Genie Awards & Canada’s tax credit censorship

Sarah Polley is one of Canada's finest filmmaker, so I am happy that her film Away from Her has won a few Genie Awards listed below,

Best Motion Picture

Away From Her (Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl, Jennifer Weiss)

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Gordon Pinsent, Away From Her

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Julie Christie, Away From Her

Achievement in Direction

Sarah Polley, Away From Her

Adapted Screenplay

Sarah Polley, Away From Her

Quoting the TorStar report (emphasis added),

Bill C-10 – the federal government's controversial proposal to cancel tax credits for films with material considered offensive – took a bashing last night at the Genie Awards.

Telecast host Sandra Oh stopped following the script to say: "I can't continue without making a personal statement. Censorship has had work done and is trying to make a comeback. I don't know about you, but to me this doesn't sound like Canada."

Producer Robert Lantos, accepting an award on behalf of Eastern Promises` absent screenwriter, added: "If the barbarians have their way, the kind of work that won this award will no longer be permissible in Canadian cinema." [K: Eastern Promises is a great film and will surely be unjustly censored if C-10 is in effect.] [...]

And Romeo Dallaire, the senator whose fight against Rwanda's genocide is told in Shake Hands With the Devil, delivered an upbeat message: "C-10 hasn't made it through the Senate yet."

But backstage, Dallaire criticized the bill. "I think it's more significant right now that we have policies to help and support the film industry financially then starting to move on policies that in my opinion are not necessarily in the Canadian perspective," he said.

Now before the Senate, Bill C-10 would allow Heritage Ministry officials to rule movies and TV shows deemed offensive or contrary to the public interest ineligible for federal tax credits. [K: And worst, the bill has retroactive power to take back approval from a film after the fact thus making film financing very uncertain, more costly and difficult.]

Consider joining the Facebook protest group against Bill C-10. And here are some other news reports,

1. Canadian official defends tax curb - Hollywood Reporter
2. No censorship threat in Bill C-10: Verner - Really?
3. An open letter to Prime Minister Harper and Minister Verner
4. The Battle over C-10
5. From the Desk of Stephen Harper - nice work Rick :)