Artistic Insanity at 80 Wellington Street

80 Wellington Street (Ottawa) is where you’ll find Stephen Harper’s Office. In this office, or in offices near to it, some painfully wrong-headed decisions are being made regarding the arts and culture in Canada. At the same time, the Stephen Harper version of the Tories appear to be setting the stage for an election. This is scary folks. Really scary.

I’d been typing for the past few days trying to find the right words to portray my utter dismay at these recent decisions, but, this morning, I came across a wonderful column by Heather Mallick who says it all far better than I was going to. So, "shift delete" to my stuff and send you all off to read Heather's.

Here’s an excerpt (reproduced without permission from CBC or Heather… sorry) – PLEASE go read the whole column here http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/08/15/f-vp-mallick.html.

Heather writes:

It isn't hard to figure out why a government wouldn't like documentaries. They're about facts, and facts have a liberal bias, as the satirist Stephen Colbert constantly points out.

But it is hard to understand why Ottawa is making the cuts in such a shyly vicious way, not even announcing them but merely posting them on obscure web pages, breaking hearts quietly.

Again, do yourself a favour and go read the whole article.

Then, send a copy of the link to your MLA, and your MP and voice your disgust.