JP Saxe Used Jully Black’s “O Canada” Lyric Change at the World Series and Conservatives Are Pissed
Remember in February 2023 when Jully Black performed “O Canada” at the NBA all-star game and started a movement with a one-word lyric change? The acclaimed singer-songwriter swapped out the “Our home and native land” line for “Our home on native land,” and went on to be honoured by the Assembly of First Nations — as well as receiving countless threatening messages from fragile so-called patriots.
JP Saxe, who went viral earlier this year for starting an important conversation about transparency in the music business, is now receiving similar treatment on social media after performing the national anthem at last night’s (October 27) brutal World Series Game 3 between the Toronto Blue Jays and the L.A. Dodgers.
Some of these conservatives on the social platform formerly known as Twitter seem to either not know or have forgotten about Black’s original alteration of the lyrics, and are chastising Saxe for taking creative liberties with the anthem. This demonstrates a surprisingly glaring lack of institutional knowledge; it was a big news item in 2023, and likewise related to a big sports thing!
But, then again, they’re also accusing the artist of “virtue signalling” with the lyric swap, as well as seemingly not understanding that so-called Canada is, in fact, comprised of land originally belonging to the Indigenous peoples who have lived here for thousands of years.
There’s just a refusal to acknowledge both recent and much-less recent history here that seems fitting for folks who are unwilling to allow one singular word of solidarity with the First Nations communities our government continues to commit atrocities against — it’s 2025 and progress on 40 percent of the 94 Calls to Action the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) made in 2015 has either stalled out or not even been started [via Indigenous Watchdog].
Notably, the popularized English words to “O Canada” were originally written by Robert Stanley Weir — a poet, judge, teacher and lawyer who unsuccessfully ran as a Liberal candidate in Montreal’s No. 4 riding of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec in 1892 — more than a century ago. I know this year has prompted a great many to dig in their heels on patriotism with all the “51st state” talk, but it seems very convenient that history only matters when it’s about the sanctity of some lines written in 1908.
Of course, some others have simply lamented that Saxe’s cursive singing with excessive vibrato was a little flat, which is fair enough!
