Francis Fox, 84
Francis Fox, who was elected several times in federal ridings outside town and served in Pierre Trudeau’s governments, has died. Fox was by turns a cabinet minister and a senator although CBC illustrates the story with an unintentionally comic photo showing Fox ill at ease in a canoe in business attire alongside a nattily clad P. Trudeau.
Justin Trudeau acknowledges several achievements by Fox including the Access to Information Act and Telefilm Canada. What he doesn’t mention, and what I can’t find chapter and verse on, was the change in the lyrics to the English version of O Canada that was made on Fox’s watch as Secretary of State in 1980.
The eighth line now goes “God keep our land glorious and free!” which was a departure from the version I learned as a kid, which had a lot more standing on guard, but no God. The change turned the anthem into a religious hymn, which the English version hadn’t previously been. (The French version is totally, almost luridly, a Catholic hymn.)
People were more concerned about changing “True patriot love in all thy sons command” to a genderless “all of us” but God needs to be shown the door too. But then the French version would need a complete rewrite.
I’ve held forth on this before.
Secretary of State was a federal government position abolished in 1993.
Joey 13:34 on 2024-09-26 Permalink
It was a missed opportunity to make the anthem both gender-neutral and religiously-neutral at the same time. I think you could argue that there is some justification for keeping the vague concept of god in there (after all, we are all here at the pleasure of his majesty the King of England, who also happens to be the Supreme Governor of the Church of England), but we can do better than “sait porter la Croix” (unless we’re talking about flavoured carbonated water)…
Kevin 13:52 on 2024-09-26 Permalink
I had never heard of this guy before yesterday, but I managed to shock a few people by learning about the scandal that saw him temporarily resign from cabinet: while solicitor general, he forged the signature of the husband of the woman he was having sex with so that she could get an abortion.
(He was also married to someone else at the time…)
Kate 16:01 on 2024-09-26 Permalink
The shocking aspect is that a woman needed her husband’s signature for a medical procedure in 1977.
Ian 18:25 on 2024-09-26 Permalink
I hear you but R. v Morgentaler was only in 1988.