November 25, 1994 For Immediate Release
BREITKREUZ' RATING OF GAY & LESBIAN VIDEOS DRAWS FIRE
Winnipeg - On November 8th, Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville issued a news release deploring the National Film Board Gay and Lesbian Video Collection which cost taxpayers over six million dollars. One of the videos called "Forbidden Love" even comes with a warning label which states that "due to explicit nature of certain scenes, viewer discretion is advised".
Breitkreuz reported, "Most media ignored the central purpose of our news release which was the lack of accountability at the National Film Board(NFB). We have to question a flawed decision making process which would allow the NFB to spend $6 million of taxpayers money to produce ten videos for which there is little public demand."
"Many media interviewers tried to make this a censorship issue and objected to the fact that I had not actually seen the videos. The point is that I never want to see these videos nor do the vast majority of Canadians. In fact, I am not interested in seeing any video produced with taxpayer's money which requires warning labels," Breitkreuz explained.
One letter to the editor in a Montreal newspaper even accused Garry of being "homophobic" prompting this response from the Yorkton-Melville MP, "I have no axe to grind with gays and lesbians on this particular issue. The people who want to see these videos should pay the $6 million it cost to have them produced. I think most Canadians will agree with my position that taxpayer's money should not be used to promote the special interests of any group in our society, including homosexuals," stated Breitkreuz. When asked what the National Film Board should be spending money on he replied, "I don't think they should be spending any taxpayer's money at all."
Note: The NFB is estimated to spend $81.6 million in 1994-95 - See details attached
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