After being caught flat-footed by Bill C-10, the film and TV industry has massed forces in hope of reversing the proposed legislation that would censor films and TV shows by pulling CAVCO certification.

The industry has unleashed a flurry of letters and e-mails to politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa, while solidifying plans for meetings on Parliament Hill and public protests.

Bill C-10 threatens to choke freedom of expression and film financing by proposing new criteria for tax credits that would deny public funding to movies and TV shows that feature ‘excessive’ portrayals of sex and violence.

Flying under the radar of the industry’s policy wonks, the proposed legislation was set to receive a third reading in the Senate. It received its third reading in the House of Commons on June 15 and was passed by the lower chamber on Oct. 29.

In the latest twist, Bill C-10 has been referred back to the Senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, which could grant the film and TV industry its first opportunity to consult on the tax-credit amendment.

ACTRA is one of many industry groups that has sought to appear before the banking committee to argue against the changes to the Income Tax Act, under which tax-credit support for a film or TV show could be withdrawn if it is deemed by a committee of bureaucrats to be ‘contrary to public policy.’

‘We understand that there are other concerns with the Bill, not limited just to industry concerns with the guideline issue. Those concerns in other areas will help to delay its passing, and give us a chance to comment,’ Stephen Waddell, national executive director of ACTRA, said Monday.

On Sunday, the CFTPA said in a statement said it ‘will begin consultations’ with the Department of Canadian Heritage, without giving specifics.

The Senate banking committee last held hearings on Bill C-10 and its raft of amendments to the Income Tax Act in December.

The downside for the film and TV industry is the federal government’s tax-credit amendment represents a few lines in a giant 500-page omnibus bill that contains a slew of other amendments relating to foreign investment entities and non-resident trusts and other arcane tax issues.

Privately, industry representatives insist there’s no guarantee they will be able to intervene effectively before the 11 members of the Senate committee.

Other avenues of protest include Heritage Minister Josée Verner and Governor General Michaëlle Jean. Apart from concerns over creative expression, film and TV producers warned Verner that Bill C-10 threatens calamity to an industry that may find itself unable to finance projects.

‘It may not be possible to bank tax credits the day this legislation is passed, potentially putting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of production activity at risk,’ David MacLeod, chairman of the Nova Scotia Motion Picture Industry Association, said in his own letter to the heritage minister.

‘Banks won’t loan money if it’s a crap shoot on federal tax credit approval criteria, and without loans, movies and TV shows won’t get made,’ CFTPA chair Sandra Cunningham added Sunday in a public statement.

The Governor General is being urged not to give royal assent to Bill C-10 on grounds that her filmmaker husband can appreciate the amendment’s potential to thwart the Canadian film industry.

Bill C-10, if it passes, would authorize the heritage minister to deny tax credits to offending domestic film and TV productions and to claw back financing from Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Television Fund.

The trigger for the controversial amendment to the Income Tax Act is uncertain. Last week, prominent Canadian evangelist Charles McVety took credit for the film and TV crackdown.

That claim was widely discounted by film and TV industry representatives, though many thanked the controversial president of the Canada Family Action Coalition for crystallizing opposition to the Bill C-10 amendment as a cover for closet film censorship by offended Christians.

The more likely trigger appears to be Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who apparently fumed last September when Martin Gero’s Young People Fucking received a high-profile launch on the first night of the Toronto International Film Festival, complete with a late-night party at a Toronto swingers club.

According to sources, Harper ‘blew a gasket’ when he made inquiries whether it was possible to bar taxpayer funding for offensive films before they were released, or even made. On both accounts, he was told no.

That set in train an effort by Heritage and Justice department officials to reintroduce an amendment to the Income Tax Act to withhold tax credits to offensive film and TV shows.

The then-Liberal government introduced a similar amendment in 2003, only to pull it from the final bill.