UPDATE: Somehow, I managed to completely miss the fact that McVety and Rushfeldt appeared as representatives of the Canadian Family Action Coalition, and not Focus on the Family Canada. My apologies!


3:39:15 PM
Okay, I don't want to alarm anyone, but this may be the nicest committee room I've ever seen. I hadn't been here before today because it is all the way on the other side of the universe (in the Victoria Building). So why am I here? Because this is the home of the Senate Banking, Trade and Commerce Committee, which won the legislative lottery when it wound up with C-10, the bill that would withold tax credits from films deemed unsavoury by the government. Last week, Sarah Polley dazzled all comers with her impassioned plea for artistic freedom. Today, her opposite number, Rev. Charles McVety, will testify in support of the bill, for which he has claimed credit for shepherding through cabinet.

And he's brought his very own entourage, apparently - not only his wife and his second in command at Focus on the Family the Canadian Family Action Coalition, Brian Rushfeldt, but he also has a cheering section in the spectator gallery. At least, I think they're cheering for him. (One is periodically chanting, "Go, Charles, go!" But I suppose he could mean it ironically.)

3:53:17 PM
Okay, has anyone out there seen the movie version of "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"? Because Charles McVety looks exactly like the moral majority forerunner crusader played by Dom Deluise, the one who shuts down poor Dolly Parton's home for wayward girls. I wonder if he can sing?

3:55:40 PM
Now Charles McVety is pacing back and forth, I guess maybe to psych himself up for the coming conflagration. Oh, and just for the record, I predict that he's going to get a pretty rough ride this afternoon. Senate committees have a not entirely undeserved reputation of being considerably sharper and more focused than their cousins in the Commons. Lots of former lawyers - prosecutors, particularly - with a knack for keeping witnesses from wandering off on wild tangents.

4:01:01 PM
"You're the blog girl!" That's how one of the committee clerkettes just greeted me. "We see you typing on TV!" At least I don't have to convince them that I'm not a plant from a radical pro-pornography activist cell.

4:05:24 PM
So many cameras! It's practically Mulroney-Schreiber level media presence at the moment, although I bet a lot will trip off once they've got some establishing footage.

Senate committees definitely seem a little more lackadaisical as far as starting on schedule, though.

4:09:50 PM
And here we go. The chair, David Angus, just politely invited the cameras to leave. He welcomes all and sundry - witnesses, guests, webcast viewers, CPAC junkies - and gives a quick recap of just what the committee is studying as his fellow senators settle in for the afternoon.

Now he's gently chiding the House for not giving that section quite enough, i.e. any, scrutiny when the bill went before the other Finance committee. Senators can be kind of snarky, y'all. Operating in relative obscurity for so much of the time has apparently allowed them to perfect the art of parliamentary passive aggression.

4:15:19 PM
Brian Rushfeldt speaks first, and paints a dire and terrifying image of a world without C-10, one in which taxpayers would be forced to subsidize the filming of obscenity-laced orgies of bacchanalian fervour. He suggests that if we can't have standards, then maybe it's time to abolish all funding for the arts.

And now, the man we've all been waiting for: Charles McVety, Canada's very own Christian crusader.

Okay, he just referred to "Young People Effing," which always - always - makes me giggle. "We can't even say the word here, because we have standards!" he says. Actually, I'm pretty sure you can swear at committee, but it's not usually considered an effective debating technique.

4:22:12 PM
McVety quotes a Compas poll that he claims shows 80% of Canadians don't support funding naughty movies. Call me crazy, but I'd like to see the methodology. And the questions.

4:23:20 PM
Okay, what the heck was that? McVety just went on a tear about a woman he knows with an autistic child, who has to wear a football helmet to handle her kid, and doesn't get a cent of support from the government. Except - funding for ABA, IBA and other treatment programs is handled provincially, and has nothing to do with this bill. Does he not know that? He then takes a few shots at Dion and the Liberals, and concludes by telling the committee that if it doesn't pass this bill, he won't be able to face his ten year old daughter.

4:26:01 PM
That's it for the prepared statement. Onto the questions.

