Canadian lawmakers vote to make national anthem gender neutral

[habernac]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Do they go to charter school?

No, Catholic school

[jammies]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Do they go to charter school?

I assumed home school.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by calumniate

The whole thing should be revamped. It's too boring when compared to other countries. Then there's the gender, God and colonial parts to deal with

The lyrics to those more "exciting" anthems other countries have are far less politically correct than Canada's, what with the kings, queens, blood and bombs. Here's the Marseilles:

Let's go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain

Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This horde of slaves, traitors, plotting kings,
What do they want?
For whom these vile shackles,
These long-prepared irons? (repeat)
Frenchmen, for us, oh! what an insult!
What emotions that must excite!
It is us that they dare to consider
Returning to ancient slavery!

What! These foreign troops
Would make laws in our home!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would bring down our proud warriors! (repeat)
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brows would bend beneath the yoke!
Vile despots would become
The masters of our fate!

Tremble, tyrants! and you, traitors,
The disgrace of all groups,
Tremble! Your parricidal plans
Will finally pay the price! (repeat)
Everyone is a soldier to fight you,
If they fall, our young heros,
France will make more,
Ready to battle you!

Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
Bear or hold back your blows!
Spare these sad victims,
Regretfully arming against us. (repeat)
But not these bloodthirsty despots,
But not these accomplices of Bouillé,
All of these animals who, without pity,
Tear their mother's breast to pieces!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sacred love of France,
Lead, support our avenging arms!
Liberty, beloved Liberty,
Fight with your defenders! (repeat)
Under our flags, let victory
Hasten to your manly tones!
May your dying enemies
See your triumph and our glory!

Refrain

We will enter the pit
When our elders are no longer there;
There, we will find their dust
And the traces of their virtues. (repeat)
Much less eager to outlive them
Than to share their casket,
We will have the sublime pride
Of avenging them or following them!

Refrain

[Northendzone]

the fact this is even an issue is ridiculous - somewhere in Canada there is a group of people who will be partying this weekend because their life's dream was to see the anthem changed and on monday they will wake up and find they need a new purpose in life and will move on to something equally as important

meanwhile, the government continues to waste millions of dollars and go further in debt - but we got the anthem worked out!!!

[Tacopuck]

Can we just change the Anthem to The Hockey Song, by Stompin' Tom Connors. I'm pretty sure there will be less pushback than what we are seeing for this change.

[Fire in the disco]

What a stupid, pointless, unnecessary change to make.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by habernac

If the government is working on this as a priority, we must be officially out of problems.

*checks the budget deficit*

Nope.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by schteve_d

I guess I don't really care, but is the change to "In all of us command" the best? I'm not a linguist, but does that make sense? Doesn't "In all of our command" make more sense while staying gender neutral?

No that doesn't make sense at all. In this context, Canada is being treated as "the motherland" and it is this personification that commanding from within us the feeling of true patriot love.

"In all of our command" is pretty cynical in context as it means that we individually pick & choose whether or not we feel patriotism. It is something we have ultimate authority over, and it comes from an individualist, internal control. This is in contrast with the actual lyrics which state that it is our country that inspires (commands) that feeling within us.

This "controversy" is another case of people proving their short-sightedness and ignorance of history. This is actually a reversion to the original 1908 version which actually sounds great. Unfortunately, they've chosen to do away with the archaic english which sounds a lot better in prose.

ORIGINAL 1908 GENDER NEUTRAL VERSION
True patriot love
Thou dost in us command

Boo Hoo, Conservatives have actually won and they don't even know it!

[CaptainCrunch]

I would like to rewrite the anthem again, sing it with me to the stirring sounds of oh Canada

Kill kill kill killlll
crush, kill destroooy
Maim maim and kill
In all of us Command

With Glowing hearts
We kill those guys
We stomp them in the mud

From far and wide oh Canader
With kick some a%% for tee

Here take this bat
and swing it at their head
kill kill kill killll
maim main and kill for theeeeee

If we rewrite it this way we will finally have a good national soccer team as well

[Flash Walken]

Cash Grab

[Hack&Lube]

This should just be our anthem

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

I don't care if they change it. I'm still singing it the original way it was taught to me and I'll sing it that way till the day I die. In face, whenever the ''all thy sons command'' line comes around, I'm going to yell out ''sons'' even louder and I hope everyone else does too. I hope I get arrested for it too.

Is ''in all of us command'' even a sentence? It sounds stupid.

Your courage inspires us all.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by calumniate

The whole thing should be revamped. It's too boring when compared to other countries. Then there's the gender, God and colonial parts to deal with

NOOO,

Our Anthem is very singable and relatively modern. What national Anthems are better?

They should have gone back to the original working of "thou dost in us command" rather than this awkward fix.

The God part could simply be change to We'll, or Let's if that's an issue for people. Though I'd argue that God in this case will eventually just become a throwback to the founding as a nation founded on Christian principles as a historical note rather than invoking a prayer for god to keep the land glorious and free.


I sure hope that those singing it the old way are singing it the 1908 way otherwise that's pretty arbitrary as its only an act of parliament in 1980 that set the lyrics and its an act of parliament that is changing the lyrics.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c...icle/o-canada/

So if you want to be pedantic and sing the original version please choose one of the several original versions or better yet the unchanged French version

[Puppet Guy]

I've always thought that the line "our home and native land" should be changed to "your home's on native land". It'd be accurate.

edit: The Shat has it right:

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

There seem to be quite a few folks here that are both offended that they lyrics are changing, and can't fathom why people might be offended by lyrics.

Strange.

[para transit fellow]

I think we should follow-up on the effort of the Arrogant Worms to completely replace the anthem with their composition

"Canada is Really Big"

https://youtu.be/tOM-TmZBzZo


exerpt:

The USA has tanks
And Switzerland has banks
They can keep them thanks
They just don't amount
Cause when you get down to it
You'll find out what the truth is
It isn't what you do with it
It's the size that counts!

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Reaper

How dare they try to pass a bill before the author is unable to attend Parliament due to his rapid onset ALS? The nerve of some people...

Serious question on this- how is this relevant? I understand that Bélanger was the one who brought this forward, but why do we need to make the change before his condition worsens (or he passes away?) I'm not trying to be cold; just trying to understand the reason.

If the wording is "wrong", it seems like they rushed this through instead of taking the time to get it "right."

[Maritime Q-Scout]

At the end of the day is this really a big deal? It's not the first time the anthem has been changed, heck the song itself is French and they just made up lyrics for the English version; it's not even a translation.

Regardless, the French version is the better one anyway, let's just stick with that

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by SebC

You might further note that the Liberals actually expedited the passage of this bill so that the dying MP who introduced it could see it passed, and that the opposition protested that.

Not to be jerk, but the whole he's dying and wants it to be passed is irrelevant to me. I feel bad and have all the sympathy in the world for the MP. But Parliament isn't a back to school type of feel good story.

Passing a bill in a rush just because an MP just seems to go against the precepts of democratic debate, and insures that bills pass because of sympathy for the writer.

Oh you voted against Bob's bill, or tried to extend the reading, you're a monster.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by SebC

Even people who oppose Liberal policy should be able to see that they are doing work, like the assisted dying bill.

You might also note that this was a private member's bill. Our parliamentary procedure reserves time for such bills.

You might further note that the Liberals actually expedited the passage of this bill so that the dying MP who introduced it could see it passed, and that the opposition protested that.