Nous sommes en guerre

Wajdi Mouawad certainly got it right: “Nous sommes en guerre”.  ‘Culture’ is an election issue, and not solely for monetary reasons.

It was wisely noted for me today that Québecers have a much more keen understanding of the definition and importance of ‘culture’ than Canadian anglophones do.  With nods to Bill C-10, Kory Teneycke and a few other recent government gaffesdecisions, here is a terrific video from a group of Québec artists:

For me (and many), the culture issue is not all about money, and harping (“Harpering”?) on that point is merely a straw man: even a windfall increase to cultural funding would be a trivial amount of money relative to total federal expenditure.  But since so many people have been conned into thinking that ‘culture’ is a ‘business’, I am thankful for some balanced journalism that raises a critical eye at the ‘efficiency’ argument toted by the Harper government as justification for $45 million in cuts over the past two years.  This is must-read stuff from the Globe and Mail.

“No government,” writes Mouawad in his [translated] open letter, “in showing contempt for artists, has ever been able to survive.”  Your bad, Harper.

Be Sociable, Share!

•