Editor:
I was pleased to see Anne Carr’s letter (“Anthem lyrics obsolete,” July 3) standing up for the participation of women in Canada’s history – whether in the military, in the factories, or keeping the home fires burning and the children safe.
The point made in the letter by Donna Leboe in response (“Original words stand up,” July 10) is not correct. Using the word “sons,” and thereby not recognizing women’s role in the history of this place we call Canada, is not the way the song was originally written by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908.
The original lyric to the 1908 version of O Canada was “thou dost in us command.” It was changed to “all thy sons” in 1913. So for you traditionalists, Robert Stanley Weir’s original lyric was, in fact, gender-neutral.
I would like to add that I too was dismayed to see the sexist, outdated version of our national anthem published in Coast Reporter.
Carolann Glover McGillivray, Roberts Creek
