Re: Cultural Arts Funding

This just in from the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Honourable Lawrence Cannon:


Mr. Michael Kruse
mkruse50@gmail.com

c.c. pm@pm.gc.ca


Dear Mr. Kruse:

The Office of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister,
forwarded to my predecessor, the Honourable David L. Emerson, on August
20, 2008, your email concerning arts promotion programs, in particular
the conclusion of the International Arts Promotion Program (Promart). I
regret the delay in replying to you.

I appreciate having the benefit of your views on this issue and I have
taken note of your concerns. In the 2007 federal budget, the Government
of Canada committed to review all program spending on a four-year cycle
to ensure the efficient and effective management of public funds to meet
the needs of Canadians. In the 2008 federal budget, the Government
presented the first results of the Strategic Review which involved 17
federal departments and agencies, including Foreign Affairs and
International Trade Canada (DFAIT).

It was a primary objective that resources be used to carry out core
mandates and achieve key objectives as efficiently as possible. DFAIT
will, therefore, focus its activities on advancing Canadian interests
and values in the world and providing Canadians with vital consular,
business and diplomatic services. As such, on March 31, 2009, Promart
will end. Promart grant applications will be received only for projects
whose expenditures will take place before that date, and as funds are
available.

Overall, the conclusion of the Promart program only affects a relatively
minor portion of the $2.31 billion that the federal government spends
annually on the arts and cultural sector. Please note that Canadian
Heritage and its portfolio organizations will continue to play the lead
role in the government's overall promotion of arts and culture at home
and abroad. These portfolio organizations and delivery partners - which
include the Canada Council for the Arts, the Association for the Export
of Canadian Books, the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records
(FACTOR) and the Fondation Musicaction (Musicaction), Telefilm Canada
and the National Film Board - have annual funding dedicated to
international initiatives for culture.

DFAIT will continue to support the promotion of Canadian artists and
cultural entrepreneurs abroad through its international network of
missions and cultural representatives - including the Canadian Cultural
Centre in Paris - in close collaboration with these organizations.

Please be assured that the Government of Canada remains committed to
arts and culture and will continue to work on behalf of Canadian
artists.

Thank you for writing and sharing your concerns.

Sincerely,





The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Foreign Affairs

Gone Oratory Gone

In this world of constant selling why has the pressure of success not produced better oratory among Canadian politicians? I am frankly at a loss to explain this (although, perhaps I have not tried hard enough.) I have just ordered Great Canadian Speeches from the Federal Press here in Toronto and I even plan to read it. Perhaps I will even attempt to write what I think our politicians should be saying to inspire us.

This minor polemic has been inspired, of course, by my listening to the acceptance speech of President Elect Barack Obama a couple of weeks ago and my near obsession with The West Wing as of late. Words are just words I know and deeds speak the truth but we all need a good argument to get off of the couch and start doing something or at least to pay our taxes without grumbling too loudly.

As I get through Great Canadian Speeches I will let you know about the inspiring ones and perhaps try to clue our politicians into the fact that oratory matters.

ORATORY MATTERS!!

re: Safe Injection Site Science

A reply from the PMO regarding my email about Insite, the safe injection site in Vancouver's downtown East Side.

Dear Mr. Kruse:

On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to thank you for your e-mail, in which you raised an issue which falls within the portfolio of the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health. The Prime Minister always appreciates receiving mail on subjects of importance to Canadians.

Please be assured that the statements you made have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your e-mail to Minister Aglukkaq so that she too may be made aware of your comments. I am certain that the Minister will give your views every consideration. For more information on the Government's initiatives, you may wish to visit the Prime Minister's Web site, at www.pm.gc.ca.

L.A. Lavell
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister's Office
Agent de correspondance
de la haute direction
pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre

re: Finacial Stability in the Arts : More Comments

Here are some more comments from the Financial Stability in the Arts Survey:


I spent the last year working as a freelancer as full time minimum wage work left little time for anything else and was still not enough to make ends meet. While the first month or so went well, work quickly dried up and I found myself scrambling for 6 months, unsure at times how I would pay my rent. My field within the arts requires that others hire me to work for them. The "if your art is good, people will buy it" simply does not hold up if there is no one left to hire me.


I have so much pride being a Canadian citizen - but as an arts worker, I find that support for the arts in this country is really lacking. It's upsetting that most people are forced to either leave the country or leave the industry all together to make a living. No where else have I experienced this kind of sad neglect. Personally, I am looking for work outside my expertise right now so that I can find some financial relief...and then return to the arts again where I belong, which has been hugely upsetting. No where else do people work as hard for such little payoff, money, or glamour...we all invest so much of ourselves and get shit upon the whole time by lack of support.


like most of my colleagues, my rent constitutes more than 40% of my income, life has always been week to week, cheque to cheque. I don't believe I've ever known financial security, and I've been working in the arts for over fifteen years. It's what I accepted and anticipated entering the art world, to see such an ignorant view from a world leader is enraging.

