Last night the Canadian Senate passed a private-member’s bill making the National Anthem gender neutral.

Words will change from “in all thy son’s command” to “in all of us command” after royal assent.

 

Personally, I find this a great step forward for inclusiveness. When singing O Canada, there was always this need to ‘put in a bracket’ around the word “sons” and tell myself ‘of course women are included’ — but that is not what the words said. Is it not better to have the words express what is meant?

But this bill has been the subject of a long struggle to gain passage, so a lot of people must think differently.

 

What do you think? Do we devalue the words of a national hymn if they are not considered to be immutable?

 

– Susan Czarnocki, 2018-02-01