Saturday, September 20, 2008

Culture en péril

NOTE: I posted this yesterday and Blogger gobbled it up when I returned in edit mode to add tags. Just so that everyone knows I'm not pulling a Cherniak - it's the same text, including a préambule that warns of the return of my blogging colleague.

For all the Dr Dawg fans out there in the blogosphere: do not despair! He will be back soon, in fine argumentative form.

In the meanwhile, I do believe that I am getting the hang of this. A little context for the following production. A voice-over states that the Heritage programs in support of the arts that were cut have been replaced by a different funding structure. A musician enters the Committee room to explain his festival's request for support to travel to France. It is Michel Rivard, one of the founders of Beau Dommage. He starts to sing a beloved Félix Leclerc song about a seal who has left her love and her community to work in the US but he barely gets past the word phoque before the ideological impairments of the Committee members cause them to become hysterical.



For more background about how Stephen Harper and his Conservatives have savagely cut funding to many programs funding the arts, read Beijing York's excellent series of blogposts here.

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