OTTAWA — Actor, filmmaker, producer and self-proclaimed Canadian nationalist Paul Gross had a few things to say Wednesday about penetration and censorship before the Senate committee studying Bill C-10.

‘It’s not the kind of penetration, you’re thinking about,’ he said to laughter from the senators, who are examining the omnibus bill that calls for the Heritage minister to set guidelines that could prevent Canadian productions from receiving tax credits if deemed ‘contrary to public policy’ for being too pornographic, violent, or hateful.

Gross used his latest but yet-to-be-released film Passchendaele to illustrate how potentially devastating the bill could be to the production industry.

The ‘penetration’ happened in his World War I movie in scenes in which a hand is put into an injured head, a bayonet into a forehead and a morphine needle is self-administered into a nurse’s thigh.

Because of these scenes, the Ontario Film Review Board wanted to give Passchendaele an 18A rating.

Gross told the banking committee that he never imagined the needle scene would cause such problems. It came out of the blue, he recounted; the board said it didn’t want to teach children how to take drugs.

‘If nobody under 18 can go to the movie, that’s a problem because we intend to bring it into high schools to get students interested in their history,’ he said, noting that the extremely violent U.S. war film Saving Private Ryan got a lighter rating.

It’s subjective decisions like these that are likely to stem from Bill C-10 as it is currently written, Gross said. He demanded something less vague than guidelines that can be changed by the minister without debate.

‘The [government] can call it anything they like, but it’s still censorship dressed up as fiscal responsibility,’ stated Gross.

Reiterating a call made by others, Gross stated that the Criminal Code should be the standard and not ministerial guidelines.

Guidelines are ‘not a very good way to do it, especially with something so important.’ A bill should be drawn up, and then people can argue if the standards set are right or not, he said.

He also told the Senate committee that his film likely would not have gotten made if Bill C-10 had been in place. Federal tax credits account for about $1.5 million of his $20 million film. But the tax credits were leveraged to get bank loans so that pre-production could begin on the movie. If the tax credits are not assured, he said, no bank would put up any money.

Artists, he added, self censor and most are not out to inflame public opinion.

‘Canadian films get less than 2% of the screen time. We are lucky if we get noticed, let alone are able to undermine society,’ he said.