John Ralston Saul
Culture and Foreign Policy
Republished with permission

a) Culture Committee

One of the reasons for the confusion in our cultural efforts abroad is that there is no clear sense (inside or outside of government) of who is doing what. The standard response is to argue that responsibility should be grouped in a single Ministry.

The result of this attitude has been a certain amount of sterile manoeuvering over who should have what and who should take the lead. In reality, this diversity may well be a positive factor and even a dynamic in our cultural policies.

Rather than worrying about gathering or losing powers it is far more important to promote co-operation between the different players.  And culture, of all sectors, is the one most driven by creativity, risk-taking and structures outside of government. The dozens of programs and policy debates buried inside government structures must be made as visible as possible.

One way of encouraging public co-operation would be the creation of a Cultural Foreign Strategies Committee. This would include the relevant Ministries (Foreign Affairs, Heritage, Industry), the Heads of key arms-length cultural bodies and NGOs. Above all, it would include a healthy selection of leading artists (painters, directors, writers, etc.). These, after all, are the people who produce culture and who know how the market works here and abroad. The committee might total 15 to 20 people.

Such a committee should be essentially political. It should not work from briefing books and complex agendas generated by Ministerial sub-committees. Nor should it include consultants or more than one or two academics to cover the education aspects.

Its purpose would not be administrative. Nor would it attempt to be executive. Rather it could gather twice a year, for example, over a weekend, to attempt to make sense of what cultural foreign policy is doing and what it isn't but should be doing. It would serve the purpose of clarifying, exposing weaknesses, developing strengths and encouraging a general national cultural strategy abroad. In other words, it would serve as an informal co-ordinating and idea-generating committee, linking government and the cultural community, but also linking the elements in government.

b) Program Information

There is no concise and public idea of what government programs exist in the area of culture and foreign policy. They're not secret, but nor are they laid out annually in any clear way.

The debate over what departments should have what cultural responsibilities is a false debate so long as the public at large and the cultural community and, for that matter, the government itself are fuzzy over what is currently being done.

Many programs seem to have their finances designed on the backs of envelopes and the details involved are understood by only a small number of civil servants. There has never been a clear, integrated government statement. However, successive attacks from the political level on the value of cultural programming have created an increasingly defensive, chop-and-save-what you-can disorder.

Whether we are concentrating on the appropriate areas, missing areas completely, duplicating, or whether simple acts of co-ordination could improve what is being done, is unclear. What's more, it is difficult for those in the business of producing culture to make good use of these programs if there is no clear understanding of what they are. In such an atmosphere it is virtually impossible for those who use these programs to make sensible suggestions for improvements.

The simple solution to this situation would be an annual government booklet, laying out by arts sector all of the programs offered by all departments. This should include both the department (Foreign Affairs, Heritage, Industry, etc.) and the arms-length organizations (Canada Council, Telefilm, etc.).

This booklet would indicate the purpose and conditions surrounding each program (as well as the size of it), details on application, and an indication of what had been done in the previous year. In this way, people would understand how many individuals or organizations have been served.

As to whether the current distribution of programs in different bodies is appropriate, this would become far clearer after a year or two of such a consolidated description.

It should be noted that the provinces also have a maze of programs, which are also unclear to the public and the cultural community. It would be extremely useful if they could cooperate in such a venture, even if it involved a separate booklet.

Arguments over which level of government should do what are nonsense, when it isn't clear what they have chosen to do with the powers they currently possess.

c) Annual Pictionary of Canadian Culture

A practical way of helping Foreign Affairs to project a sense of Canadian culture would be to produce an annual illustrated dictionary of important cultural creations in the preceding and upcoming year.

This would be written by a single, well-known creative figure (a playwright, painter, writer, film director, etc.), preferably someone who has already won an international reputation. Each year a different individual would be asked. Not an academic or a consultant or a committee.

The book might consist of 200 entries, 200 words each. It would include books which particularly marked the year. Or plays. Or films. Or exhibits.

The uses of the book would be:

1. To give those diplomats not versed in culture a topical and exciting handle on how to talk about their country.
2. Something up-to-date and relevant to give to foreign journalists, cultural figures and political figures visiting Canada.
3. A useful tool for diplomats when dealing with foreign festivals.
4. The fact that this book had been written by a well-known cultural figure would give it a value of its own and make it of interest in the long term. Sending a creator off to produce an accounting of the country's most interesting activities over the year couldn't help but produce an original, opinionated point of view. It would also produce interesting, probably unexpected views of the country's culture.
5. This booklet might also have commercial possibilities. It might be published in co-operation with a mainstream publisher.

Apart from English and French it might be worth translating such a book into other key languages (Spanish, German, Japanese).

John Ralston Saul is an essayist and novelist. He is the author of many books, including The Doubter's Companion - A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense, Voltaire's Bastards: the Dictatorship of Reason in the West, and Paradise Eater, which won the Premio Letterario Internazionale in 1990. Mr. Saul has a Ph.D. from King's College, London.