4:26:40 PM
First up: David Tkachuk, whose name I can never spell. He gives The Globe and Mail a shoutout, and then asks whether McVety is a registered lobbyist. No, he's not - he's a volunteer, although Rushfeldt pipes up that he is. He also grumbles that this isn't relevant to the subject at hand, but Tkachuk smoothly brings it back to the bill. He asks whether the group had meetings with ministers on the bill - cabinet ministers, that is - and McVety claims that he didn't. "We're irrelevant in this process," he claims, and rather unconvincingly claims that the first time he heard about this provision was when he picked up The Globe and Mail, and there it was all over the front page.

4:30:12 PM
Ooh, Rushfeldt just used the F-word! Scandal! He doesn't know if it counts as lobbying, exactly, but he did send an email to every MP about it. Which is, in fact, lobbying.

McVety, interestingly, is running far, far away from that unfortunate Globe interview where he was apparently misinterpreted into claiming credit for the bill, which he never, ever did.

4:32:04 PM
Wilbur Moore picks up where Tkachuk left off. The Globe article, he says, noted that he had "discussions" with Minister Stockwell Day, and other officials. True or false?

And now, the dancing begins. Sure, McVety says, over the years, he's had discussions with lots of MPs, and ministers, and... "Was Stockwell Day one of those ministers," Moore interrupts. Eventually, McVety admits to "discussions" with Day, and Rushfeldt to similar "discussions" with Rob Nicholson.

4:35:09 PM
Rushfeldt is getting very, very testy. He didn't come all the way from Calgary to answer questions, he says, huffily. This is supposed to be about the bill! Why not just answer them, then, suggests Angus. Grumble, grumble.

4:36:31 PM
We're now calling Young People Fucking "YPF." "What are we calling The Masturbators?" McVety asks. "The Big M," suggests the chair, which cracks up the entire room.

4:37:45 PM
Something you don't see every day: Charles McVety singing the praises of the Liberals, and Stéphane Dion, for supporting the bill in the first place. When reminded they've changed their mind, he sort of shrugs and says something about how Liberals change their mind on all sorts of things.

4:39:12 PM
When Moore asks how he would feel about having regulations imposed on tax credits for religious groups, McVety shoots back that there is no consensus in this country that religion should be banned. Yeah, he's having trouble, because Moore is one of those stealthy questioners. He lures the witnesses into a state of bliss and stupefied rhetoric, and then pounces on them like a mongoose.

4:41:42 PM
Brian Rushfeldt is going on and on about some movie that isn't Canadian and received no tax money, but was shown in this country despite the fact that it included lots of sodomy. I wonder if he's using the biblical or legal definition of sodomy.

4:43:31 PM
Denis Massicotte takes over, and talks about the risk of giving too much power to a minister to exercise at their discretion. What if they go wacko? Really, that's a perennial concern within a parliamentary democracy. I think that's why we still have a Queen. If cabinet develops a sudden case of collective psychosis, she can step in and save us. Or something like that.

"Don't worry so much about what might happen - just trust in the basic goodness of the government, McVety says. He then strikes everyone in the room momentarily speechless by referring to the "wonderful Charter," as we all waited for air quotes to denote sarcasm.

4:48:45 PM
Tommy Banks wants to talk about economic issues: How much support does arts and culture receive, compared to other industries? Rushfeldt tries to blur the issue, but only succeeds in demonstrating that he has about the same degree of understanding of fiscal policy as I do. That's not a compliment, just to be clear.

"We're not advocating the withdrawal of one dollar from the arts," McVety assures the committee. The senators look kind of skeptical. "Who wants to see YPF?" McVety wonders. "I guess we'll see," says someone at the table. Okay, really, I doubt that in their wildest dreams, the makers of Young People Fucking would have anticipated this much free publicity. McVety alone is a walking BlurbMachine.

4:53:47 PM
Now the senators are kind of ganging up on him, and daring him to do tricky things like define pornography, or come up with a single pornographic film that has received government funding.

McVety is going on and on about the survey from Compas, which, as it turns out, to no one's surprise at all, was commissioned by... the Canada Family Action Coalition, and the Institute for Canadian Values. I do love how McVety pretends to have been surprised by the results.

