Town Hall: Harper, the Arts and Unintended Consequences

"Could We Ever Know Each Other in the Slightest Without the Arts?"

-Gabrielle Roy 1908 - 1983

This quote is printed on the back of every Canadian $20 bill. It has also been adopted as a slogan by the Department of Culture Last night I had the pleasure of attending their inaugural event, a Town Hall meeting on the Tory Art Cuts. It was a pleasure that is in terms of the content. The Theatre Centre on Queen Street was hot. It is not a large room, it had little ventilation and no air conditioning and it was packed. Despite the heat the room simply wouldn't hold everyone - television monitors in the lobby carried the event to some of those who couldn't get in and still others congregated outside and tried to listen.

You can download an mp3 of the event at

http://timothycomeau.com/audio/2008-09-03deptofculture01.mp3

This was, I think, a turning point in Canadian politics. There were, or will be, many consequences to the cuts the Tories have made to the arts. It will certainly, as I pointed out, be a blow to the economy, it will damage Canada's reputation abroad, it will weaken Canada's sense of identity at home and it makes the Tories look like illiterate, uncultured buffoons. Still, the Tory hatred of arts and culture was strong enough that they decided to proceed anyway.

But what they did not expect was that their cuts to the arts would not only unite the arts community against them, but would ultimately aid environmentalists, human rights advocates, anti-war protesters, and other groups who the Harper Government has alienated.

You see the thing about the 'arts community' is that they are creative and talented and while Tories may like to think of artists who sit around coffee shops spending government grants on lattes, that stereotype has no truth to it at all. (Ok maybe a little, everyone likes a coffee now and then.) The arts community is made up of the people who make media happen. They are writers, actors, comics, graphic designers, web designers, communications people, camera people, audio technicians, filmmakers (including documentarians), musicians and on and on and the Tories have effectively thrown an army of these people into the arms of their enemies.

Now the Department of Culture is preparing to enter into a broad coalition with other enemies of Harper and work in swing ridings, (using all of their creative talent) to discredit and bring down the tories.

Here is Darren O'Donnell explaining in more detail:

So now, for the first time ever, the Tories will get to see what an anti-Tory bias in the media would really look like. I will have alot more to say about the Department of Culture in the days to come but for now I'll just leave you with a few links and Naomi Klein:

The Toronto Star on the Town Hall meeting

Torontoist: Hot and Bothered

Department of Culture Volunteer Form

My own anti-Harper Facebook Group

and of course Naomi Klein: