CULTURAL FUNDING

'Left-winger' stands up for arts funding
Avi Lewis. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 14, 2008. pg. AA.8

Full Text
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/477989

Abstract (Summary)
Having worked outside Canada for almost two years, I wassurprised that the Prime Minister's Office was still following my career. But there I was, singled out in a leaked memo, as a "general radical" undeserving of public funding, an "ideological activist" who should never have received money from the government to promote a Canadian documentary at foreign film festivals.

Last week, the Stephen Harper government axed two programs - PromArt and Trade Routes - that helped promote Canadian culture abroad. Also targeted, as grant recipients who would "raise the eyebrows of any typical Canadian," were "left-wing columnist" Gwynne Dyer, and "wealthy rock star" Tal Bachman, son of Randy.

Stoking taxpayer outrage may be politically expedient, but it's cheap. This is not about who can afford airfare for foreign jaunts - and I was hardly on a vacation - it's about whether or not we can afford to support our artists abroad. I am among many Canadians who believe we can. And that's exactly the point of drowning out the policy conversation with a water cooler's worth of bubbling resentment.



The politics of culture
Anonymous. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 14, 2008. pg. AA.6

Full Text
http://www.thestar.com/article/477994

Abstract (Summary)
The cause of the government's sudden dyspepsia appears to be a handful of grants doled out by the foreign affairs department. In a leaked internal document, Gwynne Dyer, who received $3,000 to give lectures on Canadian foreign policy in Cuba, is characterized "a left-wing columnist and author who has plenty of money to travel on his own." (In fact, Dyer says, he travelled to Cuba at the invitation of the Canadian foreign affairs department, which offered to pay his travel costs.)