Maka Kotto

[International Book and Copyright Day, April 24th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, culture is what enables us as human beings to build a framework for ourselves, to construct who we are. It helps us to think on our own and to understand the world in order to make a positive contribution to changing it.

On the day after International Book and Copyright Day, the Bloc Québécois invites one and all to discover the architects of our cultural heritage, the talented authors the diversity of Quebec has engendered.

On the eve of the presentation of its first budget, we ask the Conservative government to raise the budget of the Canada Council to $300 million, to abolish the GST on books, to exempt creators from taxation on the public lending right and copyright, as is already the case in Quebec.

The collective health of our culture, of the solidity and viability of the structure of our identity and of the future of our creative persons depend on it.

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, April 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I had put a lot of hope in the former Canadian Heritage minister, who had vision.

Unfortunately, after 13 years of dickering, few strong signals were sent to reassure the cultural community. We are talking today about the Conservative government. Clearly the lack of any significant reference in the throne speech is worrisome.

We have heard nothing about changes in the rules regarding foreign ownership. Whoever has control over creation and distribution will have control over content, hence—and I am looking down the road as I say this and not making any accusations—the possibility of consciously or unconsciously selling out cultural sovereignty. It is fundamental.

We have concerns with regard to all the points the member mentioned, which, unfortunately, his government did not defend, as we had hoped it would.

On this matter, the present government worries me more.

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, April 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the very first basic recommendation is to have a cultural policy vision. We were surprised in the throne speech at the lack of any sign of a cultural policy at all. That is the starting point.

Recently I questioned the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Status of Women in this House, to highlight the idea advocated by the Bloc Québécois for almost four years now of increasing the Canada Council’s budget from $151 million to $300 million. This is a request that keeps coming up and that is made in Quebec and the rest of Canada for the sole purpose of enabling more than half of our artists and craftspeople to have at least a decent standard of living.

The government may pride itself on being an international leader in cultural diversity and agree to sign and ratify conventions on diversity, but it must to look to its own house to see whether enough has been done to support culture through supporting creators, writers and craftspeople. It appears that this work has not been done.

Successive governments as well as this one—I would not want to prejudge; I will wait to see the facts—have not responded favourably to the expectations of the cultural community. If there was any hint in the Speech from the Throne of responding positively to the request from Canada and Quebec about the Canada Council budget, I think that someone would have mentioned it. This absence is of great concern to us, and that is why I spoke out today.

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, April 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, in speaking today I would first of all like to reiterate my thanks to the constituents of my riding of Saint-Lambert who re-elected me. I will do my very best on their behalf.

Many of my constituents are concerned about the future of culture in Quebec and in Canada under a Conservative government. Some of them even believe that the term “culture” is not part of the Conservative vocabulary owing to the absence of any significant vision for culture in the throne speech. I would like to believe that this is a misunderstanding.

At this time I must point out the importance of culture. What is culture? It is that which enables humankind to create a framework for itself and for its development. It helps us to think for ourselves. It enables us to understand the world and to contribute to changing it for the better.

In Quebec, many of us believe that culture is key to having a sense of belonging to a community. It represents the essential fibre of a people, influencing its thoughts, words, actions and daily life and enabling the development of individual members of the community. For Quebec culture, this reality is intertwined with the exceptional need to affirm itself and to encourage the expression of its originality in North America.

Pursuing this affirmation, modernity and international influence is, for the only francophone state in the Americas, both a major cultural challenge and a top collective choice. Cultural Quebec is ready for sovereignty. As an exceptionally creative society, in a context of globalization and the burst of new technologies, it is important from now on for us to consider the challenges of communications and telecommunications, of creating and experiencing the arts, of accessing public institutions, cultural industries and heritage.

One of the main duties of the Bloc Québécois is to defend this reality to the Conservative government, which threatens to destroy any chance of a normal existence. In light of the Speech from the Throne, we anticipate the upcoming Conservative budget to be completely out of touch.

Rabelais said, “Science without a conscience will lead to the destruction of the soul”. Is the end of culture in Quebec and Canada nigh? With the Conservative government, that is the question.

Is the Conservative government against culture? Is the Conservative government against the arts? Is the Conservative government against artists and artisans? Is the Conservative government against renewal?

Silence on the issue of culture—I repeat—leads us to anticipate a slow death of culture by destruction of the arts, artists, the next generation in Quebec, of Quebec's identity, by the liquidation of our cultural sovereignty. This destruction will strike a major blow to Quebec's humanist and progressive culture, which has resisted standardization and cultural uniformity and which, during the Quiet Revolution, became formal policy, in the public service in particular. Public service and progressive culture are inextricably linked.

Would the silence concerning culture in the Speech from the Throne be hiding rather the temptation of a massive intrusion by the private sector, with its alienating financial power, into arts and culture?

