The National Director of the Independent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA), Jennifer Dormer, issued a letter to the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, contesting the part of Bill C-10 which would allow the Minister to deny eligibility to tax credits of productions determined to be contrary to public policy.
Jennifer Dorner states that “the amendment is an assault on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees freedom of expression and should be ardently and tirelessly defended by the Minister responsible for Canadian artistic and cultural expression.”
The government’s own 1999 report “The Arts and Canada’s Cultural Policy” states “Canadian cultural production has found it hard to flourish without direct or indirect government support.”
Thus the withdrawal of access to tax credits would effectively make it impossible to create certain films or videos in Canada. The impact of this amendment is to curtail the freedom of expression in Canada, and the IMAA believes that it is an assault on Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The IMAA is concerned that this proposed process will adversely affect the ability of media artists to access funding to create artistic work.
The IMAA is a non-profit national arts organization representing 80 media arts organizations who in turn serve over 12,000 media artists and cultural workers in all parts of Canada.
For more information, please contact:
Jennifer Dorner, National Director