According to the Globe & Mail Mr. McVety claims to have enjoyed numerous meetings with Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and officials in the PMO. Evidently, all of that lobbying effort has paid off in a fruitful way, praise Jesus Mr. McVety, praise him. Indeed, isn't it time that those who work so hard behind the scenes got to share the spotlight with the members and ministers of government with whom they share their great mission. Why without Mr. McVety's organization and their lobbying, things might not have changed. Artists might not have to answer to an "independent committee", under the auspices of the Heritage Minister, for the labour tax exemptions and the funding from Telefilm Canada that often means the difference between a film being shot or shelved. Isn't that wonderful!
So just who are these swell folks that have put in so much effort to ensure that Canadians don't get to make films that are controversial, that deal with homosexuality in anything but a negative light, that don't celebrate or glorify violence unless it is the sacred scourging of the saviour performing the stations of the cross? Well according to their web site, the executive committee consists of Brian Rushfeldt, "family and addictions counsellor, Bible college dean, associate pastor, and air traffic controller." So when the rapture comes, even if your pilot is a godless commie, you still might be going down, sinner. And then there's Mr. Dr. Charles McVety himself, let's just grab his whole bio blurb:
Dr. Charles McVety President Dr. McVety is President of Canada Christian College in Toronto, with satellite campuses around the world. He holds several degrees and has authored a book, Victory Guaranteed. Dr. McVety has a long history of involvement in political issues in Canada, and has served with CFAC since our inception as a founding Board member. He hosts a national TV program – Word.ca, and is a regular columnist in several newspapers. Dr. McVety brings a wealth of expertise in political, educational, and ministry leadership to CFAC.
Pastor, minister, Christian College, Word.ca (Christian News Source/TV show) hmmm... call me crazy, but I sense a theme developing. Fundamentalist Christian whack jobs? Why yes, yes they are. Not convinced, dig this from the Canada Christian College site under the heading, Ministerial Organization.
"The Evangelical Association was founded in 1963 by Godlymen and women who were moved by the Holy Spirit to band together for the purpose of promoting Evangelical Christianity throughout the World. They were motivated by a strong persuasion that the Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments is the Divinely inspired and inerrant Word of God.
The Association was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba by leaders under the direction of Dr. Elmer S. McVety. They shared a vision to develop and build on Biblical principles. The Association is governed by a board of directors currently consisting of eight persons. This board appoints and dismisses all officials by a majority vote at a duly called meeting with at least a quorum in attendance."
"...our members have allowed denominational differences to fade into insignificance and have joined hands under our banner in the interest of Fundamental Christianity. We are a body of Evangelical ministers who hold our membership with the Association while we labour in our respective churches."
Yes indeed brothers and sisters, these are the folks influencing not only what you should or shouldn't be able to see but what artists should or should not be able to create in this great free land of ours. See, if artists had any sense they'd declare themselves a fucking church, skip taxes all together, start a college which would then supply all of the manpower and technical expertise to shoot a TV show, just like Herr Dr. McVety has done with word.ca, broadcast by CTS and the Miracle Channel. Of course, looking at word.ca something occurs to me. Let's just go back to that Globe article a moment...
"Mr. Day and Mr. Nicholson said through officials yesterday they did not recall discussing the issue with Mr. McVety."
Well that might just be some Gonzo worthy forgettering! Pop on over to word.ca and have a gander at the big, grinning line up of Christian luminaries. You got your fat, dead ignorant pig-faced Jerry Falwell and a hand full of greasy... hey! Wait just a second, who's that smiling off the screen, third from the right? Isn't that, yes, yes it is Safety Minister Stockwell Day!
I'm going out on a limb here but I'm going to suggest that crazy, fundie fuckwit Dr. Senor McVety is telling the truth. I'd bet my bottom dollar that he did use his access to fellow fundamentalist Christian retard Stockwell Day, to peddle this back door economic censorship. Because one of these godly gents is a lying, disreputable shit and while it could easily be either or both, in this instance Stockwell has something to hide and McVety just has a bloated ego to feed. Given that he has a college and a TV show to feed his ego, I'm going with weasel boy Day trying to sneak out of culpability as the most likely scenario.
Here's a thought for Mr. Day, Dr. McVety, Conservative MP Batters, Mr. Nicholson and the rest of the self righteous pissants waving their Jesus flags and declaring that they know best, keep your dirty fingers out of the arts. You can vote for or against a film at the box office. Keep your grubby faith off our bodies, out of our bedrooms and private lives. You are the most destructively meddlesome herd of inbred pricks that walk upright. Lead your lives in all of your smug, self-righteous bliss. What others do, how they live and what they practice or believe is none of your business. You are unwelcome nannies. Fuck off.
