I have heard many things on CBC that have offended me. I have heard many things in the private broadcasting sector that offend me more. I note that in this bill there is no requirement for the private sector to indicate the influence it may have on cultural events that take place. There is no accountability there.
I get the sense we want to go back to the way it was in the time of Caterina de' Medici when certain privileged groups were patrons of the arts. In that case individuals with gifts and abilities were supported by private patrons instead of the public. Then an individual may have used his creativity to write love songs for his patron's mistress. I don't know.
We have come a long way. We have come to a point where we recognize that culture and art are a part of the fabric of this nation. We have come to a point where we recognize the right of artistic expression whether we agree with that expression or not.
My colleague from Dartmouth explained it like this. We go to a public event to be educated, sometimes to be offended. We do not go to be offended but sometimes we are. We go to be stirred. We go to be enlightened. We go to create the kind of debate we are having here today.
If there were no public funding for the films mentioned, for some of the plays that have been written in this country, for some of the music that some colleagues or I might find offensive, then we would not have this debate. We would hear endless reams of Lawrence Welk playing on some radio station that could be the most general and least offensive type of music that anyone could listen to.
The reality is artists need to be supported in their creative efforts. They do not need to worry that because someone does not like their work, their funding is going to be cut, and that is what this is really about. It is about saying that we find this film about incest offensive, we find this music offensive and for that reason we are going to use the fact that some public money was used in this to end it. That means we will go back to private funding.
We listen to the sitcoms that come across the border every day because nobody asks the sponsors how much money they have spent, and I think that is the intent of this bill. I speak in favour of the freedom of the artist to express himself or herself.