Attention Larry Flynt etc.

After decades of fighting for cultural sovereignty, they still don’t get it. Not only the Americans, but the masses this side of the border including curmudgeons like Toronto Sun columnist Hartley Steward who think Minister Copps should back off Bill C-55 etc. and acquiesce to ‘the spirit’ of the Free Trade Agreement. Canadians ‘are part of the North American economy and creative experience,’ he says, and calls for the untangling of the entire ‘existing mess of conflicting protectionist legislation. . . to free our artists and businessmen to unleash our formidable talents on the world stage.’

Oy. Do we really need to keep burping the same statistics over and over again? American entertainment product takes up 80% of our television screens, more than 95% of our theater screens, even with the measures in place. But yet every time the policy makers in this country attempt to take better care of our own, it’s dubbed protectionist.

Do the likes of Mr. Steward realize that Canadian producers are the second largest exporter of television product in the world? Or has he checked into a New York hotel, watched tv, and noticed that virtually 100% of the offerings are Made In the u.s.? There is no reciprocity of generosity.

The initiatives at hand – the Feature Film Policy Review among them – are about supporting an environment that nurtures the production of cultural products. It’s offense, not defense.

But its detractors say it’s about protecting companies who are getting rich off the fat of the land. Fair enough. Let’s not pretend that producers and broadcasters alike don’t owe the cottage and Mercedes to the Broadcasting Act. But if protecting culture is keeping some Canadian companies fat at the same time, so be it.

But if Rogers and Telemedia are strong, they pay more tax dollars, create more jobs and publish magazines penned by Canadian writers. If Alliance Atlantis is strong, they’ve become so while facilitating the likes of The Sweet Hereafter or North of 60. Other tangibly less Canadian schlock too, but the point is that all of the above are possible because a world has been created within which it’s possible to produce quality Canadian stories. Nobody said the executives or their shareholders had to eat from the gutter while it happened.

Which, speaking of gutter, brings us to Hustler and its Sheila Copps ‘satire.’ Nice. Really nice.

Whatever the varying homegrown viper perspectives on Copps, she’s fighting for something the entire industry espouses to believe in every time it’s in front of the crtc. Today, she’s playing hardball. Steel, plastics, wood and textiles are on the line. Livelihoods.

But if the Americans are considering their stance on C-55 the thin edge of the wedge, that stopping cultural policy north of their homeland is paramount less it be adopted internationally, it’s as much, if not more important for our elected representatives to draw the hard line. If we fold now, the Eligible Services Lists, tiering and linkage rules, Canadian content quotas, tax credits; they’re all subject to deconstruction and with them go the attainment of cultural objectives and the Mercedes.

Copps isn’t just up against trade wars here – she’s up against ‘the people’ at home. Perhaps those are many of the same people who puffed with pride when The Sweet Hereafter went to the Oscars. Did they understand the specifics behind the environment required to facilitate its production, the history of garbage and flops and sleepers remaining forever asleep that necessarily came before it because policy allowed for a place in which the talent could learn? Doubtful.

Essentially a story well told will draw the people. Creating an environment in this small country where that’s possible requires the greater foresight and sustenance of policy makers. It’s a hell of a time in which to have to stand alone. Would the Canadian equivalent to Jack Valenti please stand up. Canadian business and Canadian culture aren’t any more ‘either/or’ than they are in the u.s. They’re ‘and’. Somehow that still requires explanation in that rich, flag-waving metropolis south of the border, and here at home.