The Canadian Senate has passed a bill to make the country’s English national anthem more gender neutral.
One line in the song will change from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.”
Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger introduced the bill in 2016, but Conservatives fought against it. Bélanger pushed for this change for years, but more urgently so following his diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), according to the Canadian Press.
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Bélanger died just over two months after his bill was passed in the House of Commons, CP reported.
Still, his wish for the language change was granted by the Senate on Wednesday through a voice vote.
The need for gender-neutral changes has been greatly debated by Canadians for a number of years.
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In 2010, Conservatives rejected the idea of changing the national anthem’s wording, according to BBC.
Canadian author Margaret Atwood and former Prime Minister Kim Campbell also launched a campaign in 2013 to make the anthem gender neutral.
Since O Canada officially became the national anthem in 1980, there have been 12 bills been brought forth in the House to remove the gendered wording, but all requests were dismissed before now, according to CBC.
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"I'm very, very happy. There's been 30 years plus of activity trying to make our national anthem, this important thing about our country, inclusive of all of us," Independent Ontario Sen. Frances Lankin told CBC. "This may be small, it's about two words, but it's huge ... we can now sing it with pride knowing the law will support us in terms of the language. I'm proud to be part of the group that made this happen."
Some Conservative senators did not feel that it was up to Parliament to decide on such changes.
The debate around this bill went on for 18 months in the Red Chamber, but Tuesday evening, Lankin introduced a “dilatory motion” in the Senate that essentially ended the debate and moved to a vote on the bill, according to CBC.
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"When a majority of individuals decide to shut down discourse in this place, democracy dies. We need to be very wary of tools that muzzle debate ... that is the fundamental right you have, to get up and speak on any piece of legislation, none of us have the right to take that away," Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos said before the vote, CBC reported.
The legislation now will now wait for formal royal assent in order to become law.
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