The Jesus-Turd Album Art That Ignited a Canadian Political Firestorm
Hear ye, hear ye! Canada's Conservative majority government was officially sworn in yesterday. First order of business? This etching of Jesus Christ, re-imagined as a steaming, fly-ridden turd. That vivid illustration can be found inside the CD packaging for Vancouver punk rockers Living with Lions's brand new release, Holy Shit, whose cover resembles a leather-bound bible.
The problem lies with the Canadian government logo located on the back. It's there because the album was produced using a grant of $13,248 from public arts agency FACTOR — The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings. In other words, Canadian taxpayer dollars.
LA Weekly first posted the incendiary materials two days ago, making note of the Canada government connection. That post quickly found its way to the desk of Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages James Moore (a Conservative party member who identifies as a "big fan of information technologies" on his official website), who's made it his number one priority to exorcise the evils responsible for this act of publicly sanctioned, Jesus-Turd blasphemy.
"The content of this CD is offensive and the fact that it is clearly designed to offend a group of Canadians based on their faith is simply wrong," James Maunder, Moore's spokesman, said in a statement sent to The Vancouver Sun.
"The Minister has called Duncan McKie, president and CEO of FACTOR to express his profound disappointment with this content."
Yup. It's official. We've just Freaky Friday'd with Canada. [LA Weekly, Vancouver Sun, album art photos via LA Weekly]