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A battle over whether Toronto students can be forced to sing O Canada a cappella has escalated to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

Complainant Kevin Morrison, who is running in a trustee byelection next week, says the Toronto Catholic District School Board’s decision to remove music from the morning anthem is “prejudicial and discriminatory.” He wants the months-old policy scrapped, urging trustees to eschew such “frivolous issues” for the more serious business of running a school board.

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“I don’t see why it’s fair that it should be taken away from my children or our students,” Mr. Morrison said Wednesday.

You can’t take beavers off of nickels

“You can’t take the maple leaf off the flag just because you think maybe kids will learn better with it being missing. You can’t take beavers off of nickels; it’s a Canadian icon, you can’t mess with it. You can’t go and rewrite the Constitution just because it suits you. You can’t do that. Why can you change the anthem?”