UPDATE Additional Readings:
An excellent examination by Dave at The Galloping Beaver.
The fabulous JJ let's 'em have it at the Award Wining Unrepentant Old Hippie.
Standing for your freedoms of expression and personal autonomy, the ever heroic over-achievers at A Creative Revolution.
Superstar blogger and stalwart defender of free speech, fair use and electronic liberty, Canadian science fiction author Cory Doctorow weighs in at boingboing.
The awesome matttbastard asks the musical question, will selfish, prissy whingers like Ezra (me, me, me) Levant side with freedom of expression for anyone other than his own plump, privileged self? mattt lays it down over at bastard.logic.
And last but certainly not least, the show-offs over at Stageleft have two entries. Treehugger leads off with Fat Steve, Auteur and Stageleft caps it off with what is truly offensive.
An oversight on my part as the ACR team knocks more than one out of the park. A second helping won't hurt a bit over at A Creative Revolution.
28 comments:
EXACTLY!
This is the fucking twighlight zone aint it?
They want us to return to 19fucking30.
W00t!! Well said, PSA, well said. I was hoping you'd weigh in on this.
cheers to you, pale and jj! i'll have more to say about our cowardly nation's disservice to the arts industries and the prissy, pearl clutching nannies of conservative canada.
Um...us show offs at ACR have 2 entries too...overachievers and all. ;)
That was some good venting.
Bravo!
Forgive me for being so "polite", but this has got to be one of the best pieces of journalism I have read in quite some time.
I'm "quite delighted" to see that there ARE others who are also aware and find this "surreptitious religious fundamentalism" and its virus within Harper's CON government repugnant, to say the least.
I'd love to go on about religion in general, but I'm feeling charitable (fearful?) at the moment.
"Praise be the Lord." (Tongue firmly in cheek.)
Hooray for PSA - I'm proud to be in the same sandbox. Is your foot sore from all that glorious, fundie ass-kicking?
Aw hell, let's light them fuckers up. How about we have a nice hard look at the Canada Christian College and the many and varied churches that seem to like meddling in the lives and politics of honest god fearless folk. How's about we drag some of these lizards out into the light and start stripping away their precious tax exempt status.
I personally find it morally repugnant that a herd of fairy tale worship[ping fantasists can garner enough influence to impact the arts and culture of this nation. I find that obscene, shameful and degrading. Let's pay down the debt with some of that old fashioned tithe cash. These pricks want to mess with everyone's lives and yet we are supposed to stand back and leave them to do their exploitive shit unhindered. Why? Because they believe in Santa fuckin' Christ? Fuck that. That's imaginary.
Old righteous bastards want to run everything and get in your beds, in your heads and in your pockets. Fuck no. I've had enough of that crap. They don't want to pay their way or obey the strictures put in place by the Canada Revenue act, fine. Sheriff put a lock on the door of that church, seize the assets and bank accounts and we'll have a fire sale. That's prime real estate. Turn 'em into stained glass steak houses and discos. Free fuckin' market in fuckin' action. They want nannies, well let's let them pay the damn babysitters for a change.
Woo-hooooo! Nothing like our PSA on a roll! Yes! *fist punching air*
*sigh* This is what happens when anti-democrats and illiberals co-opt democracy and liberalism.
We really do need to band together and tell the religious fascists that we're not suicidal; that we're not handing over freedom to them so they can take it away. I've given up on them realising it's in their best interests to tread lightly with this kind of thing, since it matters not at all to the charlatans at the top who see lucre and fame from fleecing their flocks of irrationals and delusionals.
I saw McVety's photo in the Globe today. Why are all these evangelical mullahs so damn fat all the time?
Why are all these evangelical mullahs so damn fat all the time?
The sin of gluttony, perhaps?
If this kind of stuff didn't suck so much energy out of me, I'd seriously think about starting a blog to go over the Canada Christian College (and the creation museum animatronic exhibit of losers who run the place) with a fine tooth comb. I found out yesterday that I only live about a ten minute walk from the place.
What's with the degree in Business Administration offered in St. Petersburg, Russia?
There's fertile ground here both for delicious mockery and/or conspiracy-based innuendo.
Why are all these evangelical mullahs so damn fat all the time?
