Social conservatives should join charge against C-10
I know that most social conservatives don't think Bill c-10 is a censorship issue. Instead they see it as an issue of taxpayers' dollars and they are right.
But I think we should jump on the anti-censorship bandwagon. And then work to raise consciousness about the human rights commissions' censorship regime and its danger to freedom of expression. I hate to say this, but it seemed in Senate hearings the other day the subtitles would have been "Don't touch my porn channel" and "How can we judge a work of art--isn't it all subjective?" so I agree with some of the concerns social conservatives raised. But we need to think this through.
I am a member of a national association of writers who are Christian called The Word Guild, and while there may be some members who have obtained government grants to supplement their writing income, TWG's writer conferences Write! Canada being the big one, has never held a workshop on how to get a government grant to supplement their writing income.
Maybe I'm wrong, but there seems to be a tacit assumption in the world of Christian art that you might as well not bother if you have an overtly Christian or pro-life message---you'll never get any Telefilm or Canada Council funding. The art establishment is ideologically dominated by left-leaning, "progressive" voices.
But Christian artists do rely on tax breaks, usually as small business owners. And Christian newspapers and magazines rely on postal subsidies. If Christian periodicals lost these postal subsidies--and there was a danger last year they would be cut---many would go under.
So I can see the point of the filmmakers who say an after-the-fact withdrawal of tax credits is arbitrary and unfair and could undermine the whole film industry because banks would hesitate to finance projects if the tax credits could be yanked later. C-10 gives the Heritage Minister too much discretion, even though Josee Verner has promised consultation with the industry. But under another more ideologically-driven minister we might see even more censorship of traditional Canadian views than we already have.
Catholic Insight Magazine is facing a complaint by an activist who wants to see its Heritage Canada funding removed. This has been accompanied by a blizzard of Access to Information requests that have buried the magazine's staff in paper work.
No....we don't want the government taking sides on these issues, even if that means some pretty questionable works of art or periodicals get produced with taxpayers' dollars. Because if the government starts picking and choosing, the little bit of help the Christian community gets in this regard will be the first to get shut down. Of course there can be a case made for cutting subsidies and loopholes and common sense is often revolted by some of the garbage that gets funded.
But we live now in a topsy turvy world now where a lot of people think black is white and white is black and good is evil and evil is good. Lots more needs to be done at the grassroots level of restoring clear-eyed perception and common sense.
But I think we should jump on the anti-censorship bandwagon. And then work to raise consciousness about the human rights commissions' censorship regime and its danger to freedom of expression. I hate to say this, but it seemed in Senate hearings the other day the subtitles would have been "Don't touch my porn channel" and "How can we judge a work of art--isn't it all subjective?" so I agree with some of the concerns social conservatives raised. But we need to think this through.
I am a member of a national association of writers who are Christian called The Word Guild, and while there may be some members who have obtained government grants to supplement their writing income, TWG's writer conferences Write! Canada being the big one, has never held a workshop on how to get a government grant to supplement their writing income.
Maybe I'm wrong, but there seems to be a tacit assumption in the world of Christian art that you might as well not bother if you have an overtly Christian or pro-life message---you'll never get any Telefilm or Canada Council funding. The art establishment is ideologically dominated by left-leaning, "progressive" voices.
But Christian artists do rely on tax breaks, usually as small business owners. And Christian newspapers and magazines rely on postal subsidies. If Christian periodicals lost these postal subsidies--and there was a danger last year they would be cut---many would go under.
So I can see the point of the filmmakers who say an after-the-fact withdrawal of tax credits is arbitrary and unfair and could undermine the whole film industry because banks would hesitate to finance projects if the tax credits could be yanked later. C-10 gives the Heritage Minister too much discretion, even though Josee Verner has promised consultation with the industry. But under another more ideologically-driven minister we might see even more censorship of traditional Canadian views than we already have.
Catholic Insight Magazine is facing a complaint by an activist who wants to see its Heritage Canada funding removed. This has been accompanied by a blizzard of Access to Information requests that have buried the magazine's staff in paper work.
No....we don't want the government taking sides on these issues, even if that means some pretty questionable works of art or periodicals get produced with taxpayers' dollars. Because if the government starts picking and choosing, the little bit of help the Christian community gets in this regard will be the first to get shut down. Of course there can be a case made for cutting subsidies and loopholes and common sense is often revolted by some of the garbage that gets funded.
But we live now in a topsy turvy world now where a lot of people think black is white and white is black and good is evil and evil is good. Lots more needs to be done at the grassroots level of restoring clear-eyed perception and common sense.
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