Canadian director David Cronenberg, shown in Cannes in May 2007, says the bill C-10 clause that affects filmmaking can't be fixed. (Francois Mori/Associated Press)

There is no way to create acceptable guidelines for the provisions in bill C-10 that will affect the Canadian film industry, Canadian director David Cronenberg told a Senate committee on Wednesday.

The bill contains a clause that would allow the government to withdraw tax incentives from Canadian films considered offensive. Heritage Minister Josée Verner has said guidelines would be drawn up to establish a definition for "offensive."

Whether the Heritage Minister watches every film or a cumbersome committee is set up to vet them, the decision would still be based on a subjective judgment, Cronenberg said.

"You can have all the guidelines you want but you can't cover every possibility of artistic innovation," Cronenberg said.

He questioned whether his own acclaimed film, Eastern Promises, would be eligible for tax incentives, given that it opens with a scene in which a man has his throat cut and other scenes depict sex with an underaged prostitute and a naked fight in a steam bath.

"At that first screening, you wouldn't have the context of critical appraisal or a Golden Globe nomination. I'm not at all confident that money would not have been withdrawn," he said.

Cronenberg called for the clause affecting film funding in bill C-10 — a wide-ranging omnibus bill covering many tax issues — to be withdrawn. The clause can't be fixed, he said.

He pointed out that previous presenters before the committee, including the Directors Guild of Canada, the actors guild and the Royal Bank, have consistently said the clause will undermine filmmaking and film financing in Canada.

"It's not just a bunch of overly sensitive artists overreacting," he said. "Unfortunately this provision has repercussions that perhaps the original framers were unaware of."

Bank said it wouldn't fund films

Even the Royal Bank has appeared before the committee to say it would not fund films under a system that would allow tax incentives to be withdrawn, Cronenberg pointed out.

"All filmmaking here is independent. The tax incentive is a solid, secure platform on which it's built," he said, adding that the bill would drive Canadian filmmakers out of the country.

Cronenberg spoke of his own experience with censorship, when the Ontario Censor Board cut his film The Brood before allowing it into cinemas.

"I was appalled," he said, describing how a scene involving delivery of an alien baby was cut because the censor thought it was repulsive, although it involved neither sex nor violence.

That was a personal judgment, Cronenberg said, and there is no way to create guidelines that would not be subject to one person's personal reaction.

"There is no good way to censor in a democracy," he said.