Arts funding for the poor oppressed Québécois
September 24, 2008 7:31 am Canadian Politics, CultureBy now you may have seen this. A poor Quebecois artist goes to the star chamber in Ottawa to beg for funding for his music festival, to be met by a group of anglophone judges who neither speak French nor understand the cause the poor artists represents. It is preposterous and effective. Why effective?
Because it exploits every French-Canadian cliché’d perception of les Anglais.
a) poor misunderstood French Canadians in an alien environment
What can you say about a person whose image of Ottawa dates from 1916? When was the last time you met a unilingual English Canadian in an arts funding job in Ottawa? 1963?
b) no French Canadian bureaucrats in Ottawa
When was the last time a French Canadian artist dealt with a unilingual arts bureaucrat? Answer: possibly the last time he dealt with a fellow French Canadian from the Canada Council.
c) Anti-sexual English puritans
This is the racial stereotype that is believed by the French with all their heart and soul: the English are anti-sexual, we French have a better sex life, they are too hung up. Perhaps some people confuse the fact that English Canadians shut the bathroom door when they use it with embarrassment about what to do in the sack. Having been to bed with several dozens of English Canadian women I have never noticed any reluctance to get at it. Maybe my sample size is too small. I had better work on that.
Imagine the equivalent.
The English Canadian cultuiral festival seeks funding from a Quebec government agency. Mrs. Watson and Mrs Dobell got to Quebec City to speak to officials of the Agence Culturelle Québécoise.
a) The officials speak no English, of course, and are aggressively rude to the ladies for having the tenmerity to ask for funding for their Lennoxville arts festival which is in English.
b) they smoke and make offensive sexual references throughout.
c) they rail against the applicants for humiliating them in 1763 on the Plains of Abraham, and because a unilingual relative of theirs was spoken English to in Eaton’s department store in 1957.
Come to think of it, except for the indoor smoking, what have I exaggerated?
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Dalwhinnie
machiavelli :
Date: September 24, 2008 @ 8:27 AM
Why are the Conservative Party’s tiny decreases in profligate cultural spending so microscopic and trivial, and why wait until 2010? Most significantly, why do far-left wing artists believe that they are entitled to a guarantee annual income paid for by the tax payers? Most Canadians comprehend that artists should be paid pursuant to the quality of their work just like Joe Six Pack in the factory, rather than because they are members of a socialistic sector of the economy that sucks up to left-wing politicians.
A authentic fiscal conservative Prime Minister would have instantaneously expedited very, very substantial cuts. A legitimate, small-c fiscal/social conservative Prime Minister would have immediately announced the abolishment of the $1 billion of wasted tax dollars squandered annually on the extremely far-left bias CBC. Most Canadians would prefer to see these squandered tax dollars materialize in their personal bank accounts.
In an age of numerous Canadian television and radio networks, satellite networks, and of course the internet, there is no longer any requisite for a government-owned, and tax payers paid for, TV and/or radio network; especially one ran by left-wing affirmative action bimbos and watched/ listened to mostly by the far-left, but paid for my people who actually work for a living and pay taxes.
Unfortunately Canada does not have a legitimate fiscal and/or social small-c conservative Prime Minister who would expedite a non-socialist agenda that would diminish our excessive tax bill, and would recognize that taxpayers, rather than bureaucrats, are more proficient at spending their own money.
Regrettably after this election, genuine small-c fiscal and/or social conservatives will still not be represented in the House of Commons.
Nicola Timmerman :
Date: September 24, 2008 @ 11:36 AM
Not to mention that simultaneous translation is usually provided. Also Michel Rivard of Beau Dommage fame, the poor applicant, got the Order of Canada long ago, so he did all right.
When this first came out it was on all the French newcasts and all the anchors and journalists thought it was hilarious. If it was about any other ethnic group, they would have been in trouble.
duggans dew :
Date: September 24, 2008 @ 1:27 PM
Another election and I have missed another chance to run for the Bloq Quebecois – here in Ottawa. The slogan: “Quebec separatism! We all win!”