So a grant was given to support a movie that criticizes the tarsands and, naturally, conservatives and The Calgary Sun are up in arms. How could we!? The horror!?

If it weren't for the fact that the government is responding to this ridiculous situation, I wouldn't even bring it up for fear of lending it credence. But it's not just Rick Bell and the other sensationalists at The Calgary Sun who are puffing up their chests, Lindsay Blackett, the Alberta culture minister, who loves local film so much, is in a huff and so too is the premier.

So, it ought to be addressed.

First, what the hell is the problem? Arts grants are not a political mechanism to pick and choose the points of view that we want expressed. There is this little issue called freedom of speech that the government has no damn business interfering in. Period. Are we only supposed to support the government position? That doesn't sound like the society I want to be a part of.

The naysayers scream that we are funding propaganda and then, in the same breath, say that we ought to fund things that are more positive towards the tarsands. So, only government and industry propaganda then? I'm confused. Earlier this year, Stelmach et al poured $56,000 into pro-tarsands propaganda in the Washington Post, but I suppose that was money well spent.

Even in Bell's outraged and moronic ranting, he admits the film has been extremely well-received by critics and audiences. So, we're supposed to be upset that the Alberta government has provided funding ($50,000) to a film that is supposed to be good?

But that's not the point. As a third-generation Calgarian, I thought I would have been invited to the meeting where all us Albertans decided that we were strong supporters of the tarsands. But I wasn't, and I'm not. I know a lot of Albertans that feel the same way. I think the tarsands are a black mark on our province (and no, I'm not arguing that they are dirtier than every other crude deposit in the world etc...)

We have failed to monitor development, let things run wild up north during the boom without thinking of the consequences and we have polluted our air and waterways in the name of profits, of which we don't see enough return. Remember Our Fair Share? Didn't think so.

There are a lot of Albertans, myself included, that applaud giving money to a film that questions the industry that drives so much profit into government coffers that they should just do away with the masquerade and call themselves the government already.

Taxpayer money given to this film is money well-spent in my mind and no matter what the tired, out-of-touch Conservatives in Edmonton, or the tired old conservatives in The Sun say, not all Albertans support the tarsands.