Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Foul bawl

Making political statements at non-political events is considered rude and disrespectful by many.
edit.20160714.jpg
The Tenors, shown on the scoreboard, perform O Canada prior to the MLB baseball All-Star Game in San Diego. on Tuesday.

Making political statements at non-political events is considered rude and disrespectful by many. "There's a time and a place for that," these critics sneer, ignoring the fact that the great political and social change movements of history started with staging a political protest at highly public, nonpolitical events.

Remigio Pereira's alteration of one verse of the Canadian national anthem before the start of Major League Baseball's All-Star Game Tuesday night in San Diego is already being written off as the latest in a long line of notorious national anthem renditions before sporting events, going back to Roseanne Barr.

Performing with the other three members of The Tenors, a well-known Canadian vocal group that last performed in Prince George in 2012, Pereira was given a solo turn to sing "with glowing hearts, we see thee rise, the true north strong and free."

Except that's not what he sang.

To the obvious surprise of his fellow performers, based on their reactions, he sang "we're all brothers and sisters, all lives matter to the great."

The outcry was instantaneous, with Canadians quickly taking to social media to see who could howl the loudest and the longest in outrage. Nobody north of the 49th parallel actually watched the game (the American League beat the National League 4-2) because they were too busy slamming The Tenors and Pereira in particular.

The Tenors are Canadian and although Pereira was born in Boston, he was raised in Gatineau, Quebec, and is a Canadian citizen. That's his national anthem as much as it belongs to any other Canadian, so no one gets to claim that he has no right to alter "our" anthem. He was asked to sing, he was there representing himself and his group, not Canada, and he changed the lyric.

Canadians are free to disagree with him for doing so in the context he did it and they are free to disagree with the politics of the lyric he sang but they don't own the anthem nor his performance of it. Even if Pereira wasn't Canadian, artistic license still entitles him to interpret the song as he sees fit, which may include altering the song. As the audience, we only own our reaction and interpretation, which usually says far more about us than it does about either the performer or the performance.

As for respect for the national anthem, let's not kid ourselves here. An embarrassingly large percentage of Canadians don't even know all of the lyrics and those who can sing it butcher it with sloppy enthusiasm.

What was evident in the aftermath of Pereira's rendition of O Canada was the typical false patriotism so many Canadians display at times like these, their fragile national egos irreparably damaged when Canada loses an international hockey game or an American says something bad about Canada or when someone, even a fellow Canadian, tinkers with the national anthem.

The irony is that what Pereira was trying to do was also typically Canadian. He was trying to be a peacemaker.

It is a tragic time for America, with so much violence and needless suffering and death. Gay people were the targets in Orlando. Black men continue to be the unnecessary victims of police brutality. Police officers were the targets in Dallas. Taken in that context, Pereira bared both his Canadian and his artistic soul Tuesday night, taking advantage of the large audience to make his plea for peace and understanding.

Including the words "all lives matters" is controversial, however, particularly in the United States. The Black Lives Matter movement formed to demand action and justice after the deaths of so many black men while in police custody. Other minority groups, as well as the LGBTQ community, feel the term is too exclusive, especially since they have had their own historical battles with police. They have argued for the broader "all lives matter" title. Black Lives Matter supporters have responded that a black man is far more likely to be killed while in police custody than any other identifiable group and racism against blacks in America is specific and shouldn't be lumped together within broader concerns of intolerance and bigotry experienced by others.

By changing the anthem and by singing "all lives matter," Pereira declared what he believed is right and the moment when all eyes are watching is always the best time and place to take a stand that really counts.

Bravery and stupidity are often indistinguishable from each other in all aspects of life, including sports and music. On this field, Pereira stood right on the foul line.

-- Managing editor Neil Godbout