Canada Style Censorship: Parks Canada rejects movie after learning First Nations in storyline

The Calgary Herald reports:

A movie production team was denied permission to shoot in the Rocky Mountain national parks after Parks Canada staff learned the film's plot involved an indigenous gang leader.

"They expressed a real concern that this was not something they would favour," said Mark Voyce, location manager for a film project that had been scheduled to start shooting later this month.

Voyce is working for Michael Shamberg, a film producer whose past credits include movies such as "Erin Brockovich," "A Fish Called Wanda," "Garden State," "Gattaca" and "Get Shorty."

Shamberg is currently working on a project called "Hard Powder," a crime drama ostensibly set in a Colorado ski town.

Action star Liam Neeson is to play an honest snowplow driver whose son is murdered by a local drug kingpin. He then seeks to dismantle the cartel, but his efforts spark a turf war involving a First Nations gang boss, played by First Nations actor, musician and Order of Canada member Tom Jackson.

Director Hans Petter Moland had hoped to shoot scenes in Banff, the Lake Louise townsite and ski hill, and the Columbia Icefields.

No free speech for you!