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The confrontation between culture and international trade is a major debate of our times, but it is often also restricted to a legal and technical discourse, which leads the general public to conclude that this debate does not concern them and that it is best left up to the experts. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. In Quebec, the issue involved in this debate is the very existence of a specific culture, and whether this culture will remain accessible to the public while not preventing access to the cultures of other countries in the world. For if we abandon our culture to market forces alone, we shall neither have access to our present nor to our past.