XPost: alt.home.repair, alt.politics.scorched-earth, uk.politics.misc   
   XPost: uk.legal, alt.politics.uk   
   From: burfordTjustice@tues.uk   
      
   Canada’s National Anthem May Go Gender-Neutral   
      
   A bill is advancing through the Canadian Parliament to alter the words   
   of the Canadian national anthem to be more “inclusive” by stripping it   
   of gendered language.   
      
   Conservative Canadian senators are largely opposed to Bill C-210, which was   
   first introduced in June 2016 by the late Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger. Among   
   the alterations, he proposed changing the phrase “all thy sons command,”   
   with “all of us    
   command.” Politicians opposed to the bill describe the changes as   
   “clunky” and “pedestrian.”   
      
   Liberal Senator Joan Fraser is among those on the left who joined her   
   conservative counterparts to oppose the bill. “It’s a fine example of what   
   happens when you let politicians meddle. Politicians are not usually poets,”   
   she said.   
      
   Conservative Senator Michael McDonald called the replacement “sloppy” and   
   urged its defeat.   
      
   “If we are constantly revising everything because it was written in another   
   generation, our national symbols will have no value,” he said to CBC News.   
   “Our history means nothing in this country anymore, and it’s a shame that   
   we’re doing this.    
   The Senate should not be reticent in defending and preserving the heritage of   
   Canada.”   
        
   He also raised issue with the bill for applying changes only to the English   
   version of the national anthem, and said that the French version would have   
   difficulty getting the “social justice warrior seal of approval.”   
      
   The song is riddled with references to God, faith, church and race. I won’t   
   go into the various sentiments articulated throughout the several French   
   verses, save to say that the French version of “O Canada” would have a   
   hard time today getting the    
   social justice warrior seal of approval. It is, without question, an ethnic   
   French Canadian, Catholic, nationalist battle hymn, certainly non-inclusive,   
   yet I am not offended. It is just part of Canada’s history in song. As far   
   as I’m concerned, they    
   should leave it alone forever. But if our new-age censors can leave it alone   
   without a second thought, how then can the phrase, “All thy sons command”   
   be considered excessively problematic?   
      
   The bill has reached its third reading in the Senate and is awaiting a final   
   vote. With widespread support from Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government and   
   the third-party New Democrats, the bill previously passed the House of Commons   
   with mainly    
   Conservative opposition. If approved by the Senate, it will become law.   
   Proponents of the bill wish to see it implemented before July 1, when Canada   
   celebrates its 150th anniversary of confederation.   
      
   Fraser called the amendments to the anthem inappropriate, as it erases   
   Canadian history.   
      
   “If we are to become engrossed in the idea that we must at all times be   
   correctly modern, we lose a part of our heritage,” Fraser said. “It may   
   not be a perfect heritage—I’m not suggesting it is—but it is ours. I   
   suggest that it deserves    
   respect and acceptance for what it is: imperfect but our own.”   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)