Escape To Canada

Informative and illuminating documentary
The legalization of marijuana and gay marriage are not my issues. The world has many bigger problems. But freedom is my issue. This film does a fine job of presenting a perspective on the energetic and relatively effectual fights for individual freedoms in Canada, versus the US where the fights are made to seem rather ineffectual. This is obviously one perspective, but that perspective is developed so well through interviews and film clips that intelligent adults will find it well worth pondering. I found myself motivated to do more study of these issues and to try to better understand Canada, which is terrific!

This is not a film that was made for kids. The film presumes that a few words here and there will remind you that there are reasonable Canadians who do not share its producer's perspectives. Again, that should be enough for intelligent adult viewers who have been educated to try to weigh a variety of perspectives fairly and to sample different points of view, but...

Freedom, Canadian Style
This documentary reviews the changes in the Canadian culture, percieved from both at home and abroad, that has occured since about 2001. From being a "boring" country that nobody really could say anything definitive about, to becoming one of the leading countries for freedom in the world. Canada is starting to stand up to the United States, and is thus getting a reputation for being "cool".

Highlighting the landmark 2003 Summer of Freedom which saw in Canada the legalization of both same-sex marriage and marijuana, the film traces the change in mass acceptance of these controversial areas through the Bush era. Canada seems to have come of age in its standing up to the United States for what it believes is right, in contradistinction to its previous little brother subservience to the American hegemony. In short, The United States is no longer the leader of freedom, and Canada has stepped up to the role.

Certainly Canada has a way to go, but the film points out...

educational and even entertaining at times--a very well done film
Escape to Canada is a rather interesting documentary about the struggle for gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana use in Canada. The documentary starts out making fun of "boring" Canada; but the rest of THIS tale is anything but boring. We get great interview footage with Canada's "Prince of Pot;" Canadians and how they feel about gay marriage and pot legalization; footage of lawyers who fought for a society with more freedoms and equality and much, much more. The footage is well edited and so the story moves along at a very good pace without ever being dull; and it also points out differences between our political system and our views as opposed to the Canadian points of view and the Canadian experience in general.

We see the Canadian struggles for gay marriage and marijuana legalization; and there is discussion about the medicinal benefits of marijuana that led to one lawyer's being able to make pot legal in Canada. There is footage of gay couples getting married...

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