OTTAWA — Conservative senators are pulling out all the stops to prevent the lyrics of the national anthem from being changed before Canada Day.
A bill now before the Senate, initiated by the late Ottawa Vanier MP Mauril Bélanger, would change O Canada’s “in all thy sons command” to the gender-neutral “in all of us command.” The House of Commons passed the bill last June. Bélanger died in August.
Senators who disagree with the private member’s bill are not only moving amendments to the bill that have no hope of being approved, but are also moving sub-amendments and calling adjournment votes to delay proceedings, all but ensuring no vote on the actual bill will be held before Canada’s 150th anniversary.
The latest procedural antics, through which some senators have made transparent their hopes to delay as much as possible a bill they don’t like, come as lawmakers were trying to wrap up business before heading home for the summer.
Last week, Conservative Sen. Tobias Enverga moved an amendment to instead change the words in question to “in all of our command,” on the dubious basis that this wording was grammatically superior to Bélanger’s, and that the word “us” is divisive.
Any amendments brought forward could essentially kill the legislation, the bill’s independent sponsor Sen. Frances Lankin had previously explained — to another Conservative senator, Don Plett, when he moved his own amendment the week before — because they would require a unanimous vote in the House of Commons on a new sponsor.
Enverga, backed by colleague Sen. Ghislain Maltais, strongly denied his aims were obstructionist. His amendment was voted down Monday.
But almost immediately afterwards, Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak made no such pretense. “I am opposed to this bill and want to amend it today because Canadians were not consulted in any way on their national anthem change,” Beyak said.
“The private member’s bill was passed in the House compassionately and out of sadness for a dying colleague. While that is touching, it is not the way we make public policy in this country and it is not the way we do our legislation.”
Beyak’s amendment added a line of text to the bill that would have put it into force July 1. Before a vote could happen on it, Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos moved adjournment of debate and a one-hour bell was called for the vote.
The vote failed. It was Conservative Sen. David Wells who next rose to debate the Beyak amendment late Monday evening. “It won’t be lost on any of you that I don’t like this bill. I don’t think it’s the will of Canadians,” he told the Senate chamber.
“I think it would be disingenuous for me to propose an amendment or an alteration and say that I think it’s a great idea if we accept this amendment or sub-amendment based on the merits of the amendment,” said Wells. “I’ll be very clear, colleagues: I don’t think this bill is a god bill.”
Sen. Lynn Beyak: “Canadians were not consulted in any way on their national anthem change.”
Wells moved a sub-amendment changing Beyak’s coming-into-force amendment to Sept. 1 rather than July 1. A vote was deferred to Tuesday afternoon. Just before dinner Tuesday, the Wells sub-amendment lost 19 to 55.
Rising Tuesday to debate the Beyak amendment — which still hadn’t been voted on — Conservative Sen. Michael Macdonald offered that he thought her intentions were sound.
“I firmly and sincerely believe the anthem should be left alone,” he said, before launching into a long list of war veteran family members who would “want their anthem back.”
“We are only doing our job,” he added, then moved a new sub-amendment to the Beyak amendment, again changing the coming-into-force date, this time to Jan. 1.
“This is about the group who wants to stop this bill,” Lankin said, clearly exasperated. “The rules are interesting in this place that this can occur.” She said she’s been humming the Rolling Stones song You Can’t Always Get What You Want in the hallways of the Senate.
Lankin said she respected that Tory senators were being clear about their intentions to delay the bill and that she now understood “there will be no vote” on the bill before summer. “You may feel that you have worn me down,” said Lankin, but nonetheless, she said she could “rise above.”
“Your claim that this won’t come to a vote is nonsense,” replied Conservative Sen. David Tkachuk. “We all know that in the end, majorities always find a way to get a vote. I think your complaint, or the complaint may be that the vote doesn’t come soon enough. Well, that’s a matter of opinion.”
“I think we’re all tired and we should all just take a deep breath,” the speaker said, before calling for a vote. The Senate then agreed to defer that vote to Wednesday.
Email: mdsmith@postmedia.com | Twitter: mariedanielles
