The Marseillaise is in French, God Save the King is in English, The Star-Spangled Banner (American anthem) too.
L’Hatikvah is in Hebrew.
They don’t have 18 million versions of their national anthem.
Why the hell do we have three versions of ours? One in English, one in French and a third bilingual.
Two peoples
Canada was born from the will of two founding peoples, one French Canadian and the other English Canadian.
It is an officially bilingual country, which has adopted a law, the Official Languages Act, to legally and sustainably register this duality which characterizes it.
The national anthem is an important symbol of this will of the two peoples and of Canadian unity and must be a celebration, out of respect for the history of the country, for those who built it, and for those who recognize it.
How is it then that our national anthem is like a buffet: the performer must choose which version suits him best.
It’s a bit as if we had the choice of the central image of the Canadian flag – some might choose the maple leaf, others the fleur-de-lys – and all these versions had the same weight, the same value. , the same symbol.
- Listen to the political meeting with Yasmine Abdelfadel and Marc-André Leclerc via QUB :
Ridiculous, isn’t it?
So why do we always have different versions of O Canada?
Why isn’t the bilingual version the only one accepted?
Why are artists like Charlotte Cardin put in the position of having to choose from this ridiculous buffet and carrying the political burden of this choice?
They shouldn’t have to decide this question. They should not have to make trade-offs that their government does not have the courage to make.
The national anthem should simply be bilingual, all the time, in all circumstances, regardless of who sings it.
Question of respect
Because at the moment, it seems that the only times the French-speaking or bilingual version is sung is to please French-speakers and not to embody the country’s bilingualism.
However, when the national anthem of a country is performed, it is not to please, it is rather to express its identity, its history, its values and its aspirations. It’s about telling stories.
When the national anthem is sung only in English, we obscure the contribution of one of its founding peoples, as if it were a simple detail of what the country has become and what it would like to be.
Please, before trying to please us, respect us.