returning to my riding I ran into one of Canada's foremost actors, R. H. Thomson. He had recently been summoned to a meeting in Ottawa. There are other groups meeting on this issue besides the coalition of diversity which is headed by Robert Pilon. I asked Robert Thomson what was the purpose of his trip to Ottawa. He told me that he was part of a discussion on the new cultural instrument.
I know Robert Thomson's position and I am sure the member knows it as well. He was against the multilateral agreement on investment. However, he told me how wonderful it was that the minister was bringing together different groups to discuss this new instrument. He assured me that one of the first things we had to do as a government, as individuals, as organizations and as artists was to bring together all the different countries to encompass the whole idea of a new cultural instrument.
He felt that we were doing this little by little. We have gone from 19 countries to 45 countries. Not just governments but NGOs as well will be at the meeting and will be talking about cultural diversity. I hope the coalition will be there as well. We must get more people to buy into this idea. The more countries we can convince and bring to our side in understanding how important this is, the better.
We speak about the United States. I know that our minister, quite frankly, if I may say so, is not afraid of the roar of the United States. One of the great things I always like to use as an example is people saying “The United States said we could not do it”. Do members know what the United States said we could not do? The United States said we could not have a convention on the anti-personnel landmines because the United States was against it. The United States was against it because it was worried about North Korea and said to forget it, that we would not get consensus anywhere in the world. Not only did we get consensus to sign the Ottawa convention, but we have also since then ratified the treaty.
As we heard the Minister of Foreign Affairs say today, the Ukraine, which was not one of the original signatories, has now come together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss how it is going to destroy all the landmines it has there.
I do not think we should be afraid of the Americans. Let us take heart from what we did with the Ottawa convention and the anti-personnel landmines treaty as a way to show that we do not need the Americans to make our point known and to have other countries come onside and ratify the things that are important to all of us.