Altering the national anthem
Re Make anthem more inclusive, Editorial May 10 In addition to making our national anthem more inclusive through gender neutrality, our anthem should also be neutral according to one’s beliefs. “God keep our land glorious and free” is divisive and excludes many Canadian citizens who are of different beliefs.
It should be noted that the original anthem did not have a reference to God, but it was included when the anthem was changed in 1980. No doubt, politicians were pressured by special interest groups to include it in the anthem. However, in our modern secular society, which attempts to be inclusive to all its citizens, religious references should not be imposed.
A simple change to, “We keep our land glorious and free,” would be inclusive to all Canadians. Peter van Tol, Mississauga
Your editorialists are back on the topic of revising our national anthem, supporting “in all of us” to replace “in all our sons.” While I sympathize with those who dislike singing the maleoriented reference in this line, I would dislike its replacement even more. It would be akin to patching a stained-glass window with a piece of drab plastic. There is none of the necessary exalted tone required of a national anthem in that prosaic phrase.
I might suggest something like “in all our souls,” but surely amongst the poetic-minded patriots in our midst there is someone who could save us from this mundane catastrophe by composing a worthy substitute. Over to you! Stan Farrow, Scarborough I realize that I speak with a voice from the previous millennium and that good grammar is bad form nowadays. Nevertheless, can anyone explain to me the grammatical structure of “in all of us command”? How can an objective pronoun (us) take the place of a possessive noun (sons’)?
Transfer this construction to a simple sentence: “Let’s send all of us money to Panama to avoid most of us taxes.” Or, “Let’s eat all of us candy before the rest come.”
Has anyone ever spoken like this? If it’s not anything like plain, usable English, why elevate this little abomination to the status of anthem? Is Canada not worth a decent line of verse? Have we not poets enough who might invent some less degraded form of utterance to express our love of country, still keep the rhythm and still be politically correct?
At least hold a contest instead of laying down an editorial dictum. Patricia Cash, Scarborough
A national anthem primarily is a patriotic piece. The words to our anthem, apart from the patriotic flavour, have a distinct appeal to God to save our land, keep us free, etc. The present recommendation, “in all of us command,” is hardly a fitting replacement. The metre is maintained but the words do not reflect the same spirit.
My recommendation to replace “in all our sons command” is “in all thy folks command.”
Folks is a fitting replacement for sons since it is gender neutral, is also plural, is one syllable to maintain the metre and represents people that is “all of us,” while invoking a higher power. Douglas Peters, North York
Having first learned the words (at least the first verse) of “O Canada” some 80 years ago, I have some difficulty in remembering the current version, adopted in 1967 to reduce duplicate “stand on guard” phrases.
I have no difficulty at all, however, in singing MP Mauril Bélanger’s version, “in all of us command” in place of “in all thy sons command.” In fact, his proposal is basically a reversion to the 1908 version by Robert Stanley Weir, “thou dost in us command.”
So, friends, because this is 2016 and July 1 is Canada’s 150th birthday, let’s all sing “in all of us command,” regardless of the antics of our esteemed MPs in Ottawa. William Lynn, Toronto
Yes, amend the national anthem to include both sexes. But one thing more is necessary to make it totally inclusive: For millions of Canadians, Canada is their home but not native land. The words should offer the option and read “our home and native (chosen) land.” Raymond Peringer, Toronto
Before Stephen Harper made the anthem into a one-gender song, we were singing “O Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love in all our hearts command.”
Such a small change makes all the difference. Or it could be “in all of us command.”
“In all our hearts command” is the way I still sing it. M. Schooff, Orangeville
I propose that whenever “in all thy sons command” rings out, every woman and girl sits down to signify how excluded we feel. Would this be disrespectful to our country’s values? Actually, it would be just the opposite. Terry Poulton, Toronto