Uncovering Burnaby: When the school board fought a principal over ‘O Canada’

O Canada, our heritage, our loveThy worth we praise all other lands above.From Pole to borderland,At Britain’s side, whate’er betideUnflinchingly we’ll standWith hearts we sing, ‘God save the King.’Guide then one Empire wide, we do implore,And prosper Canada from shore to shore

Does that sound familiar to you? You’ll note the first two words as the opening line—and twice repeated—of our national anthem.

But while one version or another of “O Canada” has been around since April 1880, when it was first composed in French, the song we know today wasn’t the only English version.

The version that is sung today is an adaptation of the Weir version, written by Robert Stanley Weir in 1908. (Fun side note: While the more recent adoption of gender-neutral language in the official anthem stirred controversy, the Weir version’s second line originally went, “True patriot love thou dost in us command,” before revisions were made between 1913 and 1916, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. It goes on to note that there is no evidence as to why the lyrics were changed to “True patriot love in all thy sons command,” however, “it is worth noting that the women’s suffrage movement was at its most controversial around 1913, and by 1914 and 1916 there was an enormous surge of patriotism during the First World War, at a time when only men could serve in the armed forces.”)

And the Weir version had gained momentum by the late 1920s—even if Burnaby’s school board objected to it.

The board objected to it so much, in fact, that it censured Burnaby South High School principal C.G. Brown for allowing it to be sung at his school, despite the “express wishes of the board.”

Instead, Burnaby’s school board insisted that the Buchan version, quoted above, be sung in local schools.

At the same time, the school board voted to find Hawaiian dances and costumes worn at a school concert were unsuitable for a high school.

School board chair H. Stanley, who brought the complaints against Brown, used his deciding vote to defeat two motions that would have given Brown another chance to appear before the board on the issue of the anthem and found the Hawaiian costumes to be “not extraordinary.”

Ultimately, according to the April 19, 1928 Daily Province, two motions were passed by the board that denounced the costumes as inappropriate for a high school setting and censured Brown for the version of “O Canada” that was sung in the school.

That was despite parents and residents meeting the day before at the municipal hall to discuss the matter, calling on Stanley and another trustee to “retract their statements relative to the presence of two girls in ‘Hawaiian undress’ at a school concert and that the board as a whole be asked publicly to dissociate itself form said statements,” according to the Victoria Daily Times.

The meeting also saw broad agreement that the “school board had no right to endeavour to force the school to use any version of ‘O Canada’ other than authorized by the Department of Education,” noted the Times, a precursor to the Times-Colonist.

Both motions drew heavy mockery and criticism from the public and in local papers’ opinion sections before and after they were approved.

Daily Province columnist J. Butterfield offered on April 28 of that year a whole new special version of “O Canada” for the board:

O Burnaby, our moral oasis,Thy worth we praise, especially in this:That we’re opposed with all our strengthTo all progressive junk.We think the twang of Yankee slangUndoubtedly the bunkWith heart we sing ‘God save the King,’Keep thou our suburb pure do we imploreAnd prosper Burnaby—from board to bore.

And an April 14 letter to the editor published in the Vancouver Sun scathingly questioned what the trustees opposed to the Hawaiian dress do “when they go to a theatre or bathing beach. Perhaps each closes one eye—and takes a chance with the other.”

“These indecent exposures are dreadful—perfectly dreadful! And to think of the scholars being permitted to sing the Weir version of ‘O Canada,’” reads the letter.

“That illiterate and disloyal National Jubilee Commission directed—directed, mind you—the Weir version to be sung at all Jubilee celebrations last year. The Burnaby school board should take that committee in hand and give them a serious talking to, and just let them know that such a thing will not be tolerated—at the next jubilee.”

And the issue continued for days after the board’s decision, with one group calling for the province to reprimand the board “for interfering in curriculum matters,” going so far as to call it a “usurpation of authority.”

Finally, on May 1, school board secretary E.S. Wood noted in a letter to the editor published in the Sun that the issue was not so much with the Weir version of the anthem being chosen over the board’s selected version.

“The real question at issue was why no explanation of any kind for his non-compliance with the board’s request had been made till today,” Wood wrote.