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Ottawa may change anthem to make it gender neutral

Quote:

By Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA - All those renditions of O Canada during the Vancouver Olympics seem to have the Prime Minister's Office singing a new tune.

Maybe it was all those women athletes on the podium that did it. Whatever the cause, the Conservative government is not standing on guard for O Canada and has proposed re-examining the anthem's reference to "all thy sons command."

One of the surprises in Wednesday's speech from the throne was a promise to "examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem."

While a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper later insisted the government is not taking a firm position, Andrew MacDougall did confirm they are referring to an examination of the phrase "in all thy sons command."

"We are simply suggesting that a parliamentary committee examine the subject and report back to Parliament," said MacDougall.

He noted that the original 1908 poem on which the lyrics were based refers to "True patriot love thou dost in us command."

Politicians have been proposing a rewording of the anthem's third line since at least 1990, but every proposal has been shot down as political correctness run amok.

"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," the right-wing women's organization said in a 2003 news release.

Industry Minister Tony Clement now says it is a debate whose time has come.

"The prime minister has heard from some Canadians on this and I think it's better to have a fulsome debate, rather than just shuffling it off," Clement said Wednesday.

Clement said he has heard complaints from some of his constituents as recently as last week.

"I think this has been rolling around for a while actually," said the MP from Parry Sound, Ont.

"Maybe it was a bit subterranean . . . . (But) we got so used to singing O Canada at the Olympics, maybe it became more top of mind, I don't know."

Andrew Cohen, president of Historica Institute, said the history-promoting organization supports changing the lyrics.

"We think if you can modernize the anthem by returning to the past, it's a wonderful thing," Cohen said in an interview. "But if you can modernize it simply by having to make a change that is inoffensive, we're for it."

The leaders of both the NDP and Liberals are endorsing the change, although with some qualifications about the government's motivation.

"Anything that makes a national anthem more gender sensitive is a good thing," said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.

"But I mean no disrespect for those who feel strongly on this issue but for heaven's sake, we've got some very important challenges and every time the government is asked to do something real, it does something symbolic."

NDP MP Irene Mathyssen said she's been advocating the change for a long time.

"I find it interesting though that they're caught up in this concern about language and they're forgetting absolutely that equality is dependent on a whole number of other things that are missing from this throne speech," said Mathyssen, noting there is no mention of a commitment to affordable housing or child care in the Conservative blueprint.

"It's lovely to have words but this is a government of words. I want to see some actions."

Liberal MP Judy Sgro said she has never been bothered by the lyric and accused the Conservatives of diversionary tactics.

"I think they look at all kinds of diversions to get people thinking and talking about other things rather than the $56 billion deficit and the unemployed and all the other issues we should be talking about," said Sgro.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1..._speech_anthem

lol what

what they gon change it to? Homo Sapiens?

ottawa can go fuck themselves.

even if they change it, i'll sing the original one. it's the one that made me really proud of canada during the olympics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StealthFighter (Post 6843288)

ottawa can go fuck themselves.

even if they change it, i'll sing the original one. it's the one that made me really proud of canada during the olympics.

"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," the right-wing women's organization said in a 2003 news release. "

NAH......... the feminist can go fuck themselves (they probably do anyways...).

The politicians are just taking sides that the feminist are trying to push. Ottawa is really just taking the issue to the surface to divert attention away from the deficit, and etc.

I'm OK with it only if they take out "God" from the song as well. When I sing that part, I just say "O Canada" again

LOL...they better not change it. Don't fuck with tradition like that.

they better not change it... its the anthem i grew up with and will forever live by till the day i die.

^ agreed! I am female and I think it's stupid. The anthem is a tradition, and it should be honoured regardless. Besides...I probably won't even remember the new lyrics to a new anthem...which will make singing the national anthem very, very difficult in the future.

DEAL WITH REAL PROBLEMS OTTAWA! LIKE BC'S DEFICIT!!!!

i dont usually complain about those womens rights movement groups, but this time, its just plain annoying. seriously. who cares.

they need real dicks down their mouths to shut them up.

next thing you know they'll change "God keep our land glorious and free" to "various deities and demigods, idols, or absolutely nothing keep our land glorious and free" to appease everyone of different beliefs and backgrounds :rolleyes:

Because you know, Mr. Harper, there aren't any more pressing matters than the lyrics to the national anthem....

Changing the anthem to appease a bunch of feminists is like making the flag grey cause it offends people of the First Nations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fliptuner (Post 6843553)

Changing the anthem to appease a bunch of feminists is like making the flag grey cause it offends people of the First Nations.

shhhh

dont give them any more ideas :D

Let's just remix the anthem to include parts of every other national anthem and call it a night
Posted via RS Mobile

might as well add a hindu and chinese verse into it while we're at it.

I think we should change the anthem to

O cndA uro omeh nda tivena ndla
ture patroit vole ni lal tyh onss cmmoand

to accomodate dyslexic people,

or just not sing it at all so all the deaf people don't miss out.

they should make it religion neutral too.

political correctness fail

I'm sure they have much more important things to take care off then spend money and time on an issue where people don't even care about

Fucking hippies...ruin everything

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronin (Post 6843345)

LOL...they better not change it. Don't fuck with tradition like that.

Hahahahaha...........

They want to go back to the original lyrics. I bet back when they changed it to today's version, people were saying the same thing. "Don't go changing tradition like that." <----- I don't they had the acronym, "FUCK" back then.

================

Michaelle Jean should have just shut her trap over the matter, which was only brought up because of the Olympics bringing on so much patriotism. Funny thing is, it is backfiring because of the recent popularity of the anthem. I believe the referrence to god, if anything, should be struck from the lyrics. It wasn't that long ago when "God keep our land" was added/changed to the lyrics. Probably a Christian Heritage Party idea, LOL.

I think the idea will just slowly die. Fuck, it took people this long to get used to the new lyrics...............