... with a hidden agenda

Arms length funding whereby work is selected by a jury of peers from the arts community can be overturned by government. Gwnlyn Setterfield, the executive director of the Ontario Arts Council, argues that although the arm's length system of arts funding isn't perfect, it is crucial to safeguarding complete freedom of expression for artists. "Artists, by their nature, pose the difficult questions. They raise the issues, they say the unsayable." She warns that this freedom will be endangered if funding to the council is cut to the point where artists must look solely to private interests for support.*

• Metro Toronto City Council took a decidedly different route in the summer of 1993 when they threatened the funding of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and cut funding to the Inside Out Collective who organize and host the annual Toronto Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The whole issue began when homophobic journalist Kristina Blizzard of the Toronto Sun made a big deal out of some of Buddies in Bad Times' content.

  Metro councillors had approved $6.9 million in arms length cultural grants to 203 groups, including Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the Inside Out Collective, amid a volley of insults by Toronto Sun readers who called down the wrath of God and other diverse judgments on homosexuals. Reacting to strong public opposition and ignoring the pleas of members of the arts groups, the metro management committee recommended that council chop the $4,000 grant for the collective and withhold the $26,500 grant to Buddies. Out of 203 arts organizations only the two groups which deal specifically with gay and lesbian issues were singled out and put under incredible scrutiny. The whole ordeal stunk of pure homophobia. Councillor Dick O'Brien was quoted as saying "This will make them think a bit."*

  Robert Crew, a long time theatre critic for The Toronto Star, told the Metro management committee that he felt uncomfortable the first time he went to review gay theatre, but added that it is important for theatre to make audiences uncomfortable.*

  The Toronto arts community, including myself, turned out in force to defend the right of Buddies in Bad times and Inside Out. The outcome of the vote was such that Buddies was allowed its grant but not the Inside Out Collective. The Inside Out Collective had been used as a political scapegoat. The most frightening aspect of the ordeal is the precedent it set for future arts funding.

• In November 1992 the Banff Centre for the Arts hosted the Vancouver based Kiss & Tell Collective who performed True Inversions which dealt with lesbian sexuality. Knee-jerk conservative press in Alberta blasted the Banff Centre for spending tax dollars on "lesbian porn".

  Alberta Deputy Premier Ken Kowalski fumed, "Every once in a while they do some of these things that are God-awful in my humble opinion. This is the third I've had to deal with, this abhorrent lesbian show." - Edmonton Sun

  Provincial funding forms in Alberta were amended to include a paragraph that said funding could be pulled from any particular project that the government deemed inappropriate.