4:56:54 PM
The first woman to speak up so far is Senator Line Gravel, who also points out this is the first time the bill has received any significant amount of scrutiny because the House committee dropped the ball.

4:58:15 PM
McVety tries to be clever, and asks whether Gravel is accusing Stéphane Dion of abdicating his responsibilities. With a withering glance, she tells him that she's not interested in making this about politics, and when McVety claims that he isn't either, another senator notes that it certainly sounds like he is. Then, while McVety flails, and Rushfeldt attempts to pull him out of the radius of the propeller, she smacks him around with the point that if this bill passes, American films will be able to qualify for the tax credit when Canadian films would not.

This is almost painful to watch. Also, "Family tax dollars" is the phrase du jour. Coming soon to a talking point near you!

5:03:18 PM
Finally, Gravel tells McVety she's seen him on television many times, and has heard him take credit with her own ears, so he can just quit with the disingenuous denials. Okay, I may have paraphrased the last bit, but that was the gist.

5:05:04 PM
Mac Harb gives a long, rambling summing up of sorts about the passion that has spilt forth from the arts community during hearings on this bill, but McVety now, unbelievably, tries to minimize the importance of the bill, and calls it a "housekeeping bill" - "not a big deal." I thought he wasn't going to be able to look his daughter in the eye if he can't save this clause. I'm so confused.

5:07:51 PM
Now McVety is going on a poor-me monologue. Poor, poor Charles McVety. He's "irrelevant" to this process, and yet he gets beaten up (in debate) by people who make fun of his faith. Or, as is the case here, very politely eviscerate his argument by demonstrating that he can't answer even the most basic questions on the policy without speaking notes.

5:10:35 PM
If this bill is rejected, it will delay accountability for another year, he says. Accountability delayed is accountability denied! Wilfrid Moore, again, like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, notes the document McVety is citing - a report from the Auditor General on accountability - doesn't actually say what he claims it does. Which is always embarrassing.

5:12:53 PM
Finally, it's time for Trevor Eyton, the sponsor of the bill. Remember, senators tend to be far more independent-minded, which means he's not just the government's dogsbody on this file. He promptly breaks McVety's heart by asking him, once again, whether he spoke with anyone in government about the issue. And once again, McVety adamantly denies any discussions. "Some of the media has been misreporting that," says another senator.

5:15:53 PM
Eyton brings up the minister's now infamous slip of the mic, when she admitted that she hated the bill, and plans to hold consultations during the parliamentary hiatus. McVety makes sad noises over the suggestion that she'll only talk to the industry and not "community groups" like, well, his organization.

5:17:31 PM
The chair warns that the meeting is now in serious overtime - which is true.

5:18:34 PM
Charles McVety just made my day by mixing up 'necrophilia' and 'necromancy' while condemning the decision to fund 'Kissed,' which was based on a Canadian novel and starred Molly Parker, most recently seen on HBO playing a seriously smokin' hot laudalin addict on Deadwood.

5:21:36 PM
Having had a chance to look at the survey, the chair is now picking it apart, much to McVety's discomfort. He brings up another survey by Angus Reid that asked specifically about the bill, and found 47% were against C-10 being passed in its current form. McVety tries to interrupt, and the chair smacks him down. 

"I didn't interrupt you," he reminds McVety.

"I'm not," McVety interrupts, sulkily.

The exchange then descends into utter farce when McVety is forced to admit that the only way he got his poll to say what it did was by asking a ridiculous question like, "Should the government fund child pornography?"

5:27:07 PM
David Angus tries to force McVety to admit that he misrepresented the AG's report, which didn't say one word about pornography, and he gets all bale-faced and balky.

5:28:12 PM
One more question from Mohina Jaffer, who wants to know how on earth we can determine "Canadian standards." He explains how the parliamentary system works, including the roles played by the House and Senate, and it isn't patronizing at all. Really.

5:31:04 PM
The chair wraps up, makes a joke, and suspends for five minutes, which is our cue to flee for the hills before the other witnesses spot us and make us feel bad for leaving before they've made their presentations.