Wouldn’t It Be Better To Force Them To Give More?

This week, the du Maurier Arts Council, a division of the du Maurier tobacco company, handed out its annual arts grants for the last time. A new Canadian federal regulation prohibits tobacco companies from being directly involved in arts funding, as part of a larger bill which restricted tobacco advertising. With money for the arts hard to come by in any case, many arts advocates are furious at the new regulation, with one theater executive saying, “The federal government telling anyone they can’t give money to the arts is a load of s—.”