Noh Canada!

No More “Oh Canada!”

Why we shouldn't sing the anthem

By: Ilia Sucholutsky

Everyone who lives in Canada has sung the anthem at one time or another, but students must do it every single day because they are forced to. The anthem wastes time that can be used for education. It wastes money which can be used for better purposes. It makes students hate their country, and it goes against Canada’s most important values. It is utterly pointless and should no longer be mandatory for student in schools to stand for it or sing it.

A waste of time:

Like any song or action Oh Canada takes up time. Although it is only several minutes long, when you repeat it that often it amounts to extravagant wastes of valuable educational time. In fact it wastes 2% of all educational time, which totals to 4 school days every school year. Therefore, by the time a student has completed high-school and elementary school, he has wasted up to 50 school days. In 50 school days a student could learn up to 12 units, almost a full term. Instead they are forced to stand and listen to the same song 2400 times; an utter waste of time.

A waste of money:

This brings up another point, school is not entirely free. The citizens of Canada have to pay taxes to allow their children to then have public education. This is in fact a representation of “time is money”; every hour the students spend in school is worth on average $10. The average cost paid in taxes to put a student through school for 50 days is $2400. Therefore the total cost across Canada for the time taken to sing the anthem in a year, is 1.02 billion dollars.

So what is a billion dollars? Well, it’s enough to build more than 80000 schools in Africa allowing over 34 million people to go to school. By singing “Oh Canada!” this often we are depriving millions from education and paying for students to stand and sing against their will. 

Our freedom of religion:

Which is of course another major point, the forced singing of the anthem goes against a major Canadian freedom, quite possibly the most important one; freedom of religion. “God keep our land glorious and free.” This is clearly a religious statement which is politically incorrect; it is forcing students to have a standard view on God and state so regularly. This may in fact offend many people, first and foremost of which are atheists and agnostics, they are forced to state that they believe in God, this would be unacceptable in any workplace in the democratic world, yet students must do it every day. The second party that could take offense is religious people; they are forced to say the name of God in vain. This is an obstruction in the path of Democracy, as there clearly can be no exception to the rules we make without a repercussion.

 

Our other freedoms:

The same is true for the other Canadian values as well. The simple fact that we are coercing belief and pride into children, alone should be enough to cause some doubts; however, this goes as far as violating  our freedom of belief and our freedom of speech, students are forced to act as if they truly believe in and love Canada and that they are proud to stand for it.  The singing of the anthem goes against that which we treasure the most, our values.

A case of national pride:

Many people argue that singing the anthem does in fact breed pride, and creates a cultural identity shared by all in the country. All the students have this “pride” and they all feel closer and part of a larger group of peers. Feeling part of a group or having pride is great; however, it does not come from faking pride every day. Repeating something every single day for 2400 days does not give pride it does the opposite, students commence despising Oh Canada, they start showing disrespect when it plays, they commence to hate it. Stopping the singing of the anthem would create more pride than if it was continued.

As is easily understandable the forced singing of the anthem should not be done. It costs us money, and gives us nothing. It uses up precious time yet has no benefit. Repeatedly faking pride is not the way to make our students love their home it is the way to make them hate it. Cheering for the same team, celebrating national holidays or even doing a national sport together does, that’s what truly makes us love our country, and that is why students should not be forced to sing or stand for the playing of "Oh Canada".