Bill C-10 - Censorship in Canada?

[warden]

For those of you not aware, there is currently a bill being passed through Senate (Bill C-10) that has the potential to seriously impact the Canadian film and television industry.

Most (if not all) Canadian film and television projects depend heavily on federal tax credits to secure funding for production. Lending institutions determine a projects' eligibility for loans based on these federal tax credits (the tax credits are received after the project is completed).

From the Globe & Mail article:

The proposed changes to the Income Tax Act would allow the Heritage Minister to deny tax credits to projects deemed offensive, effectively killing the productions. Representatives from Heritage and the Department of Justice will determine which shows or films pass the test.

And from the CNW article:

"Banks won't loan money if it's a crap shoot on federal tax credit approval criteria, and without loans, movies and TV shows won't get made. It's not sustainable and will devastate the Canadian industry.

My concern with this bill is that taste is subjective. What I find offensive, you may not and vice versa. I also don't believe that we could trust these government representatives not to be swayed by special interest groups in determining the offensiveness of each project.

The two articles that I've referenced can be found here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080228.wheritage28/BNStory/Entertainment/home

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2008/02/c7946.html

What do you think about Bill C-10?

[JLives]

I don't like the sounds of that at all. Where would they draw the line? What is considered offensive is totally subjective and I would rather the government stay out of it.

[Scynite]

Sure, it might be walking the tightrope between freedom of expression and censorship.

However, since it is a government 'handout', the system has been prey to all sorts of crappy filmmakers that really didn't deserve to get anywhere with it.

Perhaps this will curtail the really 'out-there' stuff and hopefully cause the cream to rise to the top in Canada.

[warden]

But there's the rub.

What you think is crap, someone else will inevitably think is great! There have been countless 'critically acclaimed' movies and TV shows that I've completely hated, but others thoroughly enjoy. (Moulin Rouge anyone?)

The larger concern with this bill is not necessarily about allowing or not allowing what I may think is crap to be made; it's that virtually nothing outside of the mainstream (good or no) will get made because the production companies won't be able to secure financing. Lenders will not provide cash to these companies if it's uncertain that they will receive these cuts.

[Evan]

I'd rather be allowed to make my own decisions. Thank you very much!

[i_smell]

This is very seriuos and will crush canadas film industry.

"Between 1900 and 1960 barely 100 feature films were made in Canada, while Hollywood regularly made three times as many each year"
" Aided in the 1970s by federal financing measures and tax credits ,Canadian filmmakers produced record numbers of feature films"
"Although Canadian cinema is mainly financed by both federal and provincial tax subsidies (through TELEFILM CANADA and its equivalents), the films themselves resist bureaucratic or moralistic interference."
Well that , was before the government decided they wanted to mess with it.

any quotes are frome the canadian encyclopedia