OAS CULTURAL DIVERSITY

UNCLAS OTTAWA 001209 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD UNESCO PREO OAS SUBJECT: OAS CULTURAL DIVERSITY REF: STATE 63829 ¶1. (SBU) DCM and Econ Counselor made points reftel to DFAIT Assistant Deputy Minister Peter Boehm, Susan Fountain Smith, Director, Brazil, Southern Cone and InterAmerican Affairs, and Deputy Director Leonard Beaulne. ¶2. (SBU) Our contacts responded that they see a "lot of agreement" on the agenda for the OAS Workshop on Cultural Diversity and assured us that they look forward to achieving consensus on the agenda. Beaulne observed that the current draft agenda is very broad and does not specifically refer to the UNESCO Convention and that they agree that we should keep it that way; specifically, he said that CANADA "would not support a specific agenda item on UNESCO" in the Workshop. ¶3. (SBU) Beaulne said that he had consulted with Canadian Heritage official Artur Wilczynski, Director for International Relations and Outreach,who will participate in the April 26 conference call on the agenda, and had passed on our views. Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa WILKINS