It's all the semen they swallow....
Until I found your post, I was convinced Canadian artists would have to go it alone on this issue. Thanks so much for making it clear that there's a wider constituency opposed to what's happening.
Jim
I can't wait for the next election. These people are a blight.
There is some serious misunderstanding of how the tax credit program works. It is not a grant or an investment based on the merits of the project. It is a refundable tax credit calculated on eligible labour costs (up to 25% for Canadian productions and 16% for foreign service productions). However, without a tax credit approval, access to other content oriented funding is severely hampered and financing in general is near impossible. The film and TV industry market is structured to use these tax credits as a financing tool. The market is dictating what gets made since a production must have a distribution agreement or broadcast license in place to be eligible for the tax credit.
The other important aspect that is being ignored by the media and that is critical is that no public notice was issued nor were consultations conducted. Here is a link to CAVCO's public notice and consultation page:
http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/bcpac-cavco/public_notice_e.cfm
The lack of public consultation is another highly offensive aspect about this whole issue. Once again we have the Conservatives preaching one thing and doing another. There’s no transparency or public accountability involved here, just some backroom arm-twisting by a bunch of meddlesome religious kooks, so that the Conservatives can throw the SoCons a bone and claim they’re standing up for “family values” or some such vacuous rubbish.
In a Wikipedia article, it reports
During the 2006 election, McVety registered several domains which bore the names of Liberal candidates, such as "josephvolpe.com" (a reference to Joe Volpe), and published pro-Conservative material there.
I simply cannot think of a comment to add to this at the moment.
PSA you are Tha Man!
Sweet Jeebus, what have i done? Even that retarded poltroon Matthew over at ThePolitic is agreeing with me. Of course his reasoning is as backward as usual but he arrives at the same destination. Well, that's it then, world ending film at 11.
This has nothing to do with censorship. This is about using other peoples' money to make films. When I pax my taxes, I am not give the option to keep the money that goes to so many pathetic film-makers who make movies that nobody wants to watch. If people want to make a film, they should raise the money themselves.
Screw this petulant whining about making whatever crap you like with other peoples' hard-earned money.
Oh, shut up you tool. This is about tax credits, not grants.
Besides, there are plenty of things that my taxes go to that I don't support and tax credits for activities that are directly meaningless to me.
okay sean i'll type really slowly for you. when movies and television shows are made in canada, the producers are often given tax credits on their labour costs to encourage production. those films and television shows employ thousands of people. those people pay taxes and spend the wages they earn in the canadian economy, thus helping to float terminally stupid gomers like yourself.
Screw this petulant whining about making whatever crap you like with other peoples' hard-earned money.
I agree. We should not give any tax breaks to artistic productions.
As long as we stop giving tax breaks to churches.
Deal?
I find tax credits to help minimize costs to film makers is not only a useful concession for the sake of developing a Canadian industry, but also a benefit to Canadian culture.
Tax breaks to religious organizations, on the other hand, should be ended, since churches et.al. don't really add to Canada's cultural landscape nor are they really "charitable" organizations. They exist to express and propagate their own ideologies and often cross over into being political groups. Of course, many churches do humanitarian work, and I am not suggesting there efforts in this regard be penalized, but for the most part, churches exist for the churched and it really is discriminatory to have special tax status just to preach the Gospel, Quran, or whatever.
"Screw this petulant whining about making whatever crap you like with other peoples' hard-earned money."
When my hard-earned money stops going into supporting things I don't agree with, like wars and the tax-exempt status of churches, you'll have a valid point.
Until then, it's called "democracy". Suck it up, princess -- if you don't like it, move to Iran. Or better yet, Afghanistan.
Senator Sharon Carstairs responded to my letter by Blackberry and simply stated:
The bill needs changes and I will work toward obtaining same.
Oh and Canadian Heritage Minister Josee Verner's e-mail bounced back.
If film makers are expected to stump up all the cash with no tax exemption we may as well just join up with the US now. Without subsidies, our media will be eaten alive by US corps. It's simply a matter of economy and the fact that a generation or two brought-up with US culture will lose its unique-identity. Subsidies and tax exemption are protecting our culture, keeping us unique from the economic giant to the south.
Here's a thought for Mr. Day
Was this pun made on purpose? It's a good one, made me chuckle.
Recommended reading: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. There's some excellent bits in there on Church corruption. Fat vicars getting sent on holidays to the south of France, whilst their parishiners struggle to keep out of the workhouse.
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