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OTTAWA — Conservative senators are pulling out all the stops to prevent the lyrics of the national anthem from being changed before Canada Day.

A bill now before the Senate, initiated by the late Ottawa Vanier MP Mauril Bélanger, would change O Canada’s “in all thy sons command” to the gender-neutral “in all of us command.” The House of Commons passed the bill last June. Bélanger died in August.

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Senators who disagree with the private member’s bill are not only moving amendments to the bill that have no hope of being approved, but are also moving sub-amendments and calling adjournment votes to delay proceedings, all but ensuring no vote on the actual bill will be held before Canada’s 150th anniversary.

The latest procedural antics, through which some senators have made transparent their hopes to delay as much as possible a bill they don’t like, come as lawmakers were trying to wrap up business before heading home for the summer.