About

The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions brings together Canada’s main French- and English-speaking organizations of professionals in the cultural sector. The over 50 associations that are members represent more than 360,000 creators and professionals and 2,900 companies in the cultural sector.

Equally concerned about the economic health of the cultural sector and the vitality of cultural creation, the CDCE is particularly interested in the treatment of culture in trade agreements and the impact of the digital environment on the diversity of cultural expressions.

History and Mission

History

The CDCE was founded in the spring of 1998 by Quebec’s leading cultural associations in the midst of the growing opposition to the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which aimed to liberalize cultural goods and services. In the fall of 1999, the CDCE invited the main professional associations in the cultural sector in Canada to join its ranks.

At the international level, the CDCE and the governments of Quebec and Canada have played a fundamental role in ensuring that the dual – economic, but also symbolic and identity – value of cultural goods and services is recognized and in creating a movement that led to the adoption of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions at UNESCO in 2005. The CDCE then made efforts to convince cultural professionals from all continents to create their own coalition to encourage their government to support the Convention. The Convention now has 146 parties, including 145 States and the European Union.

Today, the CDCE includes more than 50 organizations representing creators, artists, producers, publishers and distributors in the book, film, television, new media, music, performing arts and visual arts sectors. The CDCE also provides the secretariat for the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD).

Mission

The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) is the voice of the cultural community. It promotes the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. It ensures its implementation to give it full force of application at the national level.

The CDCE monitors the Canadian government’s commitments under the Convention. It ensures that the government’s capacity to implement policies to support local cultural expressions is properly preserved and deployed; that trade liberalization and technology development do not systematically lead to a standardization of content and a disruption of local ecosystems in the face of foreign investment.

The CDCE works primarily to ensure that cultural goods and services are excluded from trade negotiations and that the diversity of cultural expressions is present in the digital environment. Its role is to:

• Promote civil society dialogue around its priorities and the challenges of the Convention;
• Monitor trade negotiations conducted by the Canadian government to ensure that the exclusion of cultural goods and services from trade agreement negotiations is respected;
• Document the impacts and conditions surrounding the provision of cultural content online;
• Organize meetings and represent its members in the revision of laws and policies that have an impact on the diversity of cultural expressions;
• Provide the secretariat for the International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD) and participate in debates at UNESCO to support an international network in favour of the diversity of cultural expressions.

Our work

Our Expertise

For more than twenty years, the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) has defended the importance of culture in the development of societies, which has earned it an internationally recognized legitimacy.

The Coalition’s role is to mobilize all cultural stakeholders – creators, artists, associations, community organizations, policy makers, academics – at all levels – local, national and international. Its expertise lies in its comprehensive understanding of the issues, its research and its capacity to mobilize.

Cultural exemption in trade agreements

The Convention recognizes in international law the distinctive nature of cultural activities, goods and services as vehicles of identity, values and meaning. This provides the legal argument to justify their exemption from any liberalization commitments in trade agreements. The CDCE conducts analysis, monitors trade negotiations involving the Canadian government and makes representations to ensure that cultural goods and services are excluded from trade agreements.

The CDCE thus ensures the implementation of the Convention, so that the sovereign right of states to promote the diversity of cultural expressions on their national territory through policy measures, including financial assistance, is fully recognized.

The diversity of cultural expressions online

For the CDCE, the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital space is based on:

• The existence of a balanced environment for the creation, production and dissemination of diversified local cultural content;
• The availability and promotion of online cultural content, and its discoverability in Canada;
• The ability of governments to formulate and implement policies to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions online;
• Collective capacity, including that of the cultural community, to measure the achievement of public interest objective.

The CDCE’s role is also to conduct research and foster dialogue between cultural, academic and government circles at the national and international levels in order to enable the country’s artists, creators and producers to enrich the national cultural heritage in the best possible conditions in the digital age.

Executive Committee

Board of directors

Presentation

The Coalition’s Board of Directors is composed of a minimum of twelve (12) and a maximum of forty (40) Directors. The directors elect from among themselves two co-chairs, two vice-presidents, a secretary and a treasurer, taking care to ensure that the choice of all these officers adequately reflects the francophone and anglophone ecosystems as well as the diversity of the Coalition’s regular members.

Composition of the Board

Officers and members elected at the Annual General Meeting on September 21, 2022:

• Co-Chairs

AQPM – Association québécoise de la production médiatique : Hélène Messier
SCGC – Screen Composers Guild of Canada : Bill Skolnik

• Vice-Presidents

AC – Access Copyright : Roanie Levy
SACD – Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques / SCAM – Société civile des auteurs multimedia : Elisabeth Schlittler

• Treasurer

APEM – Association des professionnels de l’édition musicale : Jérôme Payette

• Secretary

APFC – Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada : Carol Ann Pilon

• Directors

ACP – Association of Canadian Publishers : Kate Edwards
ACTRA – Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artist : Li Li
ADISQ – Association québécoise de l’industrie du spectacle et de la vidéo : Eve Paré
ANEL – Association nationale des éditeurs de livres : Karine Vachon
ANIM – Alliance nationale de l’industrie musicale : Clothilde Heibing
ARRQ – Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrices du Québec : Mylène Cyr
CFM – Canadian Federation of Musicians : Alan Willaert
CIMA – Canadian Independent Music Association : Andrew Cash
CMPA – Canadian Media Producers Association: Alain Strati
DGC – Directors Guild of Canada: Samuel Bischoff
DOC – Documentary Organization of Canada : Sarah Spring
ELAN – English-Language Arts Network : Vanessa Herrick
FCCF – Fédération culturelle canadienne française : Marie-Christine Morin
MMF – Music Managers Forum Canada : Gourmet Délice
MPC – Music Publishers Canada : Margaret McGuffin
QEPC – Quebec English-language Production Council : Kirwan Cox
RAAV – Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Québec : Maryse Beaulieu
SAC – Songwriters Association of Canada: Arun Chaturvedi
SARTEC – Société des Auteurs de Radio, Télévision et Cinéma : Pauline Halpurn
SOCAN – Société canadienne des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique : Andrea Kokonis
SOPROQ – Société de gestion collective des droits des producteurs d’enregistrements sonores et de vidéoclips : Thomas Jolicoeur
SPACQ – Société professionnelle des auteurs et des compositeurs du Québec : Alexandre Alonso
UDA – Union des artistes : Michel Laperrière
UNEQ – Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois : Laurent Dubois
WGC – Writers Guild of Canada : Neal McDougall
XN Québec – L’Association des producteurs d’expériences numériques : Sophie Couture

Team