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Respect for the national anthem

For as long as I can remember I haven’t liked to sing, especially not publically. I absolutely hate it.

For as long as I can remember I haven’t liked to sing, especially not publically.

I absolutely hate it.

That is why I completely understand why some of the students at Barrhead Composite High School were not singing the national anthem during the school’s Remembrance Day ceremony last week.

Understand it, yes, but agree with it, no.

Our national anthem is in another category. I’m talking about O Canada and not God Save Our Queen, which until 1982, was also one of our national anthems. People of a certain age can be excused for not knowing the words and therefore not singing our former national anthem.

People can legitimately argue whether religious occasions such as Easter or Christmas should be statutory holidays or whether or not the Lord’s Prayer should be recited in school because not everyone in the country, a community or a school necessarily comes from the same religious background.

The same argument can’t be made for the national anthem. Unless you are visiting Canada on a holiday, every person should know our national anthem and pay it the respect it deserves.

Actually it’s not the not singing part that bothers me, it is the talking, giggling part, which gave me pause.

Among one of the things that has happened to me over the last few years, is that I have developed a cough. Hacking so bad it can sound like a junkyard dog guarding his territory. So I understand why a person may or may not feel up to singing O Canada, but in my opinion, they should at least be standing respectfully at attention.

Now I don’t want to single out a small group of students at BCHS that just happened to catch my attention. By in large I was impressed at the attention and respect shown by BCHS students during their very moving Remembrance Day ceremony, with a large number of students deciding to dress in their Sunday best and listening attentively and thoughtfully during the ceremony.

However, I do think what I saw is part of an ongoing trend I have seen over the last number of years.

And not only by young people, in my experience the younger the person the more respectful when it comes to our national anthem.

For example, when I attended the Wildrose Rodeo Finals in September, I witnessed many people, middle age or older, who were not only talking and joking during the singing of O Canada, but were actually drinking beer. Nor is it unique to Barrhead. When I was in Whitecourt, I witnessed similar behaviour during the Whitecourt Wolverines Junior A hockey games.

Yes, Canada, isn’t perfect, but its ideals are. Ideals that countless of men and women in the Canadian Armed Forces have and continue to sacrifice for. So when O Canada is played, give it the respect it deserves.


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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