Use
The arms of Canada are the arms of the Sovereign and signify national sovereignty and ownership. They are used as a mark of authority by various government agencies and representatives, including the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and most courts, including the Supreme Court. It is also present on all denominations of Canadian paper currency (in fact, the way the Arms are printed on each bill is a security feature), as well as the 50-cent coin, and on the cover of Canadian passports. Since 1962, a banner of the arms, defaced with a variant of the Queen's cypher, has formed the Royal Standard of Canada, for use by the sovereign in her capacity as monarch of Canada. In the Canadian Forces the ranks of Chief Warrant Officer and Chief Petty Officer 1st Class wear the coat of arms as their symbol of rank.
The full achievement of the coat of arms has been used by the Canadian government on occasion on a plain red flag, such as in 1967 for the country's centennial celebrations.
The personal flag of the Governor General has, since 1981, featured the crest of Her Majesty's Royal Arms of Canada on a blue background.
In response to a new campaign by Bruce Hicks for the Canadian Parliament to have a distinct heraldic symbol(s) along the lines of the portcullis (variations of which are used by the Commons and Lords in the British Parliament), a proposal that was supported by Speakers of the House of Commons John Fraser and Gilbert Parent, a Commons committee was eventually struck following a motion by MP Derek Lee, before which Hicks and Robert Watt, the first Chief Herald of Canada, were called as the only two expert witnesses, though Senator Serge Joyal joined the committee ex-officio on behalf of the Senate. Commons' Speaker Peter Milliken then asked the Canadian Heraldic Authority to authorize such a symbol and, on 15 February 2008, the Governor General authorized the House of Commons to begin using a badge of the shield of Her Majesty's Royal Arms in right of Canada superimposed on the Ceremonial mace assigned to the House of Commons as a symbol of the Royal authority under which it operates. Following the Commons example, the Senate then requested and obtained on 15 April 2008 a similar badge for itself with the shield of Her Majesty's Royal Arms surmounted on the mace assigned to the Senate.
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Famous quotes containing the word use:
“... it is use, and use alone, which leads one of us, tolerably trained to recognize any criterion of grace or any sense of the fitness of things, to tolerate ... the styles of dress to which we are more or less conforming every day of our lives. Fifty years hence they will seem to us as uncultivated as the nose-rings of the Hottentot seem today.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)