Remember in February 2023 when Julie Black performed “O Canada” at the NBA All-Star Game. and started the movement by changing the text to one word? The famous singer and songwriter replaced the line “Our home and native land” with “Our home.” on native land,” and became awarded by the Assembly of First Nations – as well as receiving countless threatening messages from fragile so-called patriots.
J.P. SachsWHO went viral earlier this year for starting an important conversation about transparency in the music business, is now receiving similar treatment on social media following the playing of the national anthem last night (October 27) in the brutal third game of the World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Some of these conservatives on the social platform formerly known as Twitter seem either unaware of or have forgotten about Black's original lyric change and are slamming Sachs for taking creative liberties with the anthem. This demonstrates a surprisingly glaring lack of institutional knowledge; this was big news in 2023 and it also had to do with a big sporting event!
But, again, they also accuse the artist of “virtue signaling” through the sharing of lyrics, as well as seemingly failing to understand that so-called Canada is actually made up of lands that originally belonged to indigenous peoples who have lived here for thousands of years.
There is simply a refusal to acknowledge both recent history, and even more so recent history that seems fitting for people who are unwilling to allow a single word of solidarity with the Indigenous communities against whom our government continues to commit atrocities – it's 2025, and progress on 40 percent of the 94 calls to action made by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) in 2015 has either stalled or not even begun. [via Indigenous Watchdog].
Notably, the popularized English words “O Canada” were originally written by Robert Stanley Weir – a poet, judge, teacher and lawyer who ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate in the fourth phase of the Montreal Legislative Assembly of Quebec in 1892 – more than a century ago. I know this year has led many to lean into patriotism with all the talk of the “51st State,” but it seems very convenient that history only matters when it comes to the sanctity of some lines written in 1908.
Of course, some simply complained that Sachs cursive singing with too much vibrato it was a little flat, and rightfully so!
