Truemors
Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor
Noted Authour Michael Coren states (in Italics):
"Authentic censorship is a problem in Canada"
I do not if we have a censorship problem in Canada, anyone who watches the "Trailer Park Boys" knows full well the colourful language of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles would Blanche the American Public, with Christian Mob Groups storming American Networks, Torches alight, like in a Modern Day Frankenstein Movie, along with lengthy exhaustive Congressional Hearings by Politicians wives, all at the US Taxpayers expense of course.
So censorship doesn't seem to be a problem in Canada.Furthermore Michael states (in Italics)
"Its champions are not Tories who want to cut taxes, but leftist students who ban university anti-abortion clubs, bureaucrats who persecute editors for publishing cartoons depicting Mohammad and arts councils which, for years, have funded only projects that fulfil their own left-liberal perceptions of what is acceptable.
Somehow, again, I have to disagree with Michael once again. True CBC may be Lefty dominated, but Lefty's are taxpayer's too. I am as pretty far right as Fiscal Conservative Politics fly, but I enjoy some of the "Masturbatory Arts" when it comes to Comedy.
So we really want to see more Pat Robertson style Christian Canadian TV? Perhaps some do, but I have pretty much had my fill of Benny Hinn style, "Lawd Jaysus" preferring the more sedate "Benny Hill British Comedies"Though long in the tooth, Benny Hill was funny, with a touch of the Stewie Griffin "Let's have a Sexy Party" a term Benny Hill made his trademark.
Now on the other hand, the misdirection of Canada's Tax Credits Funds to Canadian Made Television Shows and Movies, that in the "Real Entertainment World" would never see the light of day, I would agree.
If these Canadian made Tax Grant, Culture TV and Movies from Canada were ever put on the "Open Market" for Network Biggies to Bid on for their Prime Time slots in the USA or anywhere in the world for that matter,the deafening roar of "Tumbleweeds and Crickets" would overpower the Bidders voices who would most likely stay away in droves, even PBS, which will showcase pretty much "Paint Drying" would stick knitting needles in their ears and eyes before showcasing this Canadian Made Entertainment, Entertainment they rely on for Public Donations to remain viable .
Now Granted we do have exceptions in the past and present, Second CIty (SCTV), Trailer Park Boys, This Hour has 22 minutes, Rick Mercer,Just for Laughs to name a few. Pretty Much all Canadian Comedy, though a few Dramatic series like Da Vinci have made it into the USA.
Of Canadian Made Turkeys, one comes to mind the 30+ year of the "Royal Canadian Air Farce". elicits from me a "God Please Kill me now" , perhaps one reason to give up TV entirely.
When the Royal Canadian Air Farce was taken off the air last month after a 30 year run, one reporter asked one of the Cast "why now?" To which one Geratric cast member replied, "We have been on the air since the mid 70's and felt we have said and done all we wanted to do as a Comedy Troupe". To which, if I were the reporter, the more appropriate question would have been "Why, not sooner", say 20 minutes into your first Pilot episode Comedy Skit?" But then we all know the answer to that one, when the Canadian Taypayer is fronting your Canadian made TV Series, you milk it for all it is worth.
The World needs Comedy, Good Comedy, and Good TV, but some shows should have never been made period, but will continue to be made unfortunately if Canadian Content is the prerequisite to lacklustre writing and programming.
Now that's a "Comedic Tune we Taxpayers can all cry too".
Kinky cash
Taxes should not continue to fund trashy shows watched by few
By MICHAEL COREN
I can't pretend to be a regular viewer of the television show Kink. The only episode I ever managed to catch featured a jolly 350-pound woman squeezed into a latex skirt and bra beating a similarly obese, if less jolly, man with a paddle. Entertaining enough I suppose but a little repetitive.
I mention this because the program in question is one of those that currently enjoys a tax credit. In other words, it receives public funding from you and me.
It is one of many Canadian television and movie documentaries and dramas that receive public funding and one of several dozen that seem obsessed with perversion, sadomasochism and large people in latex.
There also are some quality products that are given a tax credit, but the point about the government's proposed C-10 legislation is that it doesn't threaten anything that's any good. Only cheap trash watched by a handful of people who should really fund their pornography through their own pockets.
None of this, by the way, has anything to do with censorship. That is when the state forbids free speech and expression. Not when the state refuses to fund all speech and expression. But this distinction didn't stop various Canadian actors, led by permanently and professionally lugubrious Sarah Polley, from visiting Ottawa where they explained that the mere "whiff of censorship" was enough to be revolting to them.
ALTERNATE TARGETSReally? They should, then, be campaigning for magazines such as Maclean's and Catholic Insight, websites like Free Dominion and Five Feet of Fury and a whole bunch of journalists who are currently under attack by numerous federal and provincial Human Rights Commissions for indulging in genuine freedom of speech without any fatties in latex or government handouts.
But we all know that this has never been about defending freedom, but all about the chattering classes defending the right of people with whom they agree to exploit our absurdly generous public grants system.Otherwise we would have to ask where Polley and her comrades were when Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger were removed from Canadian airwaves and why all those famous actors didn't support Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell when there was a concerted campaign to censor them in Canada.
They obviously didn't support these people's views. Fine. But the glorious essence of free speech is that it's supposed to apply to everybody and in particular to those who drive you crazy. I have no time for most of the anti-intellectual, tendentious perversion and bad acting that passes for entertainment in this country, but I'm not about to ban it. Nor, however, should I have to subsidize it.
Authentic censorship is a problem in Canada, but its champions are not Tories who want to cut taxes, but leftist students who ban university anti-abortion clubs, bureaucrats who persecute editors for publishing cartoons depicting Mohammad and arts councils which, for years, have funded only projects that fulfil their own left-liberal perceptions of what is acceptable.
FASCINATING STUFFIt always fascinates me how the first people to cry censorship when conservatives merely suggest a level playing field are just the sort of people who write letters to newspapers calling for people like, well, like me, to be fired.
By the way, one movie that was given a grand tax credit by Ottawa was called The Masturbators.
Abuse yourself or abuse public money -- the same thing in the end.
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