It cannot be easy being the “artist,” the subject of this 2011 email by a Foreign Affairs and International Trade spokesman, especially when her “contrary” message apparently cost her federal funding for a European art tour.
Franke James, the artist in question, first got mad — now she is getting even.
James, a Toronto-based activist with no shortage of gumption and political acumen, has turned the federal government’s efforts to silence her into a new book.
Banned on the Hill: A True Story about Dirty Oil and Government Censorship was released last week and tells the story of how Canadian bureaucrats withdrew support for James because her views on climate change didn’t match those held by the Harper government.
She has used access to information requests and visual essays to highlight how the Conservatives withdrew funding for the European art tour because, she writes, they didn’t like that she believes Canada is failing to act on climate change.
“As a Canadian citizen, to know that the government is interfering in private business is really shocking. It’s undemocratic,” said James. “If art has to agree with government policy, then art is government propaganda.”
Until 2011, James, a petite woman with a big smile, didn’t even know the government was aware of her existence, “leave alone that they hated me,” she told Torstar News Service.
Her run-in with Ottawa started in the summer of 2011. She had lined up a show of her work in Croatia, hosted by a local environmental group. It was to be the first stop in a tour of about 20 European cities. One day there was federal funding for it, the next day it was withdrawn, she said.
“I even tried to rent space in Canadian embassies and initially it looked like it could happen and then there was clampdown,” she said.
The tour was eventually cancelled, and a flabbergasted James set out to find out what was going on.
She filed access to information requests, and as more than 2,100 pages of official memos in which her name appeared trickled in — many of them heavily redacted — she slowly began to get a bigger picture. This was the seed of her 368-page book.
James had heard stories of the Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper allegedly muzzling scientists. She said she didn’t think they’d try to silence her too.
Last December, Torstar News Service’s Kate Allen contacted scientists at NASA in the U.S. and at Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada here regarding the impact of climate change upon the Arctic and Antarctic.
The U.S. government scientists quickly responded and answered Allen’s questions. The Canadian government scientists, however, said her request would have to be routed through government public relations officials, who then asked for her questions in advance.
This situation is so common in scientific circles that Canada’s information commissioner said in April she is launching an investigation into restrictions faced by government scientists.
James said she has learned a lot in the past two years. She has spent much of that time protesting against the move to blacklist her and getting the government to release the emails that discuss her art show and the decision to cut funding.
“It’s been a huge challenge, and I have learned the importance of democratic voice and expression,” said James. “Anyone can make a big difference by speaking up.”
She has received overwhelming support from people, even those who don’t agree with her views on climate change but acknowledge the right to free speech.
James hopes her book will also be a how-to guide for other activists. And she isn’t done yet.
She started an Indiegogo campaign to crowd-source $5,000 to advertise her cause in the Hill Times, an Ottawa political weekly, and to launch an outdoor campaign Monday in the capital. She has raised $5,550 so far.
Her ad, which began appearing in the Hill Times last Monday, says: “Do not talk about climate change. It is against government policy.”
“Every Ottawa insider knows Hill Times and reads it … it’s like being in everyone’s face,” James said.
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