This is from Reuters. It is a wonder that Jim Flaherty does not weigh in on this. Flaherty is all in favor of provincial corporate tax cuts, why not tax credits for the film industry. Oh no just for films that encourage Conservative values. No gay cowboys and no f***ing cowboys.
Hollywood North says Canada's tax plan is censorship
Tue Mar 4, 2008 6:26pm EST
By Natalie Armstrong
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's film and television industry is screaming censorship over a government plan to cut tax credits for productions with graphic scenes of sex and violence, warning the plan could water down edgy Canadian films.
In a last-ditch attempt to dilute a government income tax bill, the film industry says tougher Canadian tax rules could be a death blow to a sector already struggling to cope with a stronger Canadian dollar.
"It flies in the face of what we should be looking towards as a civilized nation in terms of supporting our artists, supporting unique visions, making films that challenge, that provoke, that create discussion," Oscar-nominated Sarah Polley, director of "Away from Her", told Reuters at Monday night's Genie Awards, Canada's equivalent to the Oscars.
"Sex and violence are a part of the world we live in and so they will be represented by artists. That's the job of an artist, to talk about the world they live in. So, it's terrifying and I just hope that the outcry will be loud enough and persistent enough that it will go away forever."
But the Conservative government, which included the film tax provisions in an omnibus income tax bill, says it is just trying to close a loophole that might have allowed funding for films that break the law.
"We are far from censorship here," Heritage Minister Josee Verner told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday, arguing that the changes will affect "a small number" of the 1,000 productions that receive tax credits annually.
"We will take fiscal measures to make sure the Canadian taxpayers' money won't fund extreme violence (and) child pornography."
Canada has long been a popular place for filmmakers looking to save a few bucks, with Toronto standing in for Chicago in the Oscar-winning musical of that name, and Alberta taking the role of Wyoming role in gay cowboy film "Brokeback Mountain".
But Cameron Bailey, co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival, said the bill could send a "real chill" over the film industry.
"We had a film called 'Young People F***ing' at our festival last year, and the film is by no means counter to any existing laws in terms of sex or representing sex or pornography," Bailey said.
"But the title itself could be a red flag... Once we give too much power to government agencies to determine the content of films, then sometimes people can go a little too far."
He added: "We want to protect audacity in Canadian film and we don't support any threats to the freedom Canadians have right now to be as audacious as they need to be in the movies they make."
Critics of the bill have formed a group on facebook.com which has drawn nearly 20,000 members in five days (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9036150977).
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Showing posts with label Film tax credits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film tax credits. Show all posts
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
Censorship by stealth..
No doubt some right wingers offended by some of the materials that get tax breaks will be happy with this move but as Toronto lawyer David Zitzerman of Goodmans LLP says the government's plans smack of "closet censorship", and as the Globe and Mail article notes the legislation could violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Toronto lawyer David Zitzerman of Goodmans LLP says the government's plans smack of "closet censorship."
"The proposed new initiative, if not properly crafted, could potentially violate the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms] and lead to possible legal challenges against the Minister of Canadian Heritage," Mr. Zitzerman said yesterday. "Such a provision could potentially lead to the government acting as 'morality police.' The existing definitions of pornography and obscenity in the Criminal Code should be sufficient for the government's purposes.
"Would this committee put money into Juno? It might not want to encourage teen pregnancy. Would the government put money into a film with a dirty title, like Young People Fucking? Would they invest in something like Brokeback Mountain? They might not want to encourage gay cowboys to have sex together in Alberta."
David Cronenberg an acclaimed director also lambasted the Harper goverment plan.
Of course Harper censorship is good clean censorship not bad dirty censorship of the type common in commie China! From the CBC.
David Cronenberg, the Canadian director behind the critically acclaimed Eastern Promises, said the proposed plan doesn't belong in Canada.
"It sounds like something they do in Beijing," he told CBC News.
"You have a panel of people working behind closed doors who are not monitored and they form their own layer of censorship."
Cronenberg says Canadians have a reputation for making edgy dark movies that go places other filmmakers wouldn't venture.
This new panel could quash that kind of creativity, he said.
Producer Steven Hoban is concerned that the provision will stop money from flowing into the Canadian film industry.
Filmmakers depend on the tax credit to help secure additional funding, said Hoban, who produced the film Young People F**ing, which is scheduled for commercial release in April.
"I think a movie like Young People F**ing would not have been made if Bill C-10 had been in effect when we were going for financing the film," he said.
"Just the optics you get with that kind of title, I think we wouldn't have gotten the tax credit and, again, if we didn't have that tax credit, it wouldn't have been possible to make that film here in Canada."
Plan amounts to morality policing
Toronto lawyer David Zitzerman of Goodmans LLP says the government's plans smack of "closet censorship."
"The proposed new initiative, if not properly crafted, could potentially violate the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms] and lead to possible legal challenges against the Minister of Canadian Heritage," Mr. Zitzerman said yesterday. "Such a provision could potentially lead to the government acting as 'morality police.' The existing definitions of pornography and obscenity in the Criminal Code should be sufficient for the government's purposes.
"Would this committee put money into Juno? It might not want to encourage teen pregnancy. Would the government put money into a film with a dirty title, like Young People Fucking? Would they invest in something like Brokeback Mountain? They might not want to encourage gay cowboys to have sex together in Alberta."
David Cronenberg an acclaimed director also lambasted the Harper goverment plan.
Of course Harper censorship is good clean censorship not bad dirty censorship of the type common in commie China! From the CBC.
David Cronenberg, the Canadian director behind the critically acclaimed Eastern Promises, said the proposed plan doesn't belong in Canada.
"It sounds like something they do in Beijing," he told CBC News.
"You have a panel of people working behind closed doors who are not monitored and they form their own layer of censorship."
Cronenberg says Canadians have a reputation for making edgy dark movies that go places other filmmakers wouldn't venture.
This new panel could quash that kind of creativity, he said.
Producer Steven Hoban is concerned that the provision will stop money from flowing into the Canadian film industry.
Filmmakers depend on the tax credit to help secure additional funding, said Hoban, who produced the film Young People F**ing, which is scheduled for commercial release in April.
"I think a movie like Young People F**ing would not have been made if Bill C-10 had been in effect when we were going for financing the film," he said.
"Just the optics you get with that kind of title, I think we wouldn't have gotten the tax credit and, again, if we didn't have that tax credit, it wouldn't have been possible to make that film here in Canada."
Plan amounts to morality policing
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