One of Canada’s most venerable arts institutions is in an unexpected financial crisis. The Banff Television Foundation yesterday “confirmed that the 33-person operation, cash-strapped and burdened with debt, sought protection yesterday from its creditors in a Calgary court. The organization mounts cultural events such as the 25-year-old Banff Television Festival.” Officially, the foundation is blaming the SARS epidemic and the war in Iraq for much of its fiscal decline, but sources inside the organization are whispering that a pattern of mismanagement is the real culprit.