Bill C-11 could be a very good bill supporting our industry. But there must be amendments that would eliminate the two-tiered system. Members of the Senate, why so timid? Opinion by Keith Ross Leckie
In Toronto, pundits and politicians brag about our vibrant film and television industry with film shoots around every corner. But they are all American productions with American scripts set in American towns, using American directors and lead cast and telling American stories.
Even in Britain film and television has substantial quotas and funding to insure American programming won’t dominate them. They tax the U.S. product and invest the funds into their own. Britain’s film and television industry tells its stories, supports its culture and history and values, and defines them. We do not. Canada is currently a branch plant of America.
Because of the weak funding to our film and television in the last 20 years, Canadian producers need to sell their shows to the U.S. to get them financed. Over the years I have pitched two dozen Canadian projects to NBC, CBS and Disney and they all say the same thing; can the story be set in the United States? “Could we put that story in the USA? How about Minnesota or upstate New York? Our audiences just don’t get Canada. They would be confused.
Never has there been a time more important than now for Canada to define and know herself. Our American cousins at this time in history are a polarized, angry country dominated by racism, sexism, bigotry, ultra-right Christians and alternative truths. Canadians have always been a very different people than Americans. We made that choice in the War of 1812. We are the North American alternative. We are progressive, liberal, global and diplomatic. And polite. The Americans make war.
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