Are we going to witness the dismantling of the museums? Are we going to witness the end of the transmission of knowledge in schools? Are we headed towards U.S.-style homogenization? Will we eventually undergo the unilateral, impoverishing ideological marking of content in the publishing media? Are we going to witness the accelerated deterioration of our public television and radio services, followed fatally by privatizations and moronic ratings races to sell available brain time to consumerism?

Life teaches us. To consume is to be consumed, but to cultivate is to create, to sow in the hope of reaping, to protect in order to receive.

A society makes its mark in history and in the hearts of the living only with its culture.

So, I beg you, support arts and culture; do not destroy them.

If by chance they do so, we would be curious to know one last thing first. Could it be the orchestration of the WTO directives devoid of any reference to the common good by being weaned on neo-liberalism that will inspire the destruction of our arts and culture? The question is relevant, since this type of destruction is already taking place symphonically in countries with neo-liberal government ideologies.

Quebec is not asleep. An infraspectacular resistance is building. The political maturity of the people of Quebec is reinforced in proportion to the predictable assaults of challenges to what makes the common good. It will withstand this civilized-seeming barbarity.

We will stand firm for culture!

In closing, here is a quotation from André Malraux, who said it in 1968.

Culture is what provides a foundation for man—I would add woman—when he no longer has the foundation of God.

[Arts and Culture, April 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, to encourage the government to become more involved, I would remind it that culture is a major source of job creation, as shown by a number of studies. Any investment in culture is of substantial benefit to the economy.

Will the minister therefore admit that the increase in the budget of the Canada Council is not only an excellent decision for culture but also beneficial for the economy?

[Arts and Culture, April 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, an entire Speech from the Throne and not a single significant word about culture. This is a clear admission of negligence. At the end of the 38th Parliament, the previous Minister of Canadian Heritage made a very formal promise to increase the Canada Council’s budget from $150 million to $300 million.

Will the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women take up this promise, which was in response, I would remind everyone, to a unanimous request from the arts and culture community in Quebec and Canada?

[Henri Tranquille, November 21st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, we were saddened to learn of the passing, yesterday morning, of Henri Tranquille, a pioneer in Quebec's bookselling world.

A cultural institution in itself, from 1937 to 1975, his library was a stepping stone for many intellectual and literary figures in Quebec.

A freethinker and book enthusiast, he promoted books and reading all his life. He did not hesitate to launch the Refus global manifesto and to give exposure to such avant-garde artists as Alfred Pellan and Marcelle Ferron.

Faithful to the Montreal book fair, he was in attendance last Thursday. Henri Tranquille was truly a lover of books till the very end.

The Bloc Québécois pays tribute to this exceptional man for his generous contribution to Quebec's society and offers its condolences to his family and friends.

[La Mosaïque, November 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House today to mark the 20th anniversary of La Mosaïque, a community agency in my riding that anchors a great chain of solidarity reaching out to the less fortunate from LeMoyne, Greenfield Park, Saint Lambert and Brossard.

This chain is made up of some 800 volunteers who, day in and day out, doggedly focus their efforts on overcoming poverty and suffering.

Over the years, more than 30 different services have been set up to help parents and children, seniors, and others who are forgotten or marginalized by society.

What is more, so strong is this fantastic team that it has inspired the entire community, thereby generating several other humanitarian agencies.

The Bloc Québécois thanks this agency for creating a brilliant mosaic of caring and sharing over the past 20 years.

[René Lévesque, November 1st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the House to pay tribute to the memory of a remarkable sovereignist leader and one of the most prestigious builders of modern Quebec—a man who hungered and thirsted after freedom.

I refer to the man who reinvented the meaning of the word “pride” in linking it with the word “Quebec” and giving new resonance to the word “Québécois”. I refer to the man described by Félix Leclerc as being on the short list of liberators of peoples. I refer to the war correspondent, that rare being, the visionary politician, the charismatic leader and exemplary democrat who left us on November 1, 1987. I refer to René Lévesque.

The Bloc Québécois respectfully salutes his memory.

[ADISQ Gala, October 31st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, over the past week and culminating last evening, the personality of Quebec song in its many facets based on a distinct experience and consciousness expressed itself most eloquently for the 27th year at the ADISQ gala.

On behalf of my Bloc colleagues, I express my pride and admiration for all the artists and craftspeople in Quebec's musical milieu for their wonderful work, be they winners or not.

Their potential is enormous, but it must be noted that the federal government, scourge of Quebec and Canada's cultural sovereignty, is not striving to protect francophone song and to ensure its longevity and popularity in that new broadcast space made available by satellite radio.

When francophone content on commercial radio is reviewed, we call for more space to be given to these extraordinary voices coming out of Quebec.