O Canada

Going through Facebook today, I noticed that four of my Fabo Friends had joined a group called "Canada's National Anthem is fine the way it is!". For anyone not aware of this "debate," there was allegedly some discussion of changing the line "in all thy sons command" to "thou dost in us command," with the idea being that a gender neutral lyric would be more inclusive to, y'know, the 17 million or so Canadians Owith vaginas, or, more specifically without penises. Originally the song was written in French, with the first English lyrics being a direct translation. The initial incarnation of the lyrics as we know them was penned in 1908 by Robert Stanely Weir, which is where the "thou dost in us command" comes from. The words didn't take their present form until 1980. It wasn't until this year that "O Canada" even became the official national anthem. Let's keep this in mind as we peruse some of the opinions noted on the wall of this Facebook group.

Kristen Gault-Arnason says, "Because of "in all our son's command" - how do people think we have "sons" at all? Would be no sons without the Mom's first. It isn't excluding women and to think so is as ridiculous as the people who got all mad for "Manhole covers"". Ohhh... so "sons" actually IS inclusive because biologically, boys don't exist without girls. I see where you're coming from. So no one should take offense to "Smack My Bitch Up" because a "bitch" isn't a woman, it's also a man, because you can't have a woman without a man. I'm glad we've cleared this up.

Rose Lester says, "Leave the lyrics of anthem alone. If this is the biggest thing that the gender discrimination people have to worry about, they should consider themselves lucky. Also- O Canada is NOT a pop song, and doesn't need a vocal riff on every note." My main beef here is the misuse of the word "riff." If nothing else, taking a Pop Music course taught me that a riff is a repeated musical phrase/melody/progression (see "Smells Like Teen Spirit"). I assume that Rose's beef comes from the awful rendition of "O Canada" that happened during the closing ceremonies at the 2010 Olympics. If so, I share in her outrage and am willing to forgive her indiscretion.

Karen R Jennings Doyle says, "Our Country would be just fine if politicians would just worry about other things of more important. It's OUR country, our anthem. We grew up with this, leave it as is." Based on clicking on her picture, Karen appears to be a middle aged woman who was married in 1973. It wasn't until 1980 that certain religious references were added to the lyrics, so I wonder if Doyle, a Facebook Fan of "I'm a CHRISTIAN & I'm PROUD" really minds when these changes happen.

I hope that Chris Osborne was being ironic when he said "hopefully our prime minister will have some balls and keep it as it is."

Joseph Dionigi says "How come only our politicians come up with such ideas instead of getting to work to make the country better? We need to fight for more rights for women, fight crime against women and society, get after religious groups that want women repressed and fight for the environment not change the national anthem at a time of national pride!" and I can understand where he's coming from. What I think he's missing is realizing that language is a huge part of the systemic discrimination of women. If we are fighting this harshly to continue to use masculine-only language in something as fundamental to Canadian identity as our national anthem, then do you really think that we're ready to simply flick a light switch and stop sexism?

Sheldon Crouse says "it was changed once before... and then changed again to add the french lyrics..... we never stop wanting to change it. :(" Actually, the French lyrics have never changed.

Jaime Davey says " i wasn't exactly listening to the news, what is it that they want changed ?
-and im a girl and i still dont like feminists :P
men and woman are equal but im not gunna fight for our rights or anything ... id like it better if the woman dint have to work. lol i dont like working :P" 'Nuff said.

Ron S Galivan says "What they should do if they do anything is change it back to the way it was !!!!!!!!!!!"... which is what the idea was.

Albert Ralph says "And frankly, the line about God keep our land glorious and free is not offensive either.
God is a generic term that also can be inclusive and interpretative.
It could mean the Judeo-Christian God, but could also just as easily mean any god of any religion.
For those atheists who take exception, and believe that God is jus...t an invention of humanity, then the line means. "invention of humanity keep our land".
Again, it is poetry." Sure, I'll take it (except for the people who would prefer you say Goddess) up until you get to the part about atheists. "Invention of humanity keep our land" is one of the dumbest things I've read in this thread. My ranting here today isn't about the presence of God in the national anthem, but, as a serial doubter, I'm a little offended that people think that "God," which is probably the most religious word in existence, can be simply absorbed into atheist thinking, as though we just hadn't thought about it before.

