For those who weren’t on social media or watching Major League Baseball this week, a minor international incident played out when a Canadian singer opted to hoof a bees’ nest and hold up a sign declaring “All lives matter” during his rendition of “O Canada.” His ill-advised and tone-deaf wading into American race politics aside, the renegade tenor also had the audacity to alter the lyrics to “O Canada” mid-anthem to further reflect his off-kilter views, prompting yet more outrage.
The guerilla approach to anthem revision isn’t one we’d support.
But that’s not to suggest there couldn’t or shouldn’t be changes. We’re fully supportive of moves to drop the gender-specific “all thy sons command” bit in favour of a more inclusive “all of us command.”
It’s all but passed through Parliament but opposition to the change remains, particularly among the Conservatives.
Their memory is apparently short.
In 2010, they themselves pitched changing the lyrics to the gender neutral, if entirely obscure, “Thou dost in us command.”
If we’re going to tinker with words of our anthem, we’d rather the language become less archaic, not more so.
The argument against changing the lyrics seems to be that the word “sons” isn’t to be taken literally.
But pen was put to paper for the English lyrics of “O Canada” in 1908, ten years before women were allowed to vote federally and 21 years before a court ruling determined women were indeed “persons” under the Constitution Act.
They really did mean sons.
We’ll stand on guard for the new lyrics. It’s time our national pre-hockey game primer didn’t forget half the people in the stands.
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