Harper Government blames national arts funding cuts on Polaris Prize Nominees

I realize that this story is a few weeks old, but I feel as though it may have slipped through the cracks somewhat.

Basically, the Conservative Government announced back in August that it will no longer be funding PromArt, a program which helps to subsidize and promote Canadian artists and musicians abroad. The cut: 4.7 million dollars.

PromArt sponsors not only Canadian bands, but also orchestras, ballets, film directors, writers - virtually anything that is Canadian and related to the arts. Needless to say the effects of this cut are far reaching. This cut is basically sending the message to Canadian artists and to the international stage that the Canadian Government does not want to promote and support Canadian artists.

While it was initially explained as a ‘merely’ a budget cut, it was soon announced that the Harper government felt that certain Canadian artists were “not the best choices to be representing Canadians internationally.” (quote courtesy of CBC.ca).

The culprits of this massive loss for Canadian arts is the Toronto-based electronic band Holy Fuck. It seems that the Tories took offense to the bands decidedly attention-grabbing name, and has blamed the entire cut on one group of musicians.

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that no one responsible for making this cut has ever heard Holy Fuck’s music. They play lo-fi, instrumental dance music and  I would be amazed to find anyone who could be offended by it. But they would actually have to try listening to it first. Not judging the artistic merit of the group based on their name. The group released their second full length, LP, last year to general critical acclaim, and the band has been touring nearly non-stop, playing some of the world’s most revered, exclusive and important musical festivals.

Oh. And they are shortlist finalists for the prestigious Polaris prize. Final Fantasy won it a few years ago. Here is the Polaris mission statement taken from the Polaris website: “The operation of a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics and experts.”

If the Polaris selection panel see Holy Fuck as being creative and inventive enough to possibly win this award, shouldn’t we, as Canadians, be proud of the band? It is not an easy task for Canadian artists (musicians or otherwise) to break into the international music scene (or market), and I think the argument could be made that in their respective circles (genre, demographics) and as far as non-mainstream music sales are concerned, Holy Fuck have managed to do it. And the name of the band is Holy Fuck. Surely we won’t be hearing their music on commercial radio (a terrible shame), but it shows that it is the music, not the name, that matters.

I am really frustrated and disappointed with the Government’s decision. Holy Fuck are but one band, who I am sure receive VERY little from the Government in proportion to the size of the funding, and to blame the entire $4.7 million cut on them is completely unfair. The group was merely a convenient scapegoat that Parliament, the Press and the public could blame for ruining the funding for the countless other Canadian artists who depend on it. No one was suggesting that Holy Fuck become Canada’s top export or write our national anthem. And with the very real possibility that the band will win our Country’s most exclusive musical accolade, I think the argument that most Canadians would not like to see Canada identified with this band is, I hope, nothing more than a convenient response for Ottawa. I would like to think that Canadians would take pride in their artists, especially those that have been recognized both internationally and at home, regardless of their name.