Escape To Canada

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BY Jason Anderson   March 09, 2006 14:03

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Directed by Albert Nerenberg. (STC) 90 min. March 10-16. Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor W.

Though Canada is derided in the prologue as "a cold country," "stodgy" and, worst of all, "not very busy," the latest doc by Trailervision founder Albert Nerenberg suggests our days of two-hour donut breaks are over. Escape to Canada charts the aftermath of the summer of 2003, when Ontario legislators legalized same-sex marriage and marijuana. Such was the anarchy loosed upon the land, even Chrétien joked about his plans to smoke up. (Nerenberg includes a dramatization.)

Nerenberg also looks at Americans who want a taste of our freedom. Some hit the north to get hitched, some to avoid deployment in Iraq -- others only wanted somewhere they could smoke without fear of bummer. We should all enjoy it while it lasts because incursions by America's drug cops and moralists -- as well as own emboldened conservatives -- may stem that pinko tide. Alternately breezy, smug and cautionary in tone, Escape to Canada is more like a greatest-hits comp of factoids than a coherent examination of recent events. Still, it's a bracing reminder that these cultural battles are far from over.

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