Login / RegisterKevin Krueger says arts-funding threats were "no different than a junkie waving a needle"
For the second time in just over a week, Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Kevin Krueger has claimed he was threatened by the Alliance for Arts and Culture.
In late August, he alleged that an unknown arts organization in Vancouver basically practised "extortion" against him in a meeting.
The alliance offered a radically different version of events.
On September 1, Krueger was at it again, this time on a C-FAX Radio show hosted by Adam Stirling,
"They have since said a couple of times publicly through their senior spokespeople that they were the organization that I referred to in a CBC interview as having threatened me," Krueger said, according to a transcript on the Stop B.C. Arts Cuts blog. "I was threatened in a meeting with them in a way that didn’t seem that much different to me than a junkie waving a needle if I was confronted by somebody on skid row who was high. It was just blatant. It was an outright threat. 'You give us more money or else.' I told him it was inappropriate, didn’t accept it, was not willing to carry their threats to my colleagues and my Premier, as they had said that I should."
(In a blog posting today on the HST, I mentioned a book, The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, which explains how politicians can sometimes develop distorted memories.)
Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.
Kevin, we know you're upset. It's clear that you're hurting -- it really shows. As a friend, I'm telling you that you need to take some deep breaths and relax. Think of a happy place. Stop, and count to ten, before you say even more things you are going to regret.
Oh, and stop interfering politically in the work of the B.C. Arts Council, and increase their funding to the per-capita levels found in other provinces. We'll help with that.
p.s. Put the Gaming $$ back and restore the capital tax on banks. Were they really hurting?
www.claireart.ca
Minister Kreuger keeps talking about himself, but this is not about him. It is about the future of our culture, our society and our economy.
A strong minister goes to the Cabinet table and advocates for his ministry and services and programs. A strong minister is more interested in his ministry than in his own not very interesting subjective experiences.
Our future hangs in the balance. Strike another one for the weakest cabinet in BC history.
The man is ridiculous. He has lost ALL credibility. No one in the arts community will talk to a man who compares us to junkies waving needles. No one should. His views are, well, demented.
In a democracy, Kevin, you work for us.
At least until the next election. With your latest tirade you have made yourself a joke, and no politician can endure the ridicule which -- even now -- follows.
Perhaps you confused Bramwell Tovey waving a baton with a junky waving a needle? Hard to tell. You are really, really out of the picture. Pitiful.
However, Mr. Krueger has done a great job of discrediting himself with this one, and for that I'm grateful. It may shift the public's attention away from that shell-game re-announcement of already-announced arts money the other day.
The second meeting was designed as a "heads up". If you don't fight to keep your Ministry alive, we will go to our audience and appeal to them. He took it as a threat and unfortunately equated artists with homeless drug addicts, using whatever weapon was at hand. He did not even have the decency to thank the visual artists of BC who, at the end of that so called "vicious" meeting presented him with a beautiful basket brimming with hand-made art cards (blank inside with a short biography of the artist and envelope) that he could use to respond to the flurry of letters he was complaining about receiving. We gave him many chances to become our hero, but he continues to play the court fool.
From the Alliance's blog post on this topic:
“Minister Krueger opened that meeting last November by telling us that we should “stand down” our advocacy efforts, and that if we didn’t we could be doing “more harm” to ourselves and our cause. The implications of that comment seemed clear, but we never considered accusing the minister of threatening us.”
But never mind setting the record straight. Minister Krueger's remarks are not just imbalanced and ill-befitting a minister of the crown, they're defamatory. Full stop.
Mr Campbell, please locate an individual competent to deal with this portfolio.
The meeting the minister talks about happened 9 MONTHS ago. What has possessed him to bring it up in the middle of the only decent news cycle the government has had with the arts sector in a year?
Is he hoping to divert attention away from Jane Danzo's incendiary letter of resignation? Does he like getting on the radio? Is he trying to goad the sector into full confrontation?
None of this makes the slightest sense. There is something inexplicable about this whole tempest in a teacup.
Kamloops has been a swinger in the past -- and both Zalm and NDP will be up there --- Recalling one - why not both?
Get the Coquihalla highway footage out --replace Krueger's picture with one of a sasquatch - and your off to the Recall races.
"Like junkies waving a needle" he says.
Really...
The Minister has become goofy. Not merely offensive, and busy uttering slanders. He has become positively goofy.
As he is arguably the worst Minister of Culture in memory, does he feels inadequate and ashamed?
Perhaps one day there will a Minister of Culture with a job description noting this sector employs 80,000 workers and attracts audiences of hundreds of thousands - all current or potential voters.
And yes, it is a job for a grown-up adult.
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