Big, Bad Corporations to the Rescue

When the PMO took a playwright to task for her "sympathetic portrayal" of a Toronto 18 terror convict, the likes of TD stood up for her artistic freedom.

The next time you get sick of corporations acting all corporationy, take some solace in how this country’s corporate giants responded to an attack on artistic freedom earlier this month.

It was the big, bad corporations that came to the rescue when an unknown playwright was taken to task by the prime minister’s office.

It was the likes of TD Bank, Royal Bank, and Steam Whistle Brewery that stood up for the little guy and the concept of freedom of expression – at a moment when it mattered, when it would have been easier to go along with the federal Tories and curry favour with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The reason you may not have heard about this story is that it was defused by giant companies – the kind of company that gets no respect these days, usually for good reason.

It went down like this: looking to score some easy political points, the folks in Harper’s office let it be known they were unhappy with a Toronto theatre festival.

One of the featured playwrights, Catherine Frid, had penned a play that sets forth a “sympathetic portrayal” (her words) of one of the Toronto 18 terror convicts.

The catch? The festival, Summerworks, benefited from $35,000 in federal funding.

"We are extremely disappointed that public money is being used to fund plays that glorify terrorism,” a Harper spokesman said.

Here’s the encouraging part: even in the face of pressure from the PMO, the festival’s corporate sponsors did not back down.

"The intention of our sponsorship of Summerworks is to encourage and support young artists," a TD spokesman responded (as media reports pointed out, TD’s corporate headquarters would have been damaged, or worse, had the Toronto 18’s plans been realized).

"Artistic exploration is important and Steam Whistle fully believes in it," a brewery spokeswoman added.

The point here isn’t that public money should go towards supporting the arts. As a libertarian, I don’t support public subsidies for artists, regardless of their political leanings.

Nor is the point that Harper was doing anything unusual. He thought he could drum up some outrage in the dead of summer, a time-honoured tradition among politicians of all stripes.

The point is that the heroes of this story are the much-maligned faceless corporations. Without their support of the arts, this story would have blown up into a big deal – instead of blowing over swiftly, as it did.

I’m no corporate shill.

I believe bureaucracy is evil, and the bureaucratic mindset is all too common among many corporate employees, like the folks who answer the phone when you call to complain about your cable bill.

And I do realize that a company can be ethical only to the extent that the people running it are ethical. A corporation, by definition, cannot have a soul.

But in this case, I’m compelled to point out that it was the same monolithic companies we Canadians love to complain about that did the right thing. It certainly wasn’t in TD’s self-interest to defend the no-name playwright; it would have been a much smarter move to side with Harper.

We can only hope more big businesses will follow suit in the future.

This article originally appeared in the London Free Press.