Harper government targeted artist for her green conscience, internal documents reveal
Franke James, a Canadian artist and environmental advocate blacklisted by the Harper government, has obtained internal documents indicating Canadian officials worked behind the scenes to discredit her work.
An internal Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) media monitoring report from July 2011 lists James as "an inconvenient artist" ("une artiste qui dérange"), the headline of an article in La Presse. The document was part of the 1,500 pages of internal documents James obtained through Access to Information requests since August 2011.
"To be on the list of hot foreign issues, it was just shocking," James said in a telephone interview. "I'm right up there with Arctic sovereignty and Afghanistan."
Source: The Government of Canada.
"Funding was never withdrawn, nor was it guaranteed. Ultimately, Canadians missions did not fund this artist's European tour," Department spokesperson Jean-Bruno Villeneuve wrote in an email in response to James' claims and the documents.
Villeneuve did not comment on James' allegation that the government attempted to discredit her work based on a political agenda.
"It's infuriating that the government keeps using this line," James said in a telephone interview. Postmedia News' Amy Chung obtained access to information documents that indicated the government initially approved the funding internally, but withdrew abruptly.
How James got on the government blacklist
James is the illustrator and author of 'visual essays' about environmental sustainability and environmental issues in Canada. Some essays were critical of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's rejection of a pollution tax and the Canadian government's inaction on climate change.
The cover of Franke James' visual essay "Dear Mr. Prime Minister". Courtesy of FrankeJames.com.
In spring 2011 James' work was slated for a year-long tour in 20 cities across Europe and the Middle East, from Copenhagen to Cairo. The tour was organized by Nektarina Non-Profit, an arts organization based in Croatia.
In April 2011, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) approved a $5,000 grant to help fund the tour. However, a month later a representative from the Canadian Embassy in Croatia directly contacted Nektarina's executive director Sandra Antonovic to deliver some bad news: funding for the tour was axed.
Nektarina publicly stated that the Canadian government did not stop with the funding cut — it also actively intervened to prevent James' European exhibition from going forward. Eventually the tour was cancelled because a major corporate sponsor withdrew $75,000 in support, allegedly after being contacted by the Canadian government.
In an interview with Tonda MacCharles of The Toronto Star, Antonovic said that her contacts in the Canadian Embassy in Croatia quoted a senior official saying things like: “Who was the idiot who approved an art show by that woman, Franke James?” and “Don’t you know this lady speaks against the Canadian government?"
Following the funding cut and the government's alleged interventions against her tour, James sent numerous access to information requests to the Canadian government for all correspondence and documents related to her name and her cancelled tour. Since sending the first requests out in August 2011, she has received over 1,500 pages of internal documents, many of them email correspondences between Canadian Trade Commissioners in Europe. The paper trail confirmed Nektarina's claim of 'bullying' from the Canadian government to prevent James' tour from going forward.
'Green conscience' versus the 'men and women working in forestry and oilsands'
In an email exchange between a senior trade commissioner in Berlin and a Canadian Embassy representative in Croatia, the commissioner Thomas Marr asks: "Franke James is your fault?" in the subject line. In the email, Marr wrote: "The Nektarina Non Profit is a Croatian organization? And you have connected them with Ms. James who has a 'green conscience' and whose work sharply criticizes the men and women working in forestry and oilsands in our great country?"
Source: The Government of Canada.
Another email sent by the Canadian Ambassador to the Baltic States to Canadian embassy staffers in European countries where James' show was slated to tour links to one of James' visual essays criticising Canada's record on climate change. "We do not support private campaigns," the email reads. The rest is redacted.
Source: The Government of Canada.
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(13) Comments
Amazing to think what would happen if the government went around the world warning about companies like Athabasca Oil Sands Corp, Baytex Energy Trust, Bonavista Energy Trust, BP, Bronco Energy Ltd, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd are up to.
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Harper Undemocratic Actions againgst Canadians. The campaign began a while ago. Shame, shame and more shame on this pack of fascists.
There is much too little information here to draw any conclusions about anything. It says nothing about what might be considered standard protocol or not, for example. I don't understand. So foreign affairs staffers knew of her existence... so what? Articles like this are unhelpful, because they imply things but don't actually provide much in the way of evidence or intelligent discussion or analysis.
