The principal at the Belleisle Elementary School in Springfield, New Brunswick pulled the daily singing of “O Canada” at the start of the 2007 school year. This has recently come to light as the result of a letter to a local paper. Many, if not most of the parents, were unaware of the decision by Erik Millett.

He claims that a couple of parents complained and in the spirit of accommodation and inclusiveness, he cancelled the singing for everyone. They do still sing the anthem at school assemblies. He hasn’t divulged why the alleged parents complained which has led to considerable speculation by people commenting on news stories of the controversy.

Millett also claims that some children were having physical reactions to the playing of the anthem as they thought they were “doing something wrong”. He’s planning on taking his decision to the Human Rights Commission. Rather an odd action for a principal to take over a couple of parents complaining. You’d think the alleged parents would be ones taking that action. If there were any parents.

Material unearthed by Ezra Levant on Millett paints a bit of a picture of who this idiot is. After reading the material on him, I’m inclined to suspect that the parents are fictitious and Millet objects to the singing of O Canada on a daily basis. What is it about pacifists that some seem to forget that a lot of people have fought and died for this country for people like him to have their right to their beliefs?

Some object to the use of the word “God” in the anthem, well get over it. The use is virtually in passing, it provides a nod to those Canadians of faith without being overpowering to anyone other than the hyper-sensitive. If I, as a person of faith, have to tolerate and respect those with no belief, then the street goes the other way to. That is part of living together in a peaceful country.

It’s important for children to have a firm sense of who they are in the big picture in their life. Feeling some pride in the fact that they are part of the family of Canadians is just as important as feeling pride in whatever ethnic roots they come from. There is an inherent confidence in understanding where you have come from as you venture into learning where you are going with your life.

I recall when I went to public school we sang “O Canada” one week and the next week we sang “God Save the Queen” to start the day. Our teachers never explained to us that “O Canada” was our national anthem and “God Save the Queen” was the royal anthem played to respect our official head of state.

Some of the commentors on some of the sites I visited before writing this post referred to the singing of the national anthem as being meaningless. It is only meaningless if the people in those childrens lives make it so.

Over the years I’ve been very much involved in doing presentations to young people about remembrance. One of the focuses that the presentations has is to try to instill in the youngsters that they have much to be proud of as Canadians and they should not be afraid to demonstrate it.

I remember on occasion observing as the youngsters would do a very tepid singing of the national anthem at the beginning of the presentation. A veteran would respond by asking them if they were proud to be Canadians and when they responded they were he would urge them to show it. I would take that as the cue to ask the children if they would like to redo the anthem. Invariably they would and they would belt it out, quite proud to know they were showing their pride in doing so. Children respond to the input they get.

My youngest sister’s children were taught at an early age that the national anthem and the royal anthem were to be respected. That if possible to do so safely they were to stop what they were doing and stand straight and still while it was played. One day my niece was literally just outside her home room class door when “O Canada” started to play. She did what she had been taught to do and received a detention for being late. I was proud of her that she was true to what she had been taught.

Pride in our country is shown in small ways, respect for our national song is one of them. All schools should be singing or playing it every single day. My country includes “O Canada”!

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