.
| Hearsay: |
Well, you almost wouldn’t believe it. We all knew Harper was being divisive and trying estrange the Canadian public from artists, but who knew how backhanded his strategy would be. First, he tried to set up arts and culture producers, from dance companies to music groups to writers to painters, as whining, free-loading lefties taking the Canadian taxpayer for a ride. Then he tried to create a series of bogeymen, fringe artists whose art might scare some people into thinking Canada was being misrepresented on the world stage. And now he’s come right out and said that “ordinary Canadians” aren’t interested in the arts, calling the entire nigh $50billion dollar a year industry a “niche interest”. How insulting. Since when did Canadians let someone like Harper define what “ordinary” is. Who’s sitting in the ivory tower making pronouncements on the people below, Stephen? What amazes me is that more people aren’t incensed that Harper thinks he knows what goes on in their living rooms. Ask the people in your lives (parents, siblings, friends) who might not consider themselves artists or cultural workers: Is this true? Do you not listen to music? Do you not watch movies? TV? What’s on your walls? What do you not read? (Did you know non-fiction is part of “the arts”?) Ask them: When was the last time you saw me get dressed up and party at a gala? And then ask them, Do you think I’m not ‘ordinary people’?” Then tell them that what’s happening is they’re being used as pawns by a manipulative politician who has designed this who conflict in order to get votes by pitting Canadians against Canadians. Everyone from famous actors to Margaret Atwood are getting involved, but the real people who need to be spoken to aren’t reading those articles. They need to hear from you, ordinary Canadians, about how culture touches all our lives.
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September 25th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
well said, George.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
This is a refreshing stance on the issue. Most articles and initiatives do not stress the importance of moving beyond an audience of our peers.
Though part of me feels that Harper’s cartoonishly evil and unfounded rhetoric is doing what it’s designed to do – we’re jumping down his throat for every “ivory tower” comment, and rightfully so, but noone is asking about his stance on gun control and other issues he has strategically been keeping silent on.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
This bashing of the arts of late has literally made me want to cry (esp. if you read the public comments after the articles on some news sites–don’t do that ever). Peggy’s article cheered me right up: “Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they’re a mouthy lot and they don’t line up and salute very easily.” Let’s keep being mouthy.
Fuck you Harper. Fuck you.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I sent Mr. Harper a note expressing my displeasure with his comments, and listing some of the artistic endeavours ordinary Canadians participated in and supported, and today I received the following non-response:
Dear Rachel
On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving mail on subjects of importance to Canadians.
Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Verner so that she too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration. For more information on the Government’s initiatives, you may wish to visit the Prime Minister’s Web site, at http://www.pm.gc.ca.
Sincerely,
(some flunky)
Great, huh? The Prime Minister says something ridiculous; the Minister of Culture gets the response fallout. Which makes absolutely no sense.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Rachel,
At least your note was forwarded to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Your note could have been forwarded to the Minister of Public Safety.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
The man (Harper) is a complete ass, but a smart one. He’s attacking the arts, Mike Harris style, knowing full well that he doesn’t need to follow through with a discussion on the subject (or care if one happens). He simply wants to create a false us-and-them scenario to detract from other issues (too many to mention, really).
As for Josée Verner, she’s a useless drone/apologist.
What upsets me most is the lack of capable opposition from the other candidates. I just want to get this ugly thing over with.
September 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
At least they forwarded your e-mail to the appropriate minister. Ours got an even more generic response. It’s typical of e-mails sent to the PM, though. I put in an access to information request about drug legalization and every one of the e-mails was forwarded to the justice minister, I think.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Here’s what some artists in Quebec are doing – the link is in my name.
I have a feeling if the same thing was done with an English artist and French beaurocrats who coudn’t really speak the other official language it would get a much different reaction.
But it does seem to be what artists should do – use art to make statements.
September 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
John’s boiling rant on the subject in today’s Globe & Mail is a thing of beauty.
September 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
sorry, I think faster than I type (or vice-versa): that should read:
“John Doyle’s boiling rant . . .”
September 25th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I AM an “ordinary Canadian” and I enjoy and support the arts!
