- Conflict of Interest Dept: As we reported in the previous post, The Wright Awards were held last Friday. I guess the big news, besides the winners of course, was a few comments by Lynn Johnston about the “absolute” end date of For Better or For Worse (August 31) and her intention to redraw the old strips for re-syndication. Nancy Beiman has a blog post with some Johnston quotes from the Q&A event, knitted together and somewhat out of context, but largely accurate. The CBC coverage has a straightforward report with more great quotes. Editor and Publisher has a short blurb/Johnston backgrounder. And see here for Best Emerging Talent-winner Jeff Lemire’s earliest comics memories.
- Does Harper Hate Comics? Dept: The Harper government has cut funding to PromArt, the federal agency responsible for promoting Canadian art and performance abroad. The agency granted money ($4.7 million annually) to artists to pay for travel, to exhibit, perform, attend conferences, etc. As the name of the agency indicates, this was one of the major ways for creative types to promote art from this country in other countries. Conservative media like the National Post have heralded the move as a vote for free markets (and more starving artists, I guess). The government spin is the usual – “Certainly we felt some of the groups were not necessarily ones we thought Canadians would agree were the best choices to be representing them internationally,”. Saner minds see a connection to political interference in arts funding, a la Bill C-10. The Canadian Press has the story.
- Censorship Dept: The Alberta Human Rights Commission has dismissed the complaint against Ezra Levant and the Western Standard for republishing the Danish Muhammad cartoons. You can read the official dismissal report here (pdf file). It is a fascinating document and I urge everyone to read it. The dismissal was based on the fact that Levant reprinted the cartoons as part of a news article discussing the issue, without obvious (or at least extreme) bias (which would be a crime in Canada). The conclusion reads, in part, “”While the cartoons do, in isolation, reinforce existing stereotypes of Muslims, the cartoons placed in the context of the accompanying article, cannot be said to express deep seated feelings of hatred and contempt against Muslims.” So the report concludes, “A reasonable person would not consider that the republication of the cartoons in the context in which they were republished, would expose Muslims to the very strong feelings of hatred and contempt. Again, while the republication of the cartoons in isolation would likely promote existing stereotypes, and Muslims are a relatively vulnerable group, the effect of this communication as a whole (cartoons and accompanying article) would not make it more acceptable to others to manifest hatred or contempt against the Muslims.” You can read the Western Standard’s own report here, Levant’s press release here.