Friday, July 18, 2008

The Minister Responds

I've chronicled my vendetta against Macleans Magazine's PAP subsidy here, among other places. Basically, the magazine slurps up $3,000,000 per year in taxpayer's money to cover its mailouts, which renders Andrew Coyne's latest about subsidies to Bombadier faintly hilarious ("Do as I say, not as I do!!" Right Andrew?). Anyway, the kicker is that any publication can lose its subsidy if it

... contain[s] material considered to be hate propaganda, sexual exploitation, excessive or gratuitous violence, denigration of an identifiable group or an any other way offensive.

And, since I figure that any number of the Steyn pieces that Macleans has run qualify as offensive, I've been pestering the Heritage Minister's office about how one might go about lodging a complaint against the magazine. Finally, finally, finally, they have responded:

Dear [BigCityLib]:

I am writing in response to your correspondence addressed to the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages and Minister for La Francophonie, regarding the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) as it relates to Maclean's magazine.

Ms. Verner appreciates being advised of your concerns with respect to material published in Maclean's that you consider denigrating to an identifiable group or otherwise offensive. I understand that you have already discussed this matter with Department of Canadian Heritage officials. The best way to proceed would be to submit a hard copy of your concerns to the PAP for consideration.

I trust that this information is useful. Please accept my best wishes.

Yours sincerely,


Jean-Sébastien Langelier
Policy Advisor


Dear Mr. Langelier, a package is already in preparation. I think it will include this statement from the OHRC's Barbara Hall on Mark Steyn's article "The Future Belongs To Islam":

The Commission is concerned that since the September 2001 attacks, Islamophobic attitudes are becoming more prevalent in society and Muslims are increasingly the target of intolerance, including an unwillingness to consider accommodating some of their religious beliefs and practices.

Unfortunately, the Maclean’s article, and others like it, are examples of this. By portraying Muslims as all sharing the same negative characteristics, including being a threat to ‘the West’, this explicit expression of Islamophobia further perpetuates and promotes prejudice towards Muslims and others.

[...]

The Commission strongly condemns the targeting of Muslims, Arabs, South Asians and indeed any racialized community by the media as being inconsistent with the values enshrined in the Code.

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! That's not all. I think I will include the CHRC statement on this same topic:

The Steyn article discusses changing global demographics and other factors that the author describes as contributing to an eventual ascendancy of Muslims in the 'developed world', a prospect that the author fears for various reasons described in the article. The writing is polemical, colourful and emphatic, and was obviously calculated to excite discussion and even offend certain readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

Lots more offensive stuff too! I haven't even touched on the articles Barbara Amiel has written over the past several years.

So watch out, Kenneth Whyte, I'm comin' for your government stamps!

6 comments:

Doubting Thomas said...

I find the subsidy stupid in general. Canada's love affair with dole-outs continues.

Congrats on getting a response and welcome to the government run-around ("you'll have to contact this department")...hey, they might end up providing better customer service than Rogers.

On another note, this vague statement: "an any other way offensive." is such a big loophole. I find Country Living magazine offensive.

Ti-Guy said...

Canada's love affair with dole-outs continues.

Every country does it. We're not unique in that respect. The half trillion the US spends a year on the military is nothing but an industrial subsidy. Then there are the agricultural subsidies, the "earmarks," etc. etc. And let's not mention the bank bail-outs.

BCL, you should review the PAP subsidies for all of Rogers publications for an understanding of just how large of a proportion is alloted to it.

I like the Publications Assistance Program, but the money really should go to smaller publications and not these silly lifestyle publications Rogers churns out, which are just advertising delivery mechanisms anyway.

rabbit said...

I see a couple of questions here:

- Should public subsidies exist for magazines?

- If the subsidies should exist, should they require that the magazine contain politically inoffensive material?

Ignoring the first question for now, the answer to the second question must be "No" unless you want to disqualify all political magazines. The alternative is to have the government subsidize only those magazines whose politics they support.

Such is the dilemna with government subsidies, and is one of the reasons I'm not in favour of them.

Jerome Bastien said...

Hey BCL,

I'm all in favor of eliminating subsidies for Maclean's, even though I very much like what Ken Whyte has done.

Interestingly, isnt Bill C-10 about subsidies (tax credits) to movies that are offensive?

So, obvious question coming, if you support eliminating subsidies for Macleans' discussion of European demographics, are you also in favor of Bill C-10?

Should movies be treated differently than magazines?

Ti-Guy said...

even though I very much like what Ken Whyte has done..

Yeah, I can't wait until Ezra Levant and the rest of the welfare wingnuts get their own columns.

Unknown said...

If the postal subsidy is taken away from Macleans then Macleans will have another legal avenue to swat down the illegitimacy of the HRC's.

That BCL can only quote the rantings of Barbara Hall which carry no legal weight does not bode well for his modest crusade.

Again, whether Macleans wins or loses, Macleans wins. Go BCL!!