Margaret Atwood: Bill C-51 isn't just a 'secret police bill.' It's attacking the arts too.

Years of irresponsible government policies and message control have left a serious chill on free expression in Canada. From a crippled access to information system, to the muzzling of privacy experts and federal scientists, the Harper government has been operating under extreme secrecy, while placing innocent Canadians under the microscope with mass surveillance.

Margaret Atwood leads artists in a renewed push against C-51 on eve of election

Author Margaret Atwood and 200 of her fellow writers and artists are launching a renewed push to repeal Bill C-51 just 20 days before Canada’s federal election.

In an open letter published in Macleans on Sept. 29, the signatories warned that the anti-terror law endangers freedom of speech and expression, potentially restricting and criminalizing Canadian creative arts.

Margaret Atwood on Bill C-51

"Bill C-51 does not even provide the measure of oversight that other countries with comparable spy laws have," Margaret Atwood, told the National Observer in an emailed response to a request for her opinion about the proposed legislation.

Bill C-51 is an anti-terrorism act, which, if passed, will enact the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act and the Secure Air Travel Act, to amend the Criminal Code of Canada, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Fords should think twice about library cuts, Atwood says

Writer Margaret Atwood hopes the outpouring of support for libraries by Toronto citizens will be a lesson for Mayor Rob Ford and his supporters on council as they consider other cuts to city services.

Talk of closing branches “in a heartbeat,” as the mayor’s brother Councillor Doug Ford did earlier this summer, shows they did not think the issue through and did not understand how important the city’s library system is to citizens of all ages and walks of life, said the award-winning author. Ms. Atwood tweeted a link to a petition protesting proposed cuts that helped set off a verbal sparing match between her and Councillor Ford, the mayor’s brother and closest advisor.

Councillor Ford said he would close one particular branch in his ward “in a heartbeat,” and went on to say that he “wouldn’t have a clue,” who she was if she passed him on the street. Those remarks went viral and the councillor later clarified his remarks, saying he meant most people in is ward would not know her.

“They just didn’t think,” Ms. Atwood said Thursday after a news conference to launch a contest asking Torontonians why their library matters. The contest offers winners lunch with one of 11 distinguished authors.

Scorn in Toronto, acclaim in Hamilton

It’s poised to become a battle worthy of a novel.

Literary icon Margaret Atwood has accepted an invitation from Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina to tour the city’s newly renovated central library. The invitation is a tongue-in-cheek jab at the Rob Ford administration’s refusal to take closing libraries off Toronto’s list of potential cost-cutters.

Atwood, a vocal critic of Councillor Doug Ford’s contention that libraries, festival funding and arts grants are fair game for the budget axe, suggested last week that “contempt for creative people” could drive activity to cities like Hamilton.

“No one in Canada could possibly have missed your recent encounter in Toronto,” Bratina writes in his letter to Atwood, a copy of which was obtained by the Star. “It inspired us here in Hamilton to express to you our support for Canadian literature and culture, and our concern that someone of your stature as a Canadian cultural icon would be confronted with even the vaguest notion of obscurity or anonymity.”

Talking back to Toronto’s new Philistines

Welcome to the New Philistinism!

It’s got everything: an indifference or hostility to any arts, culture or community endeavour that might require government funding (except if it’s an NFL team), a tendency to engage in mean, dismissive public discourse, pitched battles that become operatic (Ford vs. Atwood) and an overweaning pride in being ignorant and uninformed.

It’s the Tea Party in the U.S. insisting on zero funding for just about anything that moves, but especially Planned Parenthood. It’s presidential candidate Michele Bachmann consistently getting her history and other facts mixed up and not even apologizing. It’s pouty-lipped Sun Media television host Krista Erickson conducting a laughably aggressive interview with award-winning Canadian dancer Margie Gillis, lambasting her for the grant money she’s received, then declaring proudly: “I’m just a cultural Philistine.”

Barbecue backlash and prayers for Jack

Literary icon Margaret Atwood’s attack on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford as being anti-culture and making his city unwelcome to artists is now provoking cries of outrage from the Harper Conservative bench.

A prominent federal Tory has jumped to the defence of the Toronto Mayor and his councillor brother, Doug, and is accusing Ms. Atwood of being blinded by her left-wing sensibilities.

“Her positions are reflective of her own ideology as opposed to anything reflected by Rob or Doug Ford,” says Dean Del Mastro, the Prime Minster’s parliamentary secretary and Peterborough MP. “She doesn’t like them (the Fords) because they are conservatives, period, not for anything that they have said or done.”

Margaret Atwood's inspiring defence of Toronto’s libraries

Put aside the question of whether or not Toronto Councillor and mayoral confidant Doug Ford knows what Margaret Atwood looks like or has read her books. What is shocking is his suggestion that a great literary icon should “go run in the next election and get democratically elected” if she is concerned about funding for libraries.

Ms. Atwood has an unquestioned right to stand for libraries. Every citizen does. As she says, “This is about what sort of city the people of Toronto want to live in.”

Lighten up Doug Ford! Thanks to Margaret Atwood, at least you'll get a footnote

Lighten up, Doug Ford! It's good to be given a sound public thrashing by Margaret Atwood. It's proof that your hitherto meaningless existence has been recognized!

After all, Atwood is an author of historical stature, the sort of person journalists describe as an icon without even bothering to look up the word. In other words, she's someone who, unlike you, history will remember as more than a footnote.

So you should treat the talking-to you've just received from her as a blessing, a gift from the Gods, proof that you are not merely a gnat, no matter what the rest of us may think.

Let's pause here for a little background: For Western Canadian readers who may have missed it, Ford is a Toronto city councillor of a particularly odious neo-Con stripe and also the brother of that unfortunate city's mayor, Rob Ford.

Margaret Atwood tweets to keep libraries open

Author Margaret Atwood says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother on city council are “swiftly approaching the ‘let them eat cake stage’ ” in their bid to cut costs at city hall.

The world-renowned author has been keeping an eye on the budget-cutting debate now raging in Toronto, passing on to her Twitter followers a link to a petition against the possible closing of library branches – part of a sweeping set of options presented by consultants on the hunt for savings.

As part of that review of core services, the mayor last week said he wants taxpayers to tell him what services to cut and what to spare, offering every citizen five minutes to speak at a special meeting of his executive that will begin this Thursday and is shaping up to be a multi-day marathon.

Doug Ford blasts Margaret Atwood over libraries, says ‘I don’t even know her’

Councillor Doug Ford has taken aim at celebrated writer Margaret Atwood over her campaign to defend Toronto public library branches.

Atwood earned Ford’s ire when she urged people to sign an online petition, started by the library workers’ union, telling city hall to ignore a consultant’s suggestion to close some of the 99 branches in the city.

Atwood took issue with Ford’s comments on talk radio that he has more library branches in his Etobicoke ward than there are Tim Hortons outlets.

Asked about her efforts, Ford said: “Well good luck to Margaret Atwood. I don’t even know her. If she walked by me, I wouldn’t have a clue who she is.”