TORONTO – At a press conference on Wednesday, Canadian actors called on political leaders to start taking Canada’s cultural industry seriously. The arts contribute $85 billion dollars and one million jobs to the Canadian economy each year, they said.
“Our culture and our jobs are under attack by a government that wants to cut arts funding, censor our work and allow increased foreign ownership,” said actor Wendy Crewson. “Culture is critical to our identity as a country and is a huge part of our economy. These policies are job killers and artists will not stand by and allow these attacks on our industry to continue without a fight.”
Actors spoke out against the Conservative government’s $50 million in cuts to arts programs and its so-called attempts to censor films with Bill C-10, as well as the need to tell more Canadian stories on-screen – issues that have galvanized artists across the country. The actors also drew attention to what they view as “the alarming potential for foreign ownership” of Canada’s media industry in light of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent statement that a Conservative government may relax foreign-ownership rules.
(Ed note: Harper also said he wasn’t interested in pushing for increased foreign ownership of Canadian media companies at this time.)
“Our cultural identity is being allowed to slip away. We are challenging leaders to demonstrate that they recognize the critical contribution that culture makes to our lives,” said actor Colm Feore. “We’re also asking Canadians to look at what the parties are saying about the arts and vote for candidates who will protect our culture and speak up for artists – not silence us.”
ACTRA has also issued a questionnaire to each political party asking parties to specify their commitments and will publish the results in early October. They called on parties to follow through on their promises about arts and culture if they are elected.
“We’re running out of time: we need a government that will stand behind artists and make protecting Canada’s unique culture a priority.” said Feore.
