FC: More on Canadian smokers-rights group and flag flap

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 14:37:24 -0500 (EST)
From: farrellj <farrellj () sympatico ca>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Cc: politech () politechbot com
Subject: Re: FC: Canadian government orders smokers-rights group to delete flag

> Your friend plevy () citizen org thought you might be interested in this National Post story:
>
> Take Canadian flag off Web site, government tells smokers' group
> http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20020130/1282714.html
>
> [...]
>
> The federal government ordered a smokers' rights Web site to remove their
> image of the Canadian flag, claiming the trademarked logo misleads
> Internet surfers into thinking the site has government approval.
>
> The directive sparked wild allegations in e-mail chat rooms that the
> government was unfairly targeting the libertarian lobby group Forces
> Canada, which is devoted to preventing the "hysteria and extremism of the
> U.S.-led anti-smoking movement from infecting and corrupting Canadian
> society."

        Well, as usual, things are not always as they seem...

        I have worked on a Canadian Government website (strategis.ic.gc.ca),
as well as a Science Fiction Convention (CAN-CON:The conference on Canadian
Content in Speculative Arts and Literature...www.achilles.net/~cancon) that
has recieved funding from the Canadian government. So this gives me a good
perspective on the situation.

        If you go to any Canadian Government website, such as
http://canada.gc.ca you will see what they call the WordMark, which is the
combination of the Canadian Flag with the department in question...at this
web site, it is all of the government...Government of Canada/Gouvernment du
Canada, in that sans serif font. As well, events, groups, publications etc.
that recieve government funding also have to display the WordMark to give
credit where credit is due. For CAN-CON, we had to put it on all of our
flyers and publications. This is the only public thing you need to do to
acknowledge that you got funding from a Federal Government Department. And
it is the only way to know if the group or activity has federal funding,
without a lot of work.

        Now if this so-called smokers' rights group used the exact same
format with the small Canadian Flag with Forces Canada in the same
font...then it is not wonder that they were told to take it down. They would
be impersonating a federally funded web site. Which I gather they are not.

        It would be like someone using the US Presidential Seal to pretend
to having the approval of your President for their site, (and it is not a
satirical site.) I am sure your government would be all over the site, and
rightly they should. Imagine if a site that was soliciting funding for al
Qaeda used the Great Seal of the United States to pretend that they have the
approval of the US Government.

        No one should defraud people by pretending to have approval of their
government when they don't.

        And that is the issue, not the smoke screen that the spin doctors of
Forces Canada have created. I am sure that if they plastered a huge Canadian
Flag on their home page, they would not have any problem with the Canadian
Government.

ttyl
     Farrell McGovern

p.s. Can we invoke Godwin's Law, since the site in question uses quotes from
Nazis?

p.p.s. I just found a jpg of the site and the image in question, and indeed,
the version of the Canadian Flag with that San Serif font saying Forces
Canada (similar to the Canadian Forces, our Military) is similar to the
WordMark used by the Canadian Government.



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