Thursday, February 03, 2011

Another "shocking" email arrives

Every once in a while I get an email from someone well-meaning who passes on some shocking thing about government taking religion or not taking religion out of society. I used to get a lot of them, but now they only come once in a while. This morning was one of those times.

The email said “Shock on CBC yesterday morning.” and made reference to a CBC poll on the question whether to keep the word God in Canadian culture. Apparently 86 percent of responses were in favour of keeping the words “God keep our land” in the national anthem.

First and foremost, I tried to source the CBC poll and could find nothing. So, whoever was upset can rest easy. The most I could find was an article about people's beliefs that said 23 percent of Canadians do not believe in God and some items on the uproar over gender non-neutrality in the phrase “all thy sons command” in O Canada in early 2010. I did find someone else who wrote on the topic and referenced a Snopes item where the text of an American chain email was lifted out and Canadianised.

The original lyrics penned by Sir Adolphe Basile Routhier in 1880 to O Canada are in French. Christianity gets its due from “Car ton bras sait porter l'épée, Il sait porter la croix.” (For your arm knows how to carry the sword and it knows how to carry the cross.) The English lyrics penned by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908 bear little resemblance to the French lyrics and no mention is made of God. “God keep our land” replaced one of the repetitive lines “stand on guard for thee” in 1968.

In early 2010 there was an uproar over gender neutrality in a nationwide discussion on the phrase “In all thy sons command.” It was an edit from the original by Weir himself “Thou dost in us command,” was a hint at getting support for the war effort in 1914 since women who fought in the war were not on the front battle lines and they wanted strong, young men.

Canada did not have an official national anthem until an act of Parliament in 1980. So, there is no shock, it is not on CBC and it s not about taking the word "God" out of Canadian culture.