Feb 04 2009
The Anthem Debate
A small school in small town New Brunswick recently made big news when it decided to cease playing O Canada at the start of each school day at the request of a small number of parents. Citing privacy reasons the school would not give the reasons behind the request.
In the days that have followed, critics and supporters of the decision have come out in full force and most recently, the school board themselves have stepped in and reinstituted the playing of O Canada.
The whole argument is very reminiscent of the debate of whether or not prayers in school should be allowed or whether they were discriminatory or exclusionary. Even having gone to a Catholic school for my entire K-12 education, I never really saw the purpose of saying the prayers as often as we did (4 times - at the start of school, before lunch, after lunch and at the end of the day). There were actually some students in the school who were not Catholic or even Christian, but they were there by choice and while not required to say the prayers, were at least expected to stand.
As far as anthems go, O Canada seems fairly innocuous, but I’m guessing the line “God keep our land/glorious and free” is the one that puts some people off. Presumably, people who live here are living so by choice. I’m not one of the hopping mad people who say “love it or leave it”, but I do believe that there is a place in school for the national anthem. Learn about it, dissect it, debate it - but respect it.
I thought the Canadian national anthem was Tom Sawyer. If it’s not, it should be! While I like a Labatts or Molson every now and then, Rush are definitely my favorite Canadian export!