Cynical Cinema

The Canadian Conservative government has decided that they are the best judges of art and proper taste.  They are trying to pass a bill called “C10″, a bill that would give them the power to approve or deny tax credits for Canadian artists depending on how they, the government, through a committee, saw that art.  Federal Heritage minister Josee Verner says: 

“We are far from censorship here. We are just putting forward an intention from our government and (from) the former Liberal government just to make sure that we will take fiscal measure to make sure that the Canadian taxpayers’ money won’t fund extreme violence, child pornography or something like that.”

The change to the Income Tax Act (Bill C-10) would allow Verner, or a government committee, to deny tax credits to productions deemed offensive and “contrary to public policy.” Members of the Canadian film and television industry have criticized the possible amendment for threatening to deplete Canadian production by casting doubt over its financing.  But although that is the immediate concern, in the long run it could be the least of their worries.  Famous Canadian actors and film makers like Sarah Polley have spoken out against this bill because of censorship.  And although Verner may well believe what she says (or maybe not - she is, after all, a politician), there is something amiss here.  This is a government who under Stephen Harper has stated, almost implicitly, their desire to control the media.  They have been closed-mouth in dealing with the media to such a degree that most Canadians don’t really know their policies on anything.  Which, in effect, is an attempt to censor that media.  So if you are willing to practice indirect censorship with newspapers, what is to stop you from practicing direct censorship once the ability falls into your hands.  And if C10 passes, that ability will be squarely within the power of the Tories.

Now, of course you say - I don’t want my tax dollars going toward child pornography or extreme violence!  And of course, you are right.  But when has this been an issue before?  When has a film director approached the government, hat in hand, asking for a grant so he can make his blood-and-guts child porn epic?  And when has he been approved for this grant?  It has never happened.  So why pass a bill to prevent something that has never happened from happening, unless it is the first step toward censorship?  And although it may irritate us that something like the remake of Prom Night gets a tax break in Canada, preventing that isn’t what the bill is designed to do.  The definition of “offensive material” and “material that is contrary to public policy” seems deliberately vague.  What does that mean, really?  Well, the problem is that it could mean anything.  And it won’t prevent making movies that are lousy, but rather those that are edgy and interesting and perhaps designed to provoke.

The latest example is the movie “Young People F***ing”, a movie which caused a lot of controversy when some prominent Conservative employees were offered free tickets to the screening, resulting in at least one firing.  Can you imagine the Conservatives firing someone because they accepted a free ticket to an advance screening of Indiana Jones?  This is why the whole thing smacks of censorship.  The reason these tax breaks for Canadian art exist is that it is in the best interests of Canada to support our homegrown talent.  (It’s also one of the reasons Graham Greene and Gordon Pinsent still get work.)  But this bill will be counter-productive in a big way.  Not only is it a slippery slope toward the government telling us Canadians what we can and can’t watch, and what is suitable for us, but it will also drive film makers out of Canada.

One of the scariest parts of this bill is the part that says the tax credits for these projects, if they are deemed offensive by these arbitrarily defined guidelines, will be pulled after the projects are completed.  That means if a Canadian film maker wants to push boundaries, and make something daring and provocative, he or she must wait until the project is done to see if the rug will be pulled out from under them.  Sure, you’ve made something artistic, but this committee says it’s “contrary to public policy”, whatever that means, and they take from you the money you needed to get this film done in the first place.  So now, you can never make a film again, because you are massively in debt.  And what kind of bank will finance a loan for a project which may well make it to completion and then have everything taken away, to the point where it can no longer be distributed or have the capacity to make any money?

The government should support homegrown artists and talent.  But they should not dictate how.  This would be like the City of Ottawa cutting an ownership group a tax break so they can bring the CFL back to Ottawa.  The new football team comes in, revitalizes a community, brings in great revenue, is run exceptionally well, and generates money for the city.  More money than they would have made through the taxes they waived.  And then, three years in, as the new team is about to embark on it’s first playoff run, the city all of a sudden reverses it’s decision on that tax break, demands the team pay four million dollars in taxes immediately, and basically forces them out of the league.  (A stretch? - I don’t know, it IS Ottawa City Council.)  And why?  Because they didn’t sign Jason Clermont when they had the chance, and they benched Damon Allen down the stretch.  Or maybe because your star linebacker was caught drunk driving.  Or some such thing - By the way, I assume if Ottawa ever has another CFL team, Damon Allen will come out of retirement to be the QB at the age of 57. 

OK, football digressions aside, the point here is that there are already controls in place to prevent truly offensive and heinous movies and TV shows from being made with the help of Canadian tax dollars.  We will not, ever, as taxpayers, be on the hook for child porn.  There is no reason for this bill except to exert one more facet of government control over Canadians.  And if it causes Canadian artists to censor themselves for fear of losing funding, or worse, to be ruined when everything is taken away, or worst of all, leave Canada completely to ply their trade in another country without such dangerous policies, then we, as Canadians, have all lost.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 7:16 am and is filed under Administrative stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.