Canadian Conservative Government Doesn’t Like Films About Incest
In case anybody thought Steven Harper’s conservative government in Canada has been a relatively benign force in the arena of arts funding think again. According to the Globe and Mail Thursday, proposed changes to the Income Tax Act “would allow the Heritage [and Justice department] to deny tax credits to projects deemed offensive, effectively killing the productions.” I don’t know why these two departments should suddenly have the role of art and film expert thrust upon them when the Canada Council already employs people with that job description. If such a policy were pushed through, these ministers could ultimately trump decisions made by government arts agencies. Toronto lawyer David Zitzerman thinks the news smacks of “closet censorship, suggesting that Academy Award nominees such as Juno might not receive funding under this kind of review process. Certainly the majority of films by internationally acclaimed directors David Cronenberg, and Adam Egoyan would never have been made were this law in place years ago. It’s yet unclear however, just how Strange Brew would register on the Canadian governments moral compass.
Thanks for covering this issue — it’s been a real nightmare up here in Canada among the writing community. They weren’t saying merely that they’d deny funding to edgy projects — they were saying that after the projects were FINISHED, the government could insist on getting its money back if the work was offensive. The result would be that no one could make any film at all in Canada because the risk of owing millions of dollars after completion was simply too great. Interestingly, the bill seems to be on the back burner now because banks that finance movies found the proposal unacceptable from a business point of view, and the Conservatives seem to listen to that.