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Bid To Make Canadian Anthem Politically Correct
The Calgary-based Famous Five Foundation
has safely got the statue of the so-called Famous Five Women erected
on Parliament Hill, and had their picture placed on the Canadian
$50 bank note. Just the same, nobody can remember their names. (For
the record, they are Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung,
Henrietta Muir Edwards and Irene Parlby. See Reality,
January/February 2001, "Famous Five Preserved on Canadian Currency,"
p. 14.)
The Foundation, apparently wanting publicity and
needing something else to promote itself, has lighted on a new project
which is to change the words of the Canadian anthem. These misguided
women have now decided that the Canadian national anthem, "O
Canada," is sexist and discriminatory because it uses the scandalous
phrase "all thy sons command." At the end of July, the
Foundation launched its new campaign by seeking signatures for its
petition campaign to change the offending words to "in all
of us command" or "in all our lives command."
Senator Vivienne Poy (sister-in-law of Governor
General Adrienne Clarkson) plans to table a bill in the Senate to
change the words and Toronto MP, John Godfrey, plans to table a
similar bill in the House of Commons when Parliament resumes sitting
this fall.
REAL Women's Reaction to the Suggested Anthem
Change
When we first read about this plan of action, REAL
Women was amazed that in times of a faltering economy, a failing
health care system and excessive taxation, anyone would be caught
up in such trivia. We just ignored this assault on common sense.
However, when the Foundation persisted in its campaign,
insisting that the anthem was an insult to the "women"
of Canada, we'd had enough! On August 1, REAL Women issued a press
release in which we stated:
It is apparent for all to see that the word
'sons' is used generically in the anthem to include all Canadians.
The Foundation seems to have a problem with
the word 'sons,' but they need not drag the whole country into
their personal problems and force taxpayers to underwrite the
cost of satisfying their angst.
We ended by stating:
REAL Women requests the Liberal government in Ottawa to address
the real problems Canadians face, especially economic ones, instead
of dancing to the tune of a handful of chronically dissatisfied
feminists.
We are gratified that we're on the popular side of this issue! A
Globe and Mail - CTV poll conducted on August 7,
2001, found that 77% of English Canadians (the lyrics of the French
version of the anthem are different) think that it's a bad idea
to make the lyrics of the anthem more inclusive and gender friendly.
It is surprising that these feminists want to change
these few words in the anthem as there are many other politically
incorrect references in the anthem as well. To take the words literally
is puzzling. Where will it end if we change the lyrics to accommodate
feminist sensibilities? The entire anthem is rife with words and
phrases that someone might find offensive.
An author with brilliant insight, Bernie O'Neil,
made a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the problems with our anthem,
which was published in the Scarborough, Ontario, Mirror, on August
5, 2001. We are grateful to Mr. O'Neill for his rare and delicate
understanding of Canadian sensibilities.
According to Mr. O'Neill, "Our home and
native land," is indeed offensive since Canada is a land
of immigrants. Senator Poy, for example, comes from Hong Kong, so
why doesn't she demand that "native land," be removed
as well? Maybe our First Nations can call it their "native"
land, but mightn't they take offense if we all call it "our"
native land? Even the word "home" is problematic, according
to Mr. O'Neil, since some people have Canadian citizenship, but
don't actually live here. Mr. O'Neil suggests that
a better lyric here might be: "Our summer place of residence
and land where many of us were born, while others moved here."
Next he suggests we definitely have to change "With
glowing hearts we see thee rise, the true north strong and free,"
because a) some people have artificial hearts, which rarely glow,
experts say, b) some people are blind and therefore don't see anything
rise, and c) some people don't like the idea of a country being
strong, as if we're going around kicking sand in other countries'
faces, which isn't nice. A better line Mr. O'Neill suggests would
be, "With various types of hearts, some artificial, we 'sense'
thee rise, the true north …"
Finally, Mr. O'Neill stated that the lyrics, "God
keep our land glorious and free" definitely have to go
as well. According to Mr. O'Neill, a far preferable line would be,
"O supreme being, or God, or four-leaf clover, or lucky
horseshoe, or whoever's in charge, keep our (or whoever's) land,
glorious and free, O Canada, we won't necessarily stand on guard
for thee, O politically correct Canada, …"
We stand in awe of Mr. O'Neil's enormous contribution
to and understanding of our Canadian identity.
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