September 25th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
“Canada is in need of a president that is willing and able to commit to a surge in funding for its artists, in order to properly secure the success of its arts scene; it needs the same kind of change that John McCain helped to bring about when he was the first to propose that the USA change its strategy, by granting forth a surge in troops in order to properly secure the success of Iraq as a civilized and democratic country.” ~ Barack Obama.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:15 am
If I google ‘North American Union 2010′ I get 4,530,000 hits. It’s a Treaty signed by the Presidents of Mexico, USA and Canada. It becomes law in Sept. 2010. Artists and the ivory tower crowd have some awareness of this. The ‘ordinary Canadian’ has a low awareness of this. If it was part of the responsibility of the Canadian artist to find ways of involving Maple Leaf Joe Six Pack in a discussion about the impact of such a thing, the very essence of Canada itself, then overall I’d say the Canadian artist has failed. Of course I know it’s not the mandate of the artist to focus on one particular subject or another or be told they have to although this Treaty does seem like a pretty huge elephant that’s been stomping around for awhile. It’s real and there’s little point in waiting for the day after it’s legal to deal with it. What I’m trying to get at is a sort of “boo hoo”, the ordinary Canadian is getting failed by the ordinary Canadian artist. Grant money and funding drying up…well I’m not sure I want to hand out any more money to a group that let my country go down the pipe just like that. Especially during an election…truly amazing. Nope, everyone can go get some non-existent jobs or get nice jobs and fund themselves, I wish everyone the best really…but four million five hundred thousand hits and the big wig artists with the big wig names and zines got nothin to say, pffff, screw your subsidy – I ain’t alone, come on down.
Punch me I guess. I’ve never been wrong before.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:00 am
“Canada does not need a surge in funding for its artists, but the rest of North America is in need to do what Québec already does; for Québec has a very beneficial financial system in place regarding the creators of its culture. It was many years ago we that passed a law in order to exempt artists that are residents of Québec from having to pay any provincial income tax on the first $60,000 Canadian dollars of income each year it is that they earn from sales pertaining to their copyrighted art works.
The backwards system that is currently in place in every other jurisdiction on this continent, forces the artists that reside there, to primarily rely on inadequate levels of funding from the old money of philanthropists, or on inadequate levels of funding from the new money of government grants; each of which must inadvertently influence them to craft nationalistic or politically correct works, in a similar manner to that which poet laureates are traditionally required to.
Furthermore, such a system provides a miniscule amount of funding per artist along with the disincentive to only ever work part-time as artists, and thus as a hobby, and not as a career. It is therefore no wonder that the works of artists residing in the rest of North America cannot compare in calibre to the works of artists that are residing in Québec, and that together under such a system as ours, artists and non-artists residing in Québec, are able to experience a much richer quality of life.” ~ Gilles Duceppe.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:03 am
What I don’t understand is why they would cut funds from a lucrative business, but keep giving R & D money to small IT companies that are doomed to fail (e.g., a company I worked for a few years ago).
Now, I’m not to economically savvy, but it doesn’t seem to add up…
September 26th, 2008 at 7:14 am
It’s become increasingly apparent, Mel, that, as many suspected in the beginning, these cuts were part of a political strategy meant to infuriate artists and create division. As we rise up, the govt can paint us as whining, over-funded lefties and thereby play to their base. They want to create a picture of us as hometown money terrorists, waiting around every corner to rob the wallets of masses. We’ve been played.
That’s why the only real strategy is to start talking to your parents, siblings, friends and co-workers who might vote Conservative and let them know, calmly and reasonably, how ridiculous this all is. Show them the spin. Not just about the arts thing, but about the gun control thing, the selling-out-to-the-US thing, the crime thing, the bizarre religious nuts in the background thing, etc. etc.
If we can’t win this election, we need to hold another minority government and get rid of Dion. If Jack Layton were running the Liberals I wonder if things would be different… That pains me to say, as a life long NDP supporter, but it’s true for this election.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Thanks, George, guess I’m not too politically savvy either…
In my neck of the woods, it’s the Bloc I have to worry about.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:40 am
“Once again, I was quoted completely out of context by the liberal media of this country. When I said that ‘average Canadians have no sympathy for “rich” artists who gather at galas to whine about their grants’, I was specifically lamenting the fact that I was not invited to attend the Toronto Small Press Book Fair’s upcoming Small Press Affair/Mini Fair (see link for details) in order to sell copies of my latest book of poetry, titled, ‘I hate every culture of Canada except that of Calgary’.” ~ Stephen Harper.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Right now I’m in Paris and this weekend I’m going to attend Festival America at Vincennes, mainly to hear the five Canadian authors participating this year (Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Anosh Irani, Neil Smith, and Alissa York). I’m wondering how those authors would have got there without the financial assistance of Promart, the program that has just been cut by the government, which helped authors with travel costs for foreign launches and gave out grants for translation costs for foreign publications. I won’t describe this incredible festival in detail here, but I’ve blogged it at [see link above] if you’re interested. Because of French government and institutional support, it only costs $15 Canadian to attend the whole weekend!
