Canadian Arts Grants Cut . . . Boo Hoo!

Unbeknownst to most Canadians, $4.7 Million per year has been mostly wasted by our federal government on something called the PromArt program. This liberal slush fund has been used for such things as:

• $3,000 given to Holy Fuck, a Toronto rock band, to travel in the U.K.
• $5,000 given to former CBC broadcaster, Avi Lewis, to let the little darling go to film festivals in Australia & Argentina
• $16,500 given to Tal Bachman, a best-selling recording artist, travel to South Africa and Zimbabwe
• $3,000 given to author Gwynne Dyer, to travel to Cuba
• $18,000 given to The North South Institute, a left-wing anti-globalization "think tank", to attend an anti-Western conference in Cuba (Note: I put "think tank" in quotes because isn't a left-wing think tank an oxymoron?)

On a related note, a few years ago I received a detailed summary from a close friend of how the Canadian film industry works vs. the American film industry. Down south, people come up with project ideas and then go to private sources to get funding. But here in Canada, most filmmakers live entirely off of the public trough (that's your money and mine), figuring out assorted ways to get various grants to fund their projects. In most cases, there's absolutely no expectation that there'll ever be much public interest in their finished work, let alone making a profit. This well known con has been going on for decades.

I can only imagine the reaction from those at the CBC, who have stolen wasted consumed more public money than any other group I know of. They'll be decrying this for the next 20 years. IMHO good riddens!!! And realize that this is probably one of hundreds of government programs that are nothing other than a privileged slush fund. If recipients of such funds were to turn into pickpockets tomorrow nothing much would change in their disgusting behaviour.