Of course artist should have to be scared about making statements about polical awareness... I mean why should any of the artists, writers or musicians feel that they have any power to change the world around them? After all, historically; as a demografic conglomeration, the arts community has been nothing but a thorn in the side of politics for generations. Lets just wipe out all the populous with a functioning cerebral cortex and then we will have mechanical grunts to perform all the manual labour while we reap the benefits of their efforts? Isn't that what media control is all about? I commend Franky James.
Sorry, as an artist I don't believe taxpayers should fund artists exhibitions nor travel, don't see waiters or waitresses getting taxpayers money and they work damn hard!
^^Okay, then do you also think that serving legal drugs (ie alcohol) to a bunch of mouthy, rude people is tantamount to actively educating the public through visual discourse?
I've done both art and bartending, and I can tell you - they're both hard jobs, but one is FAR more important than the other. It's not the bartender who starts the revolution, he's just the sucker who cleans up the vomit thereafter.
I would be honoured to represent Canada abroad - with or without a political agenda - and yes, I would attempt to secure public funding to do it. It's not the $5,000 that's the biggest issue (you can't get far on that) but the $75,000 corporate sponsorship withdrawn after intimidation is a total kick in the balls.
This isn't about whether or not you agree with this drawing or that, and it's not even about whether or not art should be publicly funded. It's about stifling a voice that dared to speak out and question a government's motives.
And if you want to get down to the nuts and bolts of it, this little venture probably cost them MORE in time and money than if they had just given her the $5,000.
Harper Undemocratic Actions againgst Canadians. The campaign began a while ago. Shame, shame and more shame on this pack of fascists.
Very nice acronym! I'm spreading that one.
The PC majority just passed Bill 29 which will make access to information even harder in Newfoundland. Look it up. Spread the word.
Sorry, as an artist I don't believe taxpayers should fund artists exhibitions nor travel, don't see waiters or waitresses getting taxpayers money and they work damn hard!
As an 'artist' do you support the government calling up the source of the private funding to persuade them to cancel their PRIVATE funding ? Perhaps you missed this detail of Conservative party behavior. I would also point out the quote that refers to her work as " against the men and women in the forest and gas sector of our great country" . The positioning of enviromental criticism as counter to other working people is to misrepresent the science of health AND long term investment that makes a society secure and accountable to the coming generations of humans.
Lastly I suspect the reason that Canada is described as a 'great country' is to threaten your individual doubts and not as a celebration of a free thinking democracy that is lucky enough to exist in this area of the planet Earth.
As an 'artist' and taxpayer do you support your representatives persuading a private funder to withdraw their PRIVATE support? I wonder what the content of that phone call was...But I'm sure that typifying enviromental concerns as counter to the working classes interests is ridiculous. A healthy economy is a manifestation of a healthy populous that is accountable to the health of future generations. Watch out for more misrepresenting statements from these radicals that use terms like "this great country".
It seems to me what is behind much of the dislike of artists is the power good artists have to express visually the state of the times we are living in, and to give a creative response to opinion on any aspect of our economic and social situation, that can easily be recognized in a visual context. Harperism feels artists should be watched and muzzled if they make visual statements that are against the government's beliefs. Artists are like scientists, we explore, experiment, research and then create something unique, unusal, and thus maybe controversial to have viewers think deeper about what the artist is trying to convey about the state of our society and liefstyles. The government seems to feel that what is good for the masses is art that is safe art, that doesn't make a strong revealing statement, but is simply aesthetically 'nice', so we all just become passive. Art is integral to society as the element that promotes free thinking and expression, to enliven people's imagination and promotes visions of choices to exposing anything that has potential to decay our individual freedom of rights to be open minded communities, and not repressed ones, that may become boring. The Nazi regime and Stalin rid and hid art to books to music that was not in their order of thought, and only allowed art that was safe, which only passified people to live simple safe lives. Harperism ideally wants that. He will also keep blacklisting, so we as artists are controlled and not reacting collectively as a movement in opposing government regulations and rules of law.
I short, what I have given more thought to is the main motive or reason for the Harper government to repress, harass, intimidate an innocent artist, focusing on Franke James.
It is a good choice for them, since it is a woman and an artist. Harper and regime is repressing her, using her as an example, to scare other Canadian artists. They hope the attention on her will convey to other artists that, if you mess around with government views and express freely about the government making wrong decisions, then they'll come after you, as an artist.