Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Senator Beyak's amendment of Bill C-210, An Act to amend the National Anthem Act (gender).

Let me begin by saying that I do not support changing the words of our national anthem. Canadians are not clamouring for this change and it is not necessary. In fact, Canadians feel that this change is being imposed on them without any consultation. Our anthem is a symbol of a single, unified Canadian identity. Canadians treasure it as part of Canada's history and tradition. They don't want it altered by politicians.

For many people, the national anthem might not be something they hear often once they leave school; at the odd public event, maybe, or once a year on Canada Day. As a big sports fan, I attend a lot of sporting events, so I hear it a lot. Two weeks ago I was at a Saskatchewan Roughriders game, and after the stadium finished singing "O Canada," a number of people turned to me and implored me not to allow the government to change the national anthem. That happens often. Many people in Saskatchewan have talked to me about it and, to a person, they have all opposed this proposed change. They are concerned that the government is going to change part of our national tradition — our national identity — without their consent.

A Forum Research poll last summer indicated that two thirds of Canadians don't want this proposed change to "in all of us command." My office has received, as I'm sure many of yours have, quantities of emails, phone calls and social media posts telling us to leave the national anthem alone. I'm not sure Canadians could be any clearer, honourable senators, and had the government bothered to consult the public on this, I'm sure they'd have found the same response. But that's the thing: They haven't consulted Canadians on it.

Even though Canadians might not think about the significance of the words to "O Canada" very often, they treasure the anthem as a part of a shared Canadian heritage. The national anthem is our most basic expression of what it is to be Canadian and of those things that unite us as Canadians, no matter our origins.

In about a week, colleagues, we'll celebrate Canada's one hundred and fiftieth year as a nation. As we do that, we will be celebrating the values, the stories and the history that Canadians share. How is it that values, stories and histories are passed down from one generation to the next? Simply put, honourable senators, they are passed down through tradition.

While we live in a time of diversity, we also live in a time of great separation from one another. There is a pressure for us to be catalogued into silos of identity to sort us by ethnicity, religion, language, political stripe or any number of other categories. Great arguments erupt over who has the authority to speak as a representative for one group or another, or which group's viewpoint is more legitimate than the next. In this context of competing identities, and at this time of self-reflection as a nation of 150 years, how can we find what binds us together as Canadians?

I submit the answer can be found in our traditions and in our shared history as a nation. There is no better expression of that than through our national anthem. It speaks to our values: "the true north strong and free;" our territory: "our home and native land," and our history: "in all thy sons command," suggestive of Canadian soldiers in World War I.

I am a woman descended from Ukrainian immigrants who settled in Saskatchewan, and I can honestly say I've never felt excluded by my national anthem. While it might not explicitly mention women, daughters or prairie inhabitants of Ukrainian immigrant ancestry, I know that I am reflected there because I am Canadian. Whether you are a new Canadian or whether your family has been here for generations, and no matter what your gender or faith happens to be, we are all Canadians. When one becomes a Canadian citizen, either by birth or by choice, one assumes Canada's history and traditions as one's own. The national anthem is one of those traditions and it should not, and need not, be tinkered with to fit every identifiable identity. Where will that end?

We are first and foremost Canadians and, as such, we have the responsibility to "stand on guard for thee, O Canada." That is what I am doing here today.

In a moment, I will introduce a subamendment to Senator Beyak's amendment and I fully recognize this may result in this bill not passing before the summer break. But I don't believe this bill should pass, because Canadians don't want it to. If we aren't going to stand on guard for Canadians, then why are we here, honourable senators? Let's stand for the traditions that bind Canadians together, not splinter us apart.

Motion in Subamendment

Therefore, honourable senators, I move, in subamendment:

That the motion in amendment moved by the Honourable Senator Beyak be amended by replacing the words "the later of July 1, 2017 and the day on which it receives Royal Assent" by the words "October 1, 2017".