rabble.ca Canadian federal election blog

Arts Funding and the Social Conservative Agenda

By Garry Neil, Council of Canadians

In the first week of campaigning, issues around arts and culture funding were front and centre. In a front page story in The Globe and Mail, we’re told Harper has an artistic side and loves to play the piano. This is a significant shift from the 2006 campaign, when the arts were not on the agenda.

The reversal resulted from recent announcements of government budget cuts totalling more than $60 million to programs in film and television, book and magazine publishing, and new media. The government cut money from programs dealing with everything from training to digitizing collections, arguing the programs were wasteful and not achieving the objectives. Opposition critics slammed the cuts and promised to reverse them, or do more, if they’re elected.

The community responded vigorously to the cuts. Hundreds of Québec artists rallied on August 26 in Montréal to denounce the government. At a meeting September 3 in Toronto, close to 500 people were energized by speeches by Susan Swan, Naomi Klein and others. That same day, some artists launched www.departmentofculture.ca, a website whose message about Harper is simple, “Not Him. Not Now. Not Ever Again.”  Luminaries from various arts disciplines gathered on September 10 at the Toronto International Film Festival to call for parties to put forward ideas for a comprehensive and long-term vision for arts and culture funding.

The program cuts are real. They will seriously harm some smaller groups and businesses, particularly those trying to promote Canadian artists abroad. But, perhaps more insidious is the fact the cuts and other recent government actions reveal a scary social conservatism that wants to use grants to impose artistic content.

In Bill C-10, which thankfully died on the order papers, the government sought to give the Heritage Minister the power to deny tax credits retroactively to films or television shows that are “contrary to public policy.”  The leading example used to defend this position was the film Young People Fucking, despite the fact none of the officials had actually seen the movie. In its agreement to fund the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the government insists on the right to ensure its “priorities” and “international branding goals” are reflected in the ceremony. Does this mean they would insist on lip-synching a young singer if that singer wasn’t deemed “pretty enough” to represent Canada as we recently saw in China?  And in defending the recent cuts, which came to light just days before the election call, the government leaked internal reports objecting to giving money to “left-wing, unrepresentative or rich” artists. The report argued that some of the material funded would “raise the eyebrows of the average Canadian.”

This is very dangerous territory: it’s censorship. And it needs to be tackled in the campaign.

Garry Neil is a former general secretary of ACTRA and vice-president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Council of Canadians.