"This imposed silence is causing both exasperation and fear within an arts community concerned about looming problems on several cultural fronts. Heading this list is the Harper government's promise of a strategic review of all spending programs -and concern that federal cultural agencies such as the Canada Council, CBC and Telefilm will again be on the chopping block, or worse. Copyright reform -which could leave a creator's rights in jeopardy -is a major worry, along with the Harper government's ideologically motivated assaults on the independence of the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission. However, what has raised the sector's anxiety level several notches higher is the Conservative response to a detailed questionnaire on arts policy that was dispatched to all the major parties on April 5 by The Canadian Conference of the Arts. As of now, the Harper government's reply has been a deafening non-reply. The most the CCA has been able to get out of the Tories is a bland, automated email from the Prime Minister's Office, acknowledging receipt of the questionnaire. So, last week, it decided it could wait no longer and made public a hefty, 13-page set of detailed responses from the other parties on wide-ranging issues such as copyright reform, Canada Council funding, multimedia technology and the fiscal problems of self-employed artists. The responses of all opposition parties are thoughtful and informed, and get right down to specifics. The Tories say nothing." - Jamie Portman, Postmedia News
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