We at Birth Pangs are having too much fun with the fetus-fetishists and the Canada wordmark story. Lest this story die, here’s a little recap of events:

First,
David Eaves reports running into the march and seeing a banner with the Government of Canada wordmark on it. Both jj and I jumped on it, saying basically ‘WTF???’ Well, actually jj did say WTF? at unrepentant old hippie. But April Reign beat her to it.

Then we got into it here, as did many other bloggers. jj posted a second blogpost with a good picture of the banner, more information, and links to other blogs with more pictures and more information. (She has a third, dated May 13, that for some reason I can’t link to.)

Then Garth Turner entered the fray. Read the comments there. A bunch of fetus-fetishists try to explain it away with ‘arguments’ ranging from ‘it’s a tempest in a teacup’, through ‘nobody cares about wordmarks’, and ‘no one in their (sic) right mind believes the government supports the march’, finally to ‘everybody breaks the law at some point’.

Da Boss won’t let me link to the Chief Fetus-Fetishist’s blog where she continues with variants of the above arguments. But most of us know where SHE is.

Over on Freak Dominion, another FF shrugged it off with ‘the feminists complained about it last year and nothing happened’. Well, we at Birth Pangs don’t remember that. So, our Indefatigable Researchers, aka Da Boss and Holly Stick, looked and found a thread from 2005 at babble. There, babblers find the appropriate government email addresses, send emails, but there’s no follow-up, so we don’t know what, if anything, ensued.

Here’s what we at Birth Pangs think: the then-Liberal government didn’t want to be seen as bullying the nice church people.

So, this is our MISSION. Keep the pressure on this government so that they have to do something about the unauthorized use of its wordmark or come out and tell us that the use was authorized.

The wordmark is part of the Federal Identity Program (FIP), headed by that famous friend-to-women, Vic Toews.

Here is the purpose of the FIP:

The Government of Canada has an obligation to make evident to Canadians, wherever they reside, how their taxes are used to provide programs, services and infrastructure. . . .

1. The Government of Canada’s identity is to have primacy over the identity of individual institutions and is not to be overshadowed by unique identifiers and symbols.

2. The use of institutional symbols that do not comply with the Federal Identity Program will require the authorization of the Treasury Board.

3. Government of Canada identity requirements are to be part of collaborative arrangements with the private sector and other governments or jurisdictions to ensure strong presence and visibility for the Government of Canada and its programs and services to Canadians.

Strong presence and visibility, eh? Like at a demonstration on Parliament Hill?

Here’s how to contact them:

E-mail: information@fip-pcim.gc.ca

Federal Identity Program
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
300 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Canada K1A OR5
Telephone: (613) 957-2533
Facsimile: (613) 946-5187

And, of course, don’t forget to write to your MP.

Psst, fellow/sister bloggers: if you have blogged this story or plan to, add a link in the comments here.