Oh, Canada — what words to use?
Re Take gender back out of ‘O Canada,’ group
says, Oct. 2 Gender neutrality and “inclusiveness” does not trump the historical importance of “O Canada.” Canadian men and women have been singing it proudly (and sometimes tearfully) for decades. Proposing a change to one of the best — if not the best — anthem in the world, denigrates our history and culture.
I am confident that the vast majority of women in Canada would agree with me. Shame on those who so casually yet blatantly seek to rewrite history to suit their narrow self-interest. Derek Forward, Burlington Putting aside this tiny but vocal and connected minority of self-important feminists, halfway literate persons understand that the term “sons” as used here is generic, not male-specific, and includes an entire citizenry — male, female, LGBT, whatever. Mel Glickman, Toronto As someone who worked in the trenches at Queen’s Park, changing “fireman” to “firefighter,” I am reminded of Ms. Atwood’s line, “Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.” Levi M. Sankar, Thornhill In deference to everyone trying to make the anthem gender neutral and politically correct, I offer the following lyrics: “Oh Canada! Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. Hmm hmm hmm hmm, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. Hmmm hmm hmmm hmmm . . . (etc.)”
This will reflect what most of us sing when at baseball and hockey games. Chris Churchill, Toronto Does Margaret Atwood and the Restore Our Anthem group’s desire to eliminate the word “sons” from our Canadian anthem mean they will soon want to alter the words: (man)kind, per(son), wo(man), hu(man) and mail per(son), along with the dozens of other words that end with man and son? Beverlee Rombouts, Peterborough Instead of using old-style language such as “thou” and “dost” in a replacement for “In all thy sons command,” it may be more appropriate to simplify the phrase to “In all of us command.” Kenneth O’Connor, Brampton What a great idea to change “O Canada” lyrics from “in all thy sons command” to “in all our lives command.” I’ve been singing it that way for years.
I also sing “our home and gracious land” instead of “our home and native land” since I am not First Nation, and changed “God keep our land” to “abundant land, glorious and free.”
Now the song is inclusive and everyone in Canada can sing it joyfully. K. Johnson, Burlington What’s next? “In the name of the Parent, the Child and the Holy Ghost”? Claude Gannon, Markham