UPDATE: Click here to listen to Lee Harding and organizer Ellen Quigley debate WAM on live talk radio.

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REGINA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on the City of Saskatoon and the province of Saskatchewan to refuse to fund the We Are Many (WAM) Festival.

WAM organizers intend to make participants sign a forty-point pact that obligates each person to sign another five to the pact. According to the WAM website, this pact calls for "community caucuses" to be formed, with potentially radical outcomes, including a ban on flights between major cities, compelling governments to subsidize trains instead.

"Why should our governments pay for free entertainment and activism " asked Lee Harding, Saskatchewan Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "Organizers should get money from private supporters and festival attendees instead of co-opting politicians who are all-too-eager to look green."

The festival, slated for Saskatoon's Diefenbaker Park Aug. 22-24, will feature music, theatre, visual arts and dance, as well as exhibits, symposia and workshops on the environment. The Star Phoenix reports that festival organizers "will ask the city of Saskatoon to be the festival's largest financial supporter through a contribution of $50,000 in cash and services such as free shuttle buses, special duty police officers, fencing, stages, utilities, washrooms and site cleaning."

"Right from the start, WAM's business plan has been to go after government for financial support," said Harding. "Organizers want a free party for everyone who attends, and for everyone else to cover the $328,000 tab. WAM has applied for help from the Sask Arts Board and the Sask Environment's Green Initiatives Program. It has publicly said it will seek an EcoAction Grant and awards from crown corporations.

"No government or crown should fund political activism," says Harding. "If this event really attracted 50,000 people, then $6.25 is all each of them would need to pay to cover all expenses. Citizens should pay for whatever concerts, festivals, or activism they want, not governments."