Bradley Lapointe, who writes "what is our goverments trying to prove that we are all canadians in there little games they like to play .....the person or persons think it should be changed should be send somewhere they cant find there way back like the new brunswick goverment selling out to the quebec goverment .....its time for the people to form ...a goverment that wants to be there for the people and not to find a way to thickin there bank account and dig us canadian in a hole so that our generation would have to be sold to the us goverment and yes thats what our goverment would probably want to do next ...bring back the firing squad...." scares me. I'm also really impressed by the ability to take a discussion of lyrics, and boiling it down to how inclusive language is going to mean making people money (hooray), by selling Canada to the US.

Stewart L Morrison says "you gotta be f***ing kidding me...it's bad enough that part of it has to be French to keep Quebec happy (that province is a real pain in the ass and has made our Constitution not worth the paper it's written on too)...now some panty-waisted special interest group want's to change what little there is left of what defin...es us as Canadian...what's next I wonder?" Again, it's not "part" of the anthem that's in French, it's the original song. You have the option of singing it in English. I'm a little curious as to what exactly makes Quebec unconstitutional. And, while I am apprehensive about Nationalism (WW1, anyone?), I would like to believe that if people are getting this fired up about one line of their National Anthem, that they probably don't think that their national identity is all that fragile.

I believe we found the reason why Drew Fleming never did well at karaoke: "dont change the words just the beat will be fine. its to hard to learn a new song"

Steven Andrew Johnson says "anyone who wants to change the anthem is an anti-canadian bastard!" Bastard meaning someone whose parentage is illegitimate. Which, I guess explains why they would object to the "all thy sons"... since nobody wanted them. Oddly enough, Johnson didn't say "an anti-canadian bitch!".

Julien Jason Mazerolle, in response to a joke comment said "ok you are so fuck up... you dont got canadian blood on you.. so hope you died". Because killing each other will settle this.

Beverley Reeves "STOP CHANGING IT TO SUIT A FEW MINORITIES......... STAND UP CANADA AND STICK TO THE WAY WE WERE NOT HAVE THEM CHANGE ANYTHING.......... when we were young after our fathers fought in WW l and WW 2 and the Korean War, any foreigners or new immigrants had to have a job, speak our language before being allowed in our coun...try and didn't have the right to change our rules....... imagine if we went to their land of the not so free and started to rebel, what would happen..... stoned, jailed or shot.......... we have to stop and start protecting our rights as CANADIANS!!!!!!!!!" One of those rights being the "right of expression," or how about Section 28, which states that all Charter rights are guaranteed equally to men and women. I also kind of love the irony of her hate-on for immigrants, when the proposal to discuss the change was announced by Governor General Michaelle Jean, a Haitian refugee. I imagine Reeves was probably pissed off too when people told her that she could use the earlier words to "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe."

Nadine Bell says "Leave the anthem alone.... it is wonderful as is... all those freaky women that are upset over one word need to grow a brain and get a life!"

while Shantel Mclaughlin-Gould adds "like many are saying, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE IT!
Then take remembrance day out, cause if you think about it, your remembering back to the day when the anthem was made.
Idiots of the government." To which I reply, "What?"

Richard Lyndon best summed up the argument with "if u dont like the way things r with the anthem u cant be a true proud Canadian. This is almost as bad as the ragheads being allowed to wear the rags in the Legion." There's nothing quite like racism to settle a debate about sexism.

This Facebook group, sitting at 1508 members, as of this writing, is continuing to grow. Based entirely on unsubstantiated observation, I would guess that there are more female members than male. This group, as a whole, makes me fiercely angry. But, it also makes me grateful to the people who have raised me, and taught me, to think in a way that has allowed me to be so absolutely pissed off.