Montreal artists Godwin themselves
I love it when these guys, who appear to exist solely on the largesse of an indifferent public via taxation, pull stunts like this:
MONTREAL – The prime minister was compared to Adolf Hitler during a protest by members of Montreal’s arts community condemning cuts to a variety of federal arts programs.
In a rally Wednesday that cut across partisan politics, artists including playwright Michel Tremblay and La La La Human Steps founder Edouard Lock signed a letter urging the Harper government to rescind $46 million in cuts it has made to several arts funding programs.
At the end of what was meant to be a satirical sketch about “artistic degenerates,” Walter Boudreau, an artistic director, flashed a Nazi salute and cried “Sieg Harper.”
Eat a dick, M. Boudreau. Or at least next time, instead of comparing a reduction in public funding for the arts to a regime that slaughtered millions of people, pick an analogy that is less of a stretch. For instance, Stephen Harper == Snidely Whiplash. That would be humorous, catch the attention of the press, and has the subtle but important advantage of not invoking the fucking Holocaust in your petulant attempts to continue suckling off the public teat.
There’s a local newspaper columnist (who’s also a very minor novelist) who publishes a column every couple of days whining about how the various levels of government should be pouring money into the arts like a broken water main. Typical headlines from his babbling are along the lines of, “More Funding Desperately Needed to Stem Exodus of People Who Paint With Their Pubic Hair” or “Alberta Won’t Be Taken Seriously Until We Have a Gallery for Progressive Amputee Erotica” or “Memo To Stelmach: Money Should Go To Real Contributors To Society, Like Subversive Graffiti Communes.” But I don’t think even he would go as far as the Montreal bozos and start flinging around Nazi references: he may be a douchebag, but he’s got standards.
On a somewhat related note, there’s quite a debate raging in this neck of the woods over public funding for a new stadium. On the one hand, detractors rightly point out that spending bucket-loads of money on a building where a filthy rich owner can make money off his rich players seems to be a poor use of public funds. On the other hand, a lot of people really want a new stadium (whether it’s necessary or not), and are willing to listen to plans that involve civic funding.
Me? I want a new stadium, but I want elves to pay for it. Or maybe Montreal artists… damn Nazis.
UPDATE: The local columnist I mentioned above has an article in the paper today. It’s entitled, “Let’s talk about funding.” I kid you not.
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August 28th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Krankor, the tendency of “artists” and others to engage in reductio ad Hitlerum when bringing up the topic of a public figure who is less liberal than they is one of the biggest pet peeves I have. Thank you for some brilliant and well-deserved shredding.
The view from the East is that all of Alberta is swimming in cash, and that all you silly people need to do is pass the hat at a church hall, and you’ll have the funding you need for your stadium.
It’s okay – you can screw with them and throw in some Monopoly money.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Alberta is swimming in cash: there’s a budget surplus in excess of $8 billion. That doesn’t mean we can gold-plate the roads, though… yet.
August 29th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I have conceived a design for an electric LRT system on PEI. (The electricity would be wind-generated. That’s just how damn green I am.) To construct 700 km of my system (basically the reintroduction of rail tracks and cool stations on PEI, but the train cars would resemble Toronto-style street cars, or two of three of them strung together), I need about $3.5 billion for start-up costs, and then $1 billion in operating subsidies for the first five years. With that massive surplus, and your immense influence in all things of importance in Edmonton, could you get me the cash I need?
August 29th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I’ll have my secretary cut you a cheque.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:52 am
When artists cry censorship and inequality after the government cuts funding to certain types of arts, it seems to me that they ought to be a bit careful. There’s a straightforward way for the government to treat all artists the same way.
See Rush’s “The Trees” final verse:
So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
‘The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light’
Now there’s no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw
August 29th, 2008 at 11:49 am
So what you’re saying, Sporko, is that artists better watch out or else the trees will gain sentience and come after them with logging implements? Seems about right.