O Canada: Sing “All of Us”

by | February 7, 2014

sing

The campaign to include women in Canada’s national anthem has a new website: Sing “All of Us.”

The revised anthem would read:

O Canada!

Our home and native land!

True patriot love in all of us command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,

The True North, strong and free;

From far and wide, O Canada,

We stand on guard for thee

God keep our land glorious and free.

O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.

O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.

Why Is It Time to Sing “All Of Us”?

22 thoughts on “O Canada: Sing “All of Us”

  1. Bubba Kincaid

    Don’t like that one either.

    I’d prefer a national anthem that says we’ve completely and utterly and shamelessly and malevolently and maliciously bungled our Truth and Reconciliation Hearings (Yes there actually is one going on) on Native treatment, and swept it so far under the rug that it is nothing more than a pure archetype of a sham.

    You know, an anthem that we can actually be proud of.

    Reply
    1. Corwin

      That might win Canada some kind of UN award for quirkiest national anthem, anyway.

      O Canada!
      Our vast and stolen land!
      Soul-crushing guilt in all of us command.

      Of course, some might say it was a bit one-sided.

      Reply
      1. Bubba Kincaid

        Nice quip but as typical it does nothing to actually address the current fiasco called the Truth And Reconciliation Hearings in Canada.

        Reply
        1. Corwin

          As it happens, I don’t know much of anything about the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings. If you want to explain further, or provide a link, I’ll take a good look.

          Reply
          1. Indi

            As it happens, I don’t know much of anything about the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings. If you want to explain further, or provide a link, I’ll take a good look.

            Why are you feeding the trolls? The TRC is important, and the Harper government’s poor behaviour with respect to them is criminal, but those things have nothing to do with the anthem.

          2. Corwin

            I wouldn’t necessarily say that bringing up the Truth and Reconciliation Hearings amounts to trolling. It’s not like Bubba Kincaid harps on them constantly. Sure, it’s a tangent, but the possibility of going off on tangents is part of what makes conversation a worthwhile activity.

          3. Bubba Kincaid

            The Trolls?

            We have the dishonorable distinction of being the first nation to ever host a non-televised Truth and Reconciliation Hearing.

          4. Bubba Kincaid

            Is this what happens when a country avoids televising their TRCs? Exposing it to public view and the light of day?

            This discrepancy between Commission numbers (4000 deaths) and how it all of a sudden has saturated the internet and wikipedia, and the total and complete disappearance of all previous estimates, including what seemed to be more scientifically based statistical analyses (high tens of thousands). What are we to make of that?

            Is that what Truth and Reconciliation Hearings are for? To foster debate around how numbers are generated, and what scientific basis must have undoubtedly been the basis for calculations in deliberations that we happened to miss?

            I think between the 1800s and end of the 20th century, more than 4000 deaths probably occured in Canada’s highest preperatory white high schools.

            Maybe that is the basis of this number, a sort of inside joke and self-reference.

          5. Bubba Kincaid

            Wow, are we attacking people on personal and private definitions of what constitutes the purest definition of one thing connecting to another now?

            Or are you merely now donning your enforcer’s hat, to make sure the oil doesn’t mix with the water?

  2. Randy

    I will not support any change to the anthem that doesn’t fix the whole thing.

    1: Canada is not all Canadians’ home (we do permit people to leave, after all) and is home to many non-Canadians
    2: Canada is not all Canadians’ native land (not only do we permit naturalization, but we even permit dual citizenship!)
    3: I like “in all of us”, but I do think the “command” bit doesn’t reflect the Canada I grew up in and love (but yes, it does reflect the current version increasingly well to my dismay)
    4: “glowing hearts” is too E.T. bleeding heart for me
    5: “see thee rise” is this a prayer?
    6: “True North” is debatable. Our claim to the geographical pole is not assured. Further, even the magnetic north pole has recently moved out of Canadian waters.
    7: “strong and free” Nope, and nope.
    8: “stand on guard for thee” More prayer words. And no, we don’t. If we get invaded, my fellow Canadians will react with dismay, but that’s about it. If we elect a dictatorship, it will be seen to be correct.
    9: “God” oh, hell no.
    10: the music sucks

    Reply
    1. Bob Jonkman

      I was going to suggest we bring back The Maple Leaf Forever but after reading the lyrics that may not be a very good choice either. At least the music is better.

      I was sad to hear that the Maple tree of the song came down last year after the big wind storm. I had always thought it was the big tree at Leslie St. and Queen St., but apparently it was at Laing and Memory Lane.

      –Bob.

      Reply
  3. Corwin

    @Bubba Kincaid

    I don’t think anything about the Commission has “saturated the internet and wikipedia”. I had forgotten that the Commission even existed until you brought it up, and I look at the internet (and Wikipedia!) pretty regularly.

