Should O Canada be played every morning in our schools?

OTTAWA - The wrath of the dominion is raining down on a tiny elementary school in rural New Brunswick - a year and a half after it stopped playing O Canada on its morning public address routine.

Say's principal of Belleisle Elementary School in Springfield, N.B. Erik Millett: "It's not up to me, as a school administrator, to subject kids to something their parents don't want them exposed to. I have to protect the minority rights as well as the majority rights."

The anthem's elimination was one of several changes, he said, that made for a more productive start to the school day. The singing of O Canada was reserved for monthly assemblies.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Harper keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

grumpyrom wrote:Screw that, it's the national anthem play it as it was intended to be played. WTF is wrong with some people in this country? Is this principal ashamed to be Canadian? Only in Canada we stop playing the national anthem to not offend minorities. Complete BS if you ask me.

The minorities can go stand in the hall if they hate the anthem so much and sing their homelands anthem.

And BTW, I'm an immigrant myself so I don't get what the problem is. If I travel overseas I wouldn't expect them to stop singing their anthem in my presence because it may offend me. On the contrary, good for them for be patriotic about their country.

We have a lot to learn from the US in this regards.

EdWin wrote:I think this thread ties into the "Are Canadians too accommodating to other religious and cultural beliefs?" thread bigtime. And the answer is "yes, we sure as f**k are!"

JTF wrote:
How did a dumbass like this become a Principal?

From Saturday's Globe and Mail — The clot of angry e-mails plugging Zoe Watson's inbox is growing by the hour.

They arrive by the hundreds from every corner of the country, all with a singular message: Bring back the anthem.
“I can't keep up with them,” said Ms. Watson, school superintendent of the New Brunswick district that includes Belleisle Elementary in Springfield, where a decision to cancel daily renditions of O Canada has touched off a patriotic uproar.

That protest is having an effect. Ms. Watson said Friday she has asked Belleisle's principal to rescind his anthem policy.

“I'm asking him to reconsider,” she said.

But the rationale for their outrage is largely unfounded. A cursory survey of schools across the country shows that Belleisle is one of many where students don't sing the national anthem daily.

In a poll released last year, the Dominion Institute found that just 53 per cent of Canadian (sic) could recite the first line of O Canada.