August 19, 2010

Art is the psyche of a society

Dear Minister Krueger:

I am a co-founder of Headlines Theatre (1981) and have been the Artistic Director since 1984, having worked in the professional theatre since 1975.

As I know you are aware, it has been a very difficult year: specifically for arts and culture in British Columbia, and for all social services. The devastation of current funding cuts is creating permanent damage in what used to be a healthy community. Very recently, however, the difficulty over funding cuts has escalated into a deep concern for our eroding democracy.

I am grateful to Jane Danzo, past Chair of the BC Arts Council for the courage, commitment, and integrity it took for her to resign, in order to be able to speak openly about the relationship between government and arts funding. The alarm bell she is ringing about lack of consultation, erosion of a sacred arms-length policy, and the inexplicable history of the government ignoring the advice of its own bipartisan Standing Committee on Finance to restore arts funding is essential. Her letter is available here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36032945/Jane-Danzo-s-Letter-of-Resignation

There are, however, other things that need to be said:

Somehow, in the midst of deep cutting, you have found “new money” that equals $30 million dollars in Legacy Funding (over three years) to alleviate the effects of cuts to the arts. These funds must be given to the BC Arts Council with no strings attached so the Council can do its job: nurturing arts and culture in BC.

I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt, Minister Krueger. I hope that when you announced the “Arts Legacy” program “to celebrate and renew the pride and excitement British Columbians experienced during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games”, with a timetable in which the programming must happen during the month of February 2011, the anniversary of the Olympics, that you somehow meant well. I am trusting that you do not fully understand the ramifications of these actions.

Government exists at arms length of the content of cultural expression across Canada for very important reasons. Cultural expression is the psyche of a society. When governments in other countries use culture for their own ideological agendas, people around the world have legitimate reasons for concern.

Freedom of thought and expression is crucial to a healthy individual and to a healthy society. Do we condone any level of government telling citizens what they can or should think in BC? I hope the answer to that question is an emphatic “no”.

Humans think in metaphor. Art is a metaphoric language. Diversity of artistic expression is the manifestation of a society’s psyche. When funding is available to arts and cultural groups with the caveat that the work must focus into a certain arena, as is the case with the Legacy funding, this is an attempt to control the content of artistic expression.

Throughout history, when governments have tried to control the content of cultural expression, whether from a left or a right ideology, societies have suffered terribly. All of us must be vigilant. It does not go unnoticed, for instance, that the logo of the BC Arts Council used to read “supported by the Province of British Columbia” and now reads, “an agency of the Province of British Columbia”. Someone decided to change the letterhead and it must have happened as part of an ideological shift regarding the purpose of the BC Arts Council and the artistic expression it has facilitated.

We appear to have entered a frightening time in BC and all of us need to pay attention. This IS how the fragility of democracy erodes. It is a very slippery slope.

Minister Krueger, I urge you, having found $30 Million in the midst of deep and devastating cutting, to give the funds to the BC Arts Council, no strings attached, and let them do their job.

Sincerely,


David Diamond, Artistic and Managing Director
Headlines Theatre

Download a pdf of this letter.

On April 26, the PAGE Executive Committee sent a letter (see below) to Hubert T. Lacroix, President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The letter requests clear disclosure of the ‘embedded’ nature of certain war correspondence, and a response from Mr. Lacroix by May 14. Stay tuned for a follow-up report.

Dear Mr. Lacroix,

Peace and Global Educators (PAGE) is a specialist organization for schoolteachers in British Columbia. Our mandate is to promote global awareness and non-violent multilateral approaches to international conflict. Critical thinking and freedom of expression are important for achieving this mandate, and we are concerned that Canadians are not getting the whole story of their country’s military involvements in Afghanistan. Moreover, we are concerned that many Canadians are unaware that reports from Afghanistan are prepared by embedded reporters and vetted by the military. We acknowledge that the CBC website contains articles that address the issue of embedded reporting. However, to better promote awareness, we request that the CBC immediately start prefacing all embedded reports with the following disclaimer, or one that conveys the same meaning:

The following message has been prepared by an embedded reporter, and approved by Canadian Forces.

