I see Charles McVety has poked his head up into the spotlight again. This time it’s about back door policy that is going to have implications on who gets to make films and tv shows in Canada. Let’s start with Charles crowing about how he helped slide an amendment into the income tax bill.

A well-known evangelical crusader is claiming credit for the federal government’s move to deny tax credits to TV and film productions that contain graphic sex and violence or other offensive content.

Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, said his lobbying efforts included discussions with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, and “numerous” meetings with officials in the Prime Minister’s Office.

…Mr. McVety said films promoting homosexuality, graphic sex or violence should not receive tax dollars, and backbench Conservative MPs and cabinet ministers support his campaign.

…”There are a number of Conservative backbench members that do a lot of this work behind the scenes,” he said.

Did you catch that?
He’s tossed everything and everyone into the same pot.
Everything.
And he’s crowing about it.
Offensive and not deemed in the public interest according to the gospel of the Charles McVety’s in Canada is not about art.

Government funding can also be cut off mid-production under this amendment if this proposed behind closed doors Heritage/Justice committee decides to do so.
Films and many tv programs are not made in this country without government economic assistance.
It is not surprising politicians would be issuing public denials.

Conservatives deny that the changes are driven by politics or Mr. McVety, noting the previous Liberal government pledged to review the guidelines as far back as 2003.

Conservative MP Dave Batters recently urged the new president of Telefilm Canada, Michel Roy, to block federal funding for objectionable films, listing Young People Fucking as a recent example.

…Mr. Day and Mr. Nicholson said through officials yesterday they did not recall discussing the issue with Mr. McVety.

Canadian Heritage officials confirmed yesterday they will be “expanding slightly” the criteria used for denying tax credits to include grounds such as gratuitous violence, significant sexual content that lacks an educational purpose, or denigration of an identifiable group. More details are promised next week.

This kind of censorship has been tried and was disastrous (Ontario Film Censorship Board). The fact Canadian religious right inroads are being made on the federal policy level may give pundits who dismiss McVety and his grass roots fundamentalists as just another fringe group some pause.

Pornography is covered under Section 163 of The Canadian Criminal Code.
We have film classifications.
We have television regulation.

Bill C-10 is now in it’s third and final reading before the Senate. The CBC:

Bill C-10, an omnibus bill now before the Senate, includes provisions in the Income Tax Act that would allow the federal government to deny tax credits for films that are offensive or not in the public interest.

The tax credits would be withdrawn from films already made at the discretion of a committee of the Justice and Heritage departments who would vet films for inappropriate content.

This is a 600 page bill. This amendment slid right by MP’s and it looks like it almost slid past Senators. So your protest is going to have to go to your senator. It may be too late.

And do you think once a successful inroad has been made into policy this way, our self-designated fundamentalist moral police will stop? 

McVety said his group, which he describes as a grassroots coalition, did not meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Heritage Minister Josée Verner, nor did it present before the Commons heritage committee, which has a mandate to review cultural policy.
Instead, it presented to officials in the Prime Minister’s Office and worked with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and with backbench MPs who support its position.

If the combined weight of unions, tax lawyers and interested parties and voters cannot get Senators to yank this amendment, an already heavily regulated industry is going to be in more economic difficulty.

The Hollywood Reporter
Canoe - Jam!
Charles McVety - Mike Duffy Live

This is being well covered by blogs: we move to canada, The Galloping Beaver, impolitical, Liberal Arts and Minds, The Independent  and others.
 They’ve done the heavy lifting on this, go read.