September 26th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Btw, I received this link last night… it’s about voting strategically to ensure that Tory candidates don’t get elected… [see link above]
September 26th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Spanner: while your issue may be important, it is largely off-topic here. Additionally, too bad for you that people with their own valid agenda aren’t ringing your bells. What makes you think they should? Stand up and speak for yourself.
Arms-length arts agencies are needed to prevent creators from being the spokespeople for someone else. Anyone else.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
But Michel, has spanner been subsidised to bring that topic up? He’s got a good point that seems well on tpic to me. If folks are getting paid by the public, they need to contribute more than fluff and pretty pictures in my opinion.
Just saying….
September 26th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
okay, Basil. It’s just that I think the arts are more than just fluff and pretty pictures. And the idea that artists are required to promote issues is held dear by dictatorships throughout history. We usually think their ideas are wrong, don’t we?
September 26th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Whatsamatter with a little trim? Somebody wants their supper… at my expense. Down with grants for writers! This thread is preaching to the converted… I swear, dictatorship? Ahahaha, you’re just hungry for the trough, is all.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Silver Donald Cameron in the Chronicle Herald: Harper’s playing the endgame of politics. He’s only playing to win the next election: [see link above]
September 26th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Subsidising the cultural sector is as valid and economically responsible as subsidising agriculture. The economics benefits of strong cultural industries and creative sector benefit all Canadians. In fact, it makes much more economic sense than funding athletes, and much much more sense that corporate welfare for companies that are already turning a profit.
September 27th, 2008 at 8:28 am
There is some denial here. The Prime Minister, the incumbent, demonstrates something between disinterest and disdain for the music, literature and visual art of the “country” he represents and his support goes up. Perhaps it is time to accept that there isn’t really a national culture, that the vast majority of the citizenry are happily represented and served by American mass culture. Why not cut Newfoundland and Quebec, which do have “national” cultures, loose, acknowledge the part Toronto and Vancouver have in global culture and go from there. If Canadians don’t want it, why force it on them. Perhaps there is no “national” culture because it isn’t really a nation. Maybe, given the public response, it is barely yet a civilization.
September 27th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Spanner makes a good point in that the arts have failed to engage very many Canadians. I don’t think art should be issue-oriented but it seems sometimes like art in Canada is a self-contained world. I don’t think we should look at “arts” as the issue, but the way art interacts with everything else – the same way “the environment” isn’t really a stand-alone issue but rather a part of every other issue.
I know as an artist I feel every day that I fail to engage ‘ordinary Canadians.’ I gotta admit, a little more money for promotion would sure help…
September 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Check out this editorial cartoon by Theo Moudakis in today’s Toronto Star (September 27th, 2008), eh?” [see link above]. ~ Ordinary Canadian.
September 29th, 2008 at 7:57 am
That wasn’t my take on Spanner’s comments. It seemed he was saying artists had failed to tailor their work to politcal agendas – more to the point, to a specific issue he’s concerned about.
Also, the arts engage canadians every day, everywhere. It’s just mostly American “art”, commercially driven, advertiser supported – and very, very political.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Yes. It was a political agenda and I was pulling on the bell ropes. Tailoring work to political agendas is of course part of the art. There are multiple critical agendas out there and plenty of them are valid; some are internally consistent but still insane. I may have tunnel vision on this one. Tunnel vision is almost never of use unless one is driving mad bent for hell down a tunnel. I feel the NAU is an apriori checkpoint which I strongly suspect to be followed by many moot points. But I suppose many agendas followed through to critical understanding would show a lighted path to fostering positive human values. The NAU indeed is only one which I thought close and hot enough…which is part of my political agenda…you just make me feel so guilty, Michel. Care for some rope?
September 29th, 2008 at 11:53 am
not enough to hang myself with, thanks. If we expect arts grants to be freely given, and artists to be independant, then it doesn’t matter what your stance, you can’t impose it on the artists. If we expect artists to dance to the piper’s tune, then I guess we should vote conservative.
How are you applications going?
September 29th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I was at Word on the Street on Sunday. Thousands of Canadians being as “ordinary” as all get out,eating hot dogs and ice cream, with babies in strollers and dogs on leashes, homeless and hapless, well-dressed and well-fed, everyone. Buying books and listening to writers read.
It wasn’t a gala, and it wasn’t on TV, Mr Harper.