TORONTO - Canadian filmmakers are demanding politicians put cultural matters on the agenda in the upcoming federal election, with luminaries including Paul Gross, Deepa Mehta and Don McKellar arguing that the arts are key to defining the country's very identity.
Politics weren't far from the minds of directors, actors and screenwriters introducing new films at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, with Gross among several stars who easily shifted from promoting their projects to insisting that policy-makers pay attention to the arts.
"This country is long overdue for some cultural overview and review of arts policy," said Gross, who opened the festival with his historical war epic, "Passchendaele."
"We just had another whack of cuts coming recently out of (the Heritage Department) and various related programs ... but it doesn't seem to have any particular goal in mind, or certainly nothing much stated out of government what the real intentions are.
"If they're just purely cuts, that's one thing to argue, but if they are actually aiming for something out of the cultural section then we need to know what that is and I think it would be worthwhile having some kind of conversation about it in general because I think it has everything to do with who we are as a nation."
So far in the election campaign, none of the major political parties has announced their platforms for the arts but the Tories head onto the hustings with lingering controversy over Bill C-10. The proposed tax amendment would have given the government the ability to exclude films that are "contrary to public policy," but died on the order paper when the writ was dropped earlier this week.
The Tories have not said if they would revive the bill if given the chance to extend their mandate, but the opposition parties have all rejected the plan.
Actor, director and screenwriter McKellar said he's been insulted and embarrassed by the lack of support the arts sector has received from government.
"What's most appalling is they don't even talk to artists," said McKellar, at the festival this week with his drama, "Blindness."
"It's very rude and disrespectful. They can't enter a discussion with artists. It's notable, by the way, that it's tradition for someone from the government to come to the opening of the festival. They decided maybe that wasn't the best choice this year.... They would have been booed out of the house".
Politics took centre stage at an arts rally squeezed in between panels and screenings for the film festival on Wednesday, with roughly 200 people gathering to highlight Canadian heritage as an election issue.
Artists including National Ballet artistic director Karen Kain, film director Atom Egoyan and thespian Albert Schultz called on the parties to come up with a long-term economic strategy for culture.
"This is really a call to any party that is presenting itself at a national level to define its commitment to the growth of these institutions," Egoyan said in a statement.
"Artists need to feel that they are developing in a state which welcomes them, which does not take them for granted and which honours and values them."
Filmmaker Mehta, whose acclaimed projects include the trilogy, "Fire," "Earth," and the Oscar-nominated "Water," said preservation of the arts is at the heart of nationhood.
"A lot of a country, whether politicians understand it or not, is represented by their cultural identity," said Mehta, at the festival to discuss her domestic drama "Heaven on Earth".
"To take away or to make that cultural identity, which is projected through film or art, theatre or dance, is really dangerous. Who are we, what are we as Canadians is reflected not only in our politics but also in our arts."
Canadians head to the polls Oct. 14.