In the last twenty years of working as a professional actor I have always had to work anywhere from one to three additional jobs to make ends meet. For many years I consistently earned well below the national poverty level. To work in the Canadian Arts is to do so knowing that work will always be hard to come by and that the absolute best you can reasonably hope for is a chance to practice your craft at a wage that will allow you to survive without having to hold down a full time job outside your chosen career. I have never wanted anything more out of life than the chance to do what I do best and practice my art with the reasonable expectation of making a decent living wage. Without the support of our government even that meager hope is gone.

Working in the arts is like walking a tightrope in the dark with a small flashlight in your mouth.

California Proposition 8 - Banning Gay Marriage

Proposition 8, being voted upon in California today is attempting to make gay marriage illegal; a right that was afforded to gays and lesbians by the California Supreme Court last year. The folks from an awsome skeptics forum that I belong too re-cut the propoganda video for Prop 8 to equate the logical fallicies with inter-racial marriage. Check out both videos:

Original video:



Re-cut Video

Safe Injection Site Science

Mr. Harper,

I am sad to see that irrational ideology has once again blinded your government from seeing consensus opinions from the scientific community. You and your government have let your ideas about drugs blind you to a greater public health threat and as such have been working to find reasons to close down Insite, the safe injection site for drug users in Vancouver's Lower East Side.

As early as 2007 researchers looking into the efficacy of the safe injection site model of public health had produced much evidence from sound scientific research to show that safe injection sites reduce harm to drug users and the community by allowing street-level social workers to meet with drug users and help them to prevent the transmission of HIV, Hepatitis C and prevent overdoses of drugs like heroin, cocaine and speed.

This was an approach that came from the streets. From people who were tired of seeing people destroy themselves and others through their addictions and who found a way to reduce the harm that dirty needles and unsafe sex posed. This was not an ideological approach, this was a realistic approach and it has had led to a real reduction in the spread of HIV and Hep C and lessened the number of overdoses in that area. Even more, it has put the people most in need in contact with addiction counsellors and in methadone programs to help them kick the habit; a process that any alcoholic or smoker will tell you is long, painful and arduous.

It appears, however, that your government has chosen to disregard this research and discount it by saying studies are inconclusive, as was said by your health minister Tony Clement last year when many of the studies were published. And why? I can only imagine that you think that punishment and law enforcement are the only sticks with which the government need act, that beating the addict with the justice system and locking him or her up will solve the problem. Who do you turn to for an example? The U.S Government and their failed War on Drugs which as seen an increase in drug use over its lifetime and has resulted in a department of corrections which is bulging at the seams with drug users, being kept daily by the public purse.

But that won't stop you, oh no, you won't let something like facts get in the way of your ideological approach to governing. I suppose you would like to use my tax money to lock people up instead of helping them. On the one hand you purport to be a champion for personal freedom and the free market while you take away the ability of drug addicts to make good health choices by attempting to close the one thing that will help them get better and keep them healthy while they do so.

I call upon your government to listen to the people. To listen to the good science that is being done. To listen to the people who are making an honest effort to protect communities through prevention. To listen to the addicts and sex workers who need your help.

Above all, not to stop your ears from the very public you have sworn to represent and protect.

Lead, Mr. Harper. Lead this country through rational decision making, not ideology. Don't let your own biases kill those who need you most.


Sincerely,

Michael Kruse

see: the journal Open Medicine for an editorial on Insite and the recent Globe and Mail article

Re: A Better Plan for Green Stability

I received this letter from the Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty:


The Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1A1
October 14, 2008

Mr. Michael Kruse
2104-655 Broadview Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M4K 2P3

Dear Mr. Kruse:

Thanks for your online message sharing your views about
how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I'm always
interested in hearing about the things that matter most to
Ontarians.

Our government takes our stewardship of the environment
very seriously - we believe that as responsible citizens,
each and every one of us has a role to play in tackling
climate change and reducing our environmental footprint.

I appreciate your suggestions about a carbon tax, public
transportation and incentives to encourage the use of
alternative energy. With respect to a carbon tax, Ontario's
preferred approach is to move ahead with a cap-and-trade
system - one which allows companies producing less carbon
than their caps permit to sell their unused quotas to
companies that exceed their caps. We believe it is a fair and
effective approach that is both economically and
environmentally sound. We can impose a carbon tax, we
can put in place a cap-and-trade system or we can do a bit
of both. The important thing is for different levels of
government to work together to combat climate change and
to ensure a great quality of life for future generations.

We have taken a number of important steps to reduce
emissions that cause local, regional and global air issues. I
agree that increasing the use of public transit will help
reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in our cities.
That is why our government is investing in infrastructure
funding for municipalities which includes providing money to
improve public transportation .

I have noted your views on the use of alternative energy
sources. As your views would also interest my colleague
the Honourable George Smitherman, Minister of Energy
and Infrastructure, I have forwarded a copy of your online
messages to him for his information.

Thanks again for contacting me. I welcome and value your
input. Working with you and your fellow Ontarians, my
colleagues and I will redouble our efforts to make a
meaningful difference in the lives of people of all ages,
and from all walks of life. Together, by building on the
progress we have made so far, we can - and will - build
a stronger, healthier and more prosperous Ontario.

Yours truly,

Dalton McGuinty
Premier

c: The Honourable George Smitherman