Anthem changes disrespect our military

About 60,000 soldiers killed in First World War

I write this feeling saddened of what has happened to ‘O Canada’. Bill C-210 — An Act to amend the National Anthem Act (gender) passing in the House of Commons by a vote of 225 to 74, I ask, “Where was my say?” O Canada to me is more than just a song we sing at the beginning of school or something we stand for at sporting events, but a tribute to those sons of Canada that have served this great country and for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us to be able to have the privilege to call it our Anthem.

The version that all Canadians sing today was written in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir, a lawyer and Recorder from Montréal. Weir’s original lyrics from 1908 contained the phrase “thou dost in us command” before it was changed by Weir in 1914 to read “in all thy sons command” These five words are not to exclude anyone, but were solely changed because of the men Canada sent off to fight in the First World War. One cannot look to the language of that period in time and try to rationalize equality. About 60,000 Canadians were killed during the Great War, and another 172,000 were wounded. Many more returned home broken in what we now understand as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

So why the debate? The notion that ‘in all thy sons command’ should be gender-neutral? I completely disagree. So much so that I decided to contact my member of Parliament for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, Bob Bratina, so I could try to explain why it was so important, and with the hope that he would actually listen to his constituents and vote based on their wants rather than what his party wanted. I was promised twice by his Parliamentary Hill Office that he would return my phone calls prior to the vote but that never happened.

I wanted to tell him that ‘in all thy sons command’ has a very important and very recent meaning for the City of Hamilton. My brother is an active member of the Canadian Forces. He serves as a Corporal in The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Princess Louise’s), which is an infantry regiment based at the John W. Foote VC Armoury in Hamilton. The same unit that Cpl. Nathan Cirillo served in and who was on sentry duty at the National War Memorial guarding the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier back on October 22, 2014.

Cpl. Cirillo was killed guarding all the Canadian ‘sons’ that do not even have a name on their final resting place. He was one of Hamilton’s sons that we pay tribute to every time we sing our Anthem. This is a reminder that ‘in all thy sons command’ is not an out of date, gender-discriminating phrase but something of the deepest respect and it is timeless. We do not have the right to change it.

Our Anthem also reminds me of my grandfather who served Canada in the Second World War in the RCAF as a tail gunner on board a Handley Page Halifax bomber. He flew 36 consecutive missions over Nazi-Germany.

I hope that Mr. Bratina can somehow show me or explain to me that the majority of constituents in the riding wanted the changes to our Anthem. If he can, then that is democracy at work and I will have to deal with it. However, it troubles me that there was not one Liberal MP that voted against the Bill. I expected more from a former mayor of Hamilton.

Despite what has happened, I will continue to sing our Anthem the same way as I always have and I urge others reading this to do the same every chance they get. O Canada belongs to all of us.

So why the debate? The notion that ‘in all thy sons command’ should be gender-neutral? I completely disagree.