Canadian 'censorship' bill angers artistic community

The Catholic Register picks up my story:

OTTAWA - Liberal MP Denis Corderre says the next election will be fought over censorship.

But the newly minted Heritage Critic was not speaking about press freedom in light of hate speech complaints levied against Catholic Insight, Maclean’s and Ezra Levant, the former publisher of the Western Standard. In fact, Corderre did not even know about them when pressed in a scrum April 1. Instead, he, like many socially progressive MPs, has joined the artistic community in objecting to Bill C-10 and its potential effect on the film industry.

The Act to Amend the Income Tax Act would give the Heritage Minister discretion to yank the tax credits from Canadian feature films that are deemed offensive or contrary to public policy. Heritage Minister Josée Verner has promised industry-wide consultations to develop guidelines. But the artistic community warns Bill C-10 would give too much power to government to make subjective moral judgments about works of art, cause artists to self-censor and force Canadians to move to the United States.

Bill C-10 passed the House of Commons with all-party support because most MPs failed to read the fine print in its 560 pages. The Liberal-dominated Senate has referred the controversial bill to its banking, trade and commerce committee.

Socially conservative voices argue Bill C-10 has nothing to do with censorship, only sound fiscal management.

Read the rest here.