harrisonrick

Its alreay begun...

trickydisco

Terrible judgement on the part of this principal.

Still, I can see how this can happen. The power of teachers and
principals have been usurped by the small % of militant
parents with the loudest bark.

So teachers, principals, superintendents, etc are more often influenced
by their fear of reprimands from the next rung up, than doing
the right, sensible thing.

Educational professionals end up looking every bit as inept and self-preserving
as they appear, which raises the ire of parents and thus the "pansification"
(LOL ... referencing Danny's hockey fighting reference! haha)
of educational professionals continues.
....jmho

About the anthem, I remember in grade 7 there was a kid, Robert LaPierre,
whose mother was a full-on Separatist! She made a lot of noise and
so Robert was permitted to sit while the rest of us stood for the playing of our
national anthem.

harrisonrick

I can see if the parents didn't want the Lord's Prayer as part of the opening day...and I agree that religion should be left at home or at church. But to not want to sign our countries anthem, to show pride, its baffling.

Turbodan

DEPORT ALL THESE UNGRATEFUL IMMIGRANTS. (note I am not saying all immigrants)
if I didn't hear it everyday in school I wonder if I would even know the words.
sitting during the anthem is like spitting in our faces disrespect.
this pisses me off!

theiceman

Well I have to say Christien this is the exact Opposite of the Americans , taken to the extreme. In the US you are a US citizen first. you give up all other citizenships to be a US citizen. You are an American first and only. The melting Pot as it were.
Canadians try to recognise all other groups . To a fault in my opinion. It too like Mark emmigrated here at a very young age. Although I am proud of my Heritage I chose to live in Canada, I obay Canadian law and act responsibly. The problem is Canada lets individual expresion go to far and it dilutes there soverignty.

I personally think we need more backbone as a country. But then where do we draw the line .....do we then throw native indians in jail because it was actually theres before ours. Should we not be singing Ojibwa or Mohawk Anthems ?
An interesting discusion to say the least

JimV8

The Charter of Rights and Freedom as enshrined in the repatriated Constitution is the Gospel. I don't think it's a bad thing. It does allow a lot of push and shove and that's not bad either. I saw a story on the Principal and he came across as a good and thoughtful guy and sober second thought may be in order. I don't want to degrade the singing of the anthem. I'm the guy who sings it at the top of my lungs, (sometimes off key) Whether kids should sing it I think needs debate. I recall standing at salute singing God save The Queen. At age six I thought that was a pretty stupid thing to do every morning.

W211

I agree, a very interesting discussion.

I guess I happen to be the minority who doesn't strongly object the decision of the school. I can't even remember singing O Canada everyday when growing up.

I haven't finished reading the article, but is it not about banning the singing of the national anthem, but rather, giving schools the freedom not to have to sing it daily?

I would think the parents and teachers will know best for the kids, whether to sing it once a year, once a month, once a day, or 3 days a day.

Dictating the number of times by the government on the daily frequency of the singing of the national anthem seems a little too big brother for my taste.

To me, the essence of being a Canadian is believing in many values of an American, but without the strong and sometimes blind nationalism. But then, who cares what I say, we all have different interpretations and values.

swbatte

I find this to be a failing of the principle as a leader, and an educator. Part of citizenship is to learn the language, history, social values and traditions. We were never 'forced' to sing it, but it is a Canadian tradition, and must be continued. It is part of our culture. This principle's attempt at being inclusive is totally misplaced.

There are 2 girls at that school who's older brother was recently killed in Afghanistan. What does this say about their brother's sacrifice for his country?

Disgusting.

George Chrisite

I have long been a believer that the right of individual beliefs and expressions is a given here in Canada. This belief has allowed me to sit on the sidelines as individuals test the boundaries of their rights and the foundation of our Canada.
This week we witnessed the removal of the singing of Oh Canada from a school in the province of New Brunswick.

To find citizens of Canada who enjoy all the benefits of being in Canada, a country whose fundamental framework is steeped in tolerance, compassion and the given right to a much higher quality of life than in most other countries who find the singing of Oh Canada to be offensive, is “outrageous”.

The love of this country is built in the minds of the young and efforts and work of the old. Oh Canada represents us, what we have built and deserves its place in our schools as a reminder of our past and the spirit of our future.

Removing Oh Canada is no different than, ridding our flag, our history, our values and our spirit, Canada.

Imo000

I've came to Canada at 16 (back in '89), and adjusted, as much as possible, to emrace the Canadian values. In highschool, we (english as a second language students), just like all the other regular students, had to stand up and listen to Oh Canada every morning and I fully understood the importance of it too. What I see now days is that a large group of immigrants tend to isloate themselves, within their own cuture, and do not interact with anyone else but their own "group". This is not healthy for the immigrants and to the country. It leads to seft imposed segregation, seperetasim and eventually to push their own "old" values for the rest to accept. If you don't like what Canada has to offer, by all means, don't come here.

acadian_dad

I'm having trouble finding much details on why the principal made this decision. The mainstream media I've seen only indicates that there were two students whose families objected something like a year ago and the principal and teachers, in some process of improving inclusiveness, made this decision. I'd like to say I'd have made a different decision but then I don't think I have all the facts.

There are many posts in this thread referring to new residents of our fine country. Do we really know that these families were recent immigrants ? If there are some credible sources for this I'd like to read them - I've only found these perspectives on this and similar forums.

There have been other posts stating that these students were siblings of a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan. Again, is there a credible source for this information ?

Do we know anything about why these families objected ? Do we know anything about the reasoning process the school used in reaching their decision. Again the media sources that I have listened to and read state specifically that the school and the school board have not provided details about the reasons for the decision.

I'm very uncomfortable with the decision this principal and school made but I am even more uncomfortable with jumping to conclusions about the reasons and some of the knee-jerk reactions I've seen on many forums on this topic.

When we have debates on issues like this, it seems so important to me to make sure that what we think are the facts are in fact accurate - otherwise we can spiral into some pretty scary assertions and conclusions.

JimV8

What do facts have to do with a good opinionated argument.

Zookie

In India the National Anthem is sung at the Movies before every Movie... They should do the same here, coz i dont think people are aware enough here in general...

Imo000

In India, EVERY single movie IS about singing!

Zookie

see now thats a iggnorant comment