Group seeks gender neutral ‘O Canada’
Posted October 1, 2013 7:47 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There’s an online campaign urging the Harper government to change the English Canadian anthem to be gender neutral.
RestoreOurAnthem.ca, which is backed by such notable Canadian women as acclaimed author Margaret Atwood, former prime minister Kim Campbell and Sen. Nancy Ruth, wants to amend “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command” in O Canada.
The group says the original anthem was amended in 1913 to “in all thy sons command” from “thou dost in us command” for no documented reason and believe its proposed change would reflect Judge Robert Weir’s original lyrics. The proposed change also reflects amendment recommendations made in 1986 and 2002, the group said.
“The words ‘all thy sons command’ in the English national anthem suggests that only male loyalty is being invoked,” Atwood said in a release. “Restoring these lyrics to gender-neutral is not only an easy fix to make our anthem inclusive for all Canadians, but it’s also long overdue.”
Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Would you support this change? Share your thoughts in the comments.
