SHAWVILLE, QUEBEC | The Genie Awards are coming to town! And although this glitzy soirée takes place in Ottawa on April 4, we citizens of Gatineau and West Quebec will be expected to participate. "Participate" means to contribute. Contribute cash. We'll be hit up to fund a huge, flashy party for an elite group -- in Ottawa!

The Genie Awards are, in essence, the television and cinema people from across Canada giving awards to each other for their work over the past year. These are the people dealing with lights, camera, and action. They need another party, for sure.

Sound good to you?

How about using the same amount of money to fund an AIDS conference or to bring scientists here for an update on the fast-changing face of climate change? How about a symposium on poverty in native communities? Or a working meeting on how to build a national day care network?

Do we really need another circus, especially one with the movie and TV people who have been bringing circuses into our homes every day of the year?

No, we don't need another circus. There already are too many -- professional sports, television in general, federal politics, you name them. Why would we need more?

Photographs and headlines about the lives and cleavage of movie stars already crowd our supermarket checkout lanes; why is it important that we bring this show to the National Capital Region?

We don't need more flash, more smoke and mirrors, and more egos running wild. Nor do we need campaigns to climb Kilimanjaro for breast cancer research, to cycle across the country for dementia, or swim Lake Ontario for autism.

Enough with the egos! We need research, all we can get, but why all the grandstanding that seems to go with it?

Will people only donate to cancer research or daycares if there's a millionaire athlete without teeth or a woman in a low-cut gown soliciting our support?

A few years ago the Junos came to town. Lots of excitement -- in the media. Gatineau "participated" -- we sent a big cheque. And, sure, there was a payoff -- that singer, what's-her-name, who sang that chart-buster tune, what-was-it-called? -- her, yup, her, she came over to Gatineau city hall and signed the guest book.

There were lots of photographers. Gatineau scored big-time with that event. All of us recall the night of the Junos, don't we? All of us remember the side events and the celebrities all over the city. We remember the spin-offs, the boost to tourism, and the role models that our kids saw in the checkout lane media.

There are two things at work here. One is professional recognition and awards. This is important -- for the profession, for the people in cinema and television. We don't pay for annual conventions of chemists or airline pilots. They pay their own way. It's their profession, not ours. Movie stars are different?

Second is the supposition that there's an easy way to win fame, to promote tourism, to attract investments, and to bring people to live here. All we need is glitz, is the supposition. If Gatineau was Hollywood, our problems would be solved.

Is that what we're being offered?

Is that what we're buying into?

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Copyright © 2009 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/01.09