The Canadian Government has quietly inserted an amendment to their 600 page 2008 Budget that would in essence give the Heritage and Justice Ministries the power to cancel tax credits for productions that it deems offensive. The item, which has already passed Parliament is now sitting in the Senate for its sober second thought.

Producers and actors in Canada are outraged at the idea. Canadian Director David Cronenberg told CBC news:

“It sounds like something they do in Beijing”
“You have a panel of people working behind closed doors who are not monitored and they form their own layer of censorship”

David Cronenberg, Interviewed by CBC News February 28, 2008. (1)

Producer Steven Hoban is also concerned. His film Young People Fucking is scheduled for release in April of this year. The film was widely received at the Toronto International Film Festival, but its Hoban says that had these measures been in place prior to the production of his film it would have never been made.

Stephen Waddell, national executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) says that it seems the government wants to setup a form of “morality police”

“The government is overstepping its bounds and interfering in an arms-length process. Withholding public funding for film and television productions it deems offensive is a danger”

“These amendments have grave implications for film and television productions, and for all artists. This is disastrous culturally and economically. It is chilling for artists, creates uncertainty for the production community, and is morally offensive to modern Canadian society,”

Stephen Waddell, ACTRA National Director, Press Release February 28, 2008 (2)

Annette Gibbons, associate director general at Heritage Canada says the changes ammount to only slight alterations of the present guidelines.

“It’s our responsibility to ensure that public funds are not invested in certain types of material, such as hate propaganda, excessively violent material, or pornography,”

Annette Gibbons, Associate Director General, Heritage Canada.

The problem with all of this however comes from Telefilm itself. If we are to believe the Heritage Ministry, it would seem that up until now Telefilm was producing hateful propaganda films full of gratuitous violence and pornography…. unfortunately, reality in this area does not seem to agree with them.

Telefilm already has strict guidelines of what they will and will not finance.

“…not contain any elements of serious or gratuitous sexual violence or exploitation, and must not be obscene, indecent or pornographic within the meaning of the Criminal Code, or libelous or in any other way unlawful”

Excerpt from Canada Feature Film Fund Guidelines 2007 – 2008 (Telefilm) (3)

What these proposed changes truly do, is give the Government the right to step in and say “no” to any project they want without rhyme, reason or review.

The opposition parties in Canada are also to blame for this as they seemed to be asleep at the switch. I mean, I totally get that a 600 page document is a lot to read before you vote on it… but… umm…. I sort of pay you to do that. Do you think you could wake up and do your jobs?

Background

In Canada, our government believes we need to foster the production of Canadian content for Radio (music) Television, and Movies. We even have rules that mandate what percentage of programming must meet certain criteria and be called Canadian Content (CanCon) (This should not be confused with KonKan who was a totally awesome House group in the early 90s who actually formed their name by reversing CanCon, and starting the words with Ks…. but I digest) In order to pay for this in a country that is larger than the US in land area but accounts for less than 10% of its population our cable, and satellite providers contribute money to various production funds that Canadian producers draw from in order to finance their work. The funds themselves are also under review right now as I wrote about earlier here.

Sources:

(1) “Artists call Tory plan to vet films ‘censorship’.” CBC.ca Arts | Film. 28Feb2008. CBC. 28 Feb 2008 <http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2008/02/28/film-tax-credits.html>.
(2) Ponting, Susan. “Government to Censor Made-In-Canada Productions.” ACTRA – National. 28Feb2008. ACTRA. 28 Feb 2008 <http://www.actra.ca/actra/control/press_news1?id=10655>.
(3) “Canada Feature Film Fund Guidelines 2007 – 2008.” Telefilm Canada. 01June2007. Telefilm Canada. 28 Feb 2008 <http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/upload/fonds_prog/cfff_guidelines_english_language_dev_07-08.pdf>.

Technorati: Canadian Television, CBC, Annette Gibbons, Heritage Canada, Censorship, Censor, Telefilm, Young People Fucking, Steven Hoban, David Cronnenberg, Bill C-10, C-10, Canadian Television Production Fund