We hope to hear from you by May 14 with regard to this request. We realize you are busy, but hope you will address this issue of vital importance to Canadian democracy.

Kind regards,

PAGE Executive Committee

Our call has made it to the floor! The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition would like to thank our provincial legislature for taking the time to discuss the dire need for a poverty reduction strategy for BC. We encourage them now to take bold action and introduce a comprehensive plan.

In a meeting of the legislature on March 29, 2010 Vancouver-Hastings MLA Shane Simpson brought forward a motion that the BC government seriously consider a poverty reduction plan:

“It’s time for us in this province to move forward, to put a poverty reduction strategy in place, to join the six other provinces in this country that are moving ahead with poverty reduction strategies — provinces from across the political spectrum. It’s time that we had a comprehensive plan that deals with housing, with child care, with training and with income levels. It’s time we had a plan that set targets and timelines for this province to bring the rates of poverty in this province down from the embarrassing levels that we have, having more people in poverty per capita than anywhere in Canada. It’s embarrassing. It’s shocking.”

The debate that followed reveals a great deal about the climate and appetite for poverty reduction in this province and offers us some valuable insight as we move our call forward. To view the debate that followed see the Hansard transcript.

For more News and Resources visit bcpovertyreduction.ca.

Many thanks for your support!

Check out the song by Solidarity Notes. The song makes very good points regarding Coca Cola, an Olympic Sponsor. You can find out more from http://www.killercoke.org/.

On March 9, delegates to the Annual General Meeting of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) – the labour union representing all public school teachers in British Columbia, Canada – voted to divest their pension of stocks in tobacco producing companies and arms manufacturer BAE.

The success of these motions resulted largely from years of lobbying by Peace and Global Education (PAGE) activists to convince their colleagues of (1) the contradiction between the BCTF’s mandate as a “social justice union” and its members’ investment in socially irresponsible enterprise and (2) the profitability of ‘ethical’ versus conventional investments.

Over the years, a major stumbling block has been concern that conversion to so-called ‘ethical’ funds would negatively affect returns on pension investments. However, as an article in the Journal of Business Ethics concludes, “evidence supports the conjecture that any performance differential between ethical mutual funds and their conventional peers is statically insignificant”, and many ethical investments outperform their conventional counterparts.

The vote to divest of BAE stocks is timely. In October 2009, Amnesty International reported that armoured personnel carriers supplied by a BAE subsidiary were used during a demonstration in Guinea, during which approximately 150 people were killed. And on February 5, 2010, BAE was ordered by courts in the US and the UK to pay the equivalent of $444 million Canadian in fines resulting from corruption. The Government Pension Fund of Norway has already divested of stocks in BAE due to its involvement in the production of components for nuclear weapons. In 2009, BAE posted a net loss, and its stock price has fallen in recent years.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), BAE is the world’s second largest manufacturer of weaponry, which accounts for 95% of its total sales. The British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCIMC), through which BC teachers invest pension contributions, holds approximately $22 million Canadian in BAE stocks, accounting for 0.03% of the overall portfolio.

The language of the resolutions passed at the BCTF AGM is mild. The tobacco divestment resolution means the BCTF will “recommend” that representatives on the Teachers' Pension Board oppose investment in tobacco-producing companies. The BAE divestment resolution is a “request” to BCIMC. PAGE will continue lobbying to achieve concrete results.


For more information on ethical funds, see:
The Ethical Mutual Fund Performance Debate: New Evidence from Canada
Ethical Investing by John Entine

For more information on BAE, see:
Amnesty: UK firm supplied armoured cars used against Guinea protesters
BAE Systems
BAE Share Price history
Stockholm International Peace Research Insitute

For the BCIMC investment portfolio, see:
British Columbia Investment Management Corporation

For more on this website:
Ethical Pensions