TRUE NORTH STRONG, FREE, COOL?

Humour Sharpens Points About Politics, Pot, Gay Marriage

Thinking of Canada as some hyper-libertarian bogeyman - a modern day
Sodom and Gomorrah - is an intriguing and hilarious concept.

Our fretted, feted warts and misunderstood ways are on display in
Escape to Canada, a documentary charting the rise and fall of
Canada's liberal permissiveness.

The film runs today through Monday at the Metro Cinema in Zeidler
Hall in the Citadel Theatre.

Directed by Albert Nerenberg, Escape to Canada explores the story
behind 2003's removal of the marijuana prohibition and the
legalization of gay marriage, events that coincidentally and
infamously happened on the same day.

For better or worse, depending on your perspective, July 20, part of
the "summer of legalization," was a watershed moment for freedom in
Canada.

However, within months, the Supreme Court of Canada put the pot
prohibition back in place and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's
Conservative government is currently taking steps to reinstate the
traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

So much for that, then.

In this era of slanted, Michael Moore-styled documentary filmmaking,
Nerenberg doesn't sit on the fence. Canada being only the third
country in the world to legalize gay marriage is something he clearly
thinks should be celebrated and, hey, a little weed never hurt
anyone, eh?

Heck no, says U.S. President George Dubya Bush.

In the film, the demonization of Canada amongst America's religious
right is profound.

Up here, by not agreeing to go to war in Iraq, we became a haven for
terrorists, who, for all their evils, might as well be gay, too. It's
an anarchic state of affairs that we all sit around toasting with the
gateway-drug joints we haven't shipped down to infect the U.S.

That portrait of Canada is mostly tongue-in-cheek, however. Most
Canadians interviewed in the film tout our inoffensiveness and
trumpet our freedoms as to what makes Canada a great country. More
often than not, though, we define our identity by virtue of how we're
not Americans.

Regardless, the film's a fascinating account of the effect Canada's
had on U.S. policy.

Canada's first gay marriage between Toronto's Michael Leshner and
Michael Stark in 2003, for instance, is partly credited in the film
for helping get Bush re-elected in 2004. It enabled the Republicans
to make the sanctity of traditional marriage - not flawed
intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - more of an
election hot button. Whoops!

A 2002 declaration by then Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell to simply
legalize marijuana was a high-profile slap in the face for America's
ballyhooed war on drugs.

In the States, anti-pot TV commercials abound. But in Canada, we've
since moved on to the more pressing problem of meth. Serious
questions about Canada and America's national priorities are raised
often in Escape to Canada.

But the documentary is also filled with a lot of laughs. One sequence
in the film collects footage from a series of supposedly alcohol-
induced riots from across Canada contrasted against a bunch of sedate
peacenik pot rallies. It's a fairly manipulative moment, but one that
still rings true and funny.

Better still is watching revered Canadian author Pierre Berton - who
revealed he was a pot smoker shortly before his death in 2004 - give
instructions on how to properly roll a "coner." The tutorial is worth
the price of admission.

[SIDEBAR]

ESCAPE TO CANADA

STAR QUALITY: Bono, George W. Bush, Bill Maher, Marc Emery.

BEHIND THE CAMERA: Albert Nerenberg (Stupidity, It's a Riot).

NOW PLAYING: At Metro Cinema (Zeidler Hall, Citadel Theatre),
tomorrow through Monday at 9 p.m.

RATING: PG (nudity).

SUN RATING: 4 SUNS (out of 5)