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Citizen seeks to protect national anthem

canadian flagBy Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

When city council voted to stop reciting the Lord’s prayer before meetings, resident Dale Jodoin got worried.

“We lost the Lord’s prayer. The next thing is going to be the national anthem,” he said to the corporate services committee on May 25.

The elimination of the Lord’s prayer followed a ruling by the Supreme Court. However, Jodoin is worried that the national anthem could be the next target.

He wants the procedure of singing the anthem before council meetings to be “entrenched” into council procedures to ensure it can’t be removed and urged council to make a bylaw to ensure it remains in place, along with including it as part of council’s code of conduct.

“Our national anthem is too important to leave fly in the wind,” he said. “Too many people have died underneath this banner.”

Many surrounding GTA municipalities do not sing the anthem before council meetings including: Vaughan, Newmarket, Ajax, Pickering and Mississauga.

Also, Richmond Hill recently voted against starting meetings with the anthem due to legal implications.

 

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