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.
