Godspeed You! Black Emperor won the 2013 Polaris Music Prize in Toronto on Monday night.
While the band, who was not in attendance, was thankful for winning the Canadian award and $30,000, they were also critical of the award's show, CBC reports.
"Thanks for the nomination thanks for the prize - it feels nice to be acknowledged by the Troubled Motherland when we so often feel orphaned here," the band said in a statement.
The band then moved on to criticizing the event, saying that "organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn't serve the cause of righteous music at all."
The band added, "Maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords. and maybe a party thusly is long overdue."
The gala took place this year in The Carlu on Yonge Street, when before it was held at the Masonic Temple.
The band plans on putting the money towards music education in Quebec prisons.
According to Rolling Stone, the Polaris Music Prize is determined by 200 Canadian journalists, broadcasters and bloggers who judge new music based upon artistic merit. A panel of 11 judges then debate the shortlist.
The shortlist for the 2013 prize included Metric, Purity Ring, Tegan and Sara, Young Galaxy, METZ, Colin Stetson, A Tribe Called Red, Whitehorse, Zaki Ibrahim and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
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