There’s an arts funding initiative in Canada that gives money to musicians and artists who could use a financial boost when touring. Sounds good, right? It seemed to work nicely for Toronto electro-rockers Holy Fuck, who used some of the money from the PromArt fund to help finance a tour of England in 2007. The group subsequently signed a deal with an English label and has returned to tour Europe again—any Prefix readers in Stuttgart can see them play tonight at the Schocken venue.

But the right wing Canadian government has rallied against the distribution of funds from the PromArt initiative, and has even cited Holy Fuck as an example of a band that were “unrepresentative, and at worst, offensive.” Those are the words of Anne Howland, who speaks on behalf of Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson. Holy Fuck bassist Matt McQuaid has hit back at the claims, pointing out that their portion of the funding “comes in at something less than 0.1 per cent of the whole program.”

McQuaid goes on to site a number of reasons why the band was deserving of PromArt funds, including the fact that their tours are now self funded, and that Holy Fuck has been nominated for the Polaris Prize this year. Sadly McQuaid’s words aren’t enough to save the PromArt program, as the government is set to cut the initiative in March 2009. Holy Fuck is undertaking a North American tour in September, full dates listed below. [CBCNews]

09.05 Detroit, Michigan: Royal Oak Music Theatre
09.10 Quebec City, Quebec: Pavillon Desjardins-Maurice Pollack
09.12 Chicago, Illinois: Subterranean
09.13 Morrison, Colorado: Monolith Festival / Red Rocks
09.17 Montreal, Quebec: Metropolis
09.19 Hamilton, Ontario: Pepper Jack’s
09.20 London, Ontario: LOLA Festival - Victoria Park
09.25 Toronto, Ontario: The Phoenix
09.26 Kingston, Ontario: The Grad Club
09.27 Peterborough, Ontario: The Montreal House