Thrift-store find: relic of a racist past

An occasional series that examines odd, interesting, and even valuable items found in thrift stores or at estate, yard, and garage sales. Sometimes, though, it's just old crap

This shot glass found in a Value Village recently (Hastings Street, 99 cents) is decorated with images that were, no doubt, considered hilarious by some people in the not-too-distant past.

Its offensive depiction of drinking "squaws" and "braves" probably survived on store shelves, I would guess, until the late 1970s or early '80s. (Although, obviously, it lingers still in the thrift-store milieu.)

And it comes complete with an official-looking Government of Canada seal of approval in the form of Canada's Royal Coat of Arms (otherwise known as the Arms of Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada). This would seem to indicate that the glass's original point of sale might have been in a federally run gift shop or souvenir stand of some sort.

At the least, its makers probably sought and obtained federal permission to use the image for commercial purposes, as the royal symbol—first granted by King George V in 1921, and amended twice since, in 1957 and 1987—is protected under both the Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act. (The image is changed from the original in several aspects, however.)

I'm not sure what that says about the government of the time, although if one looks at the present state of Ottawa-First Nations relations, one could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps that kind of product endorsement might not be too outrageous a notion today.