Re: Tory flip-flop follows O Canada flap — March 6

In the recent federal throne speech it was announced that a change in our national anthem would be consider to replace the sexist wording “in all thy sons command.” There was a public outcry to leave our traditional wording alone. Funny, because the lyrics of O Canada have been changed repeatedly since Robert Stanley Weir’s 1908 translation from the original French.

Only six years later, in 1914, as patriotism rose to a fever pitch with the start of the First World War, Weir himself changed the words following “true patriot love” from the archaic and obscure “thou dost in us command” to the more sabre-rattling and rousing wording “in all thy sons command.”

O Canada, our de facto national anthem since at least 1939, when King George VI honoured it by standing to attention during the unveiling of the National War Museum in Ottawa, officially became our national anthem by an act of Parliament in 1980. At that time more changes to the lyrics were made. For the first time ever, the word “God” appeared in the lyrics. Some suggest this was to parallel the Christian sentiments of the word “cross” in the French version. Another change dropped one of the many repetitions of “we stand on guard for thee,” and adding “from far and wide O Canada,” thus honouring immigrants to Canada.

Of course, there was an initial uproar in 1980. But eventually, we all sang O Canada in harmony, as was abundantly shown during our recent Vancouver Olympics. Hopefully, “in all thy sons command” will disappear sooner rather than later from O Canada.

In 2010 there is no place for clearly sexist language, and little appetite to exhort our males to lay down their lives on a field of battle.