    I’m not sure exactly what you’re complaining about. You don’t think the Commission is doing a very good job, because its estimate of some body count is too low, and yet you also think that it should be on TV? I’d probably find this easier to follow if you could give me a quick summary of what the Commission is doing, and what you think it should be doing differently.

    @Indi

    Depends on what you mean by trolling, I guess. People seem to be tossing that term around pretty casually these days, but I’ve always understood it to mean making deliberately outrageous statements so that people get annoyed and argue with you. I don’t really see that here, though our friend Bubba definitely has a bee in his bonnet.

    Reply
    1. Bubba Kincaid

      Corwin. As someone who purports to care an iota about the country called Canada, I suggest you try being a little bit smarter and more genuine than you think you are being and familiarize yourself with the history and current status of our Native culture.

      A good frame to take is one that cares more about the broader and more inclusive context of our country, than just what will get you the most praise within your own circle of friends.

      Indi, you are a jerk.

      Reply
      1. Bubba Kincaid

        And by the way corwin, not sure if you’ve noticed, but your tactic against me has pretty consistently now become the exact same carbon copy pattern ad nauseum:

        “I don’t understand what you are saying. Could you write more clearly.”

        Thanks for your concern for my writing style Corwin, I am sure that it comes from a good place. But I’m not interested in your writing tips. Nor your pattern of patronizing denialism. I’m more interested in whatever half logical and consistent counter-arguments you are able to squeeze out. But remember, they should contain some measure of thought as opposed to coming from the jerk of your knee.

        “There’s nothing quite as annoying as good advice.”
        -Mark Twain

        Reply
    2. Indi

      Trolling is any activity intended to disrupt normal, constructive discussion. It includes posting outrageous shit, but it also includes dozens of other behaviours like: asking the same questions over and over long after they’ve been answered, flooding the discussion with irrelevancies or random posts, needlessly abusive or insulting insinuations or name calling – just about anything that will take the discussion off track.

      Just take a look at what’s going on here. This jackass is posting in every single thread in this post’s discussion, never offering any substantive input, but merely doing two things over and over: insulting people, and throwing references to the TRC around (and that latter only because you bit on that prompt).

      Dude, you’re being trolled.

      Reply
      1. Bubba Kincaid

        Exactly. Thanks Indi. I start to talk about the TRC and this guy as usual throws his patronizing “I don’t understand what you are saying, could you write more clearly line” at me.

        The part that I don’t get is where you Indi, obviously are aware that he is playing around with me, especially since you’ve brought up the TRC on more than one occasion on here yourself, and yet you clearly ignore the fact that he is pulling my chain, quite obviously call him on the fact that he very well knows about the TRC, yet choose to attack me.

        Sorry guys, i’m loosing track of all levels in the game you are playing here. I’m still on level 1.

        Reply
        1. Bubba Kincaid

          By the way…I’m not posting in every single thread.

          I’m still just getting the hang of getting everything into one concise post.

          Reply
  4. Corwin

    @KC

    No, nothing much has changed, for better or worse. Probably a bit of both!

    @Indi

    Calling Bubba Kincaid a “jackass” and then complaining in the same sentence that he’s “insulting people” is a bit rich. This blog has never been too uptight about either enforcing civility or keeping threads on topic, which I think is all to the good. If Bubba wants to talk about this TRC thing, I don’t really mind (and if Veronica minds, she can tell us so – after all, it’s her post). So far it hasn’t been the most constructive conversation I’ve ever had, but I’m not (quite) at the point of giving up on it.

    @Bubba Kincaid

    I’m not sure why you’ve concluded that I know all about the TRC and am just feigning ignorance as a tactic. As you pointed out yourself, it’s not like the TRC has been terribly well publicised. So my requests for clarification haven’t been a tactic or a criticism of your writing style. When you say that the commission’s estimate of 4000 deaths is too low, but don’t bother to mention whose deaths were being estimated, it’s hard for me to see where you’re coming from.

    However, I finally broke down and took a few minutes to look at the TRC website (here, if anyone’s curious), and I gather the TRC focusses specifically on what were called “Indian Residential Schools”. I don’t know much about the particular case of the residental school system, but I’ve always thought the idea of forcing aboriginal people to assimilate into a settler culture – in Canada or elsewhere in the world – was flawed and likely to end in tears. In the big picture of Canadian history, though, I don’t think residential schools loom so large that we need to rewrite the whole anthem around them!

    So is this mysterious figure of 4000 deaths the number of students that the Commission estimates to have actually died while enrolled in residential schools? I didn’t poke around the website that much. And where have the much higher (high tens of thousands) estimates that you mentioned been coming from? Are there good records of the number of students who passed through the schools in the first place?

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Bob Jonkman Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.