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While English Canada was feverishly writing letters and attending committee hearings over a slight change to O Canada, the issue has gone almost completely unnoticed in Quebec.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Lyrics to French O Canada still a politically incorrect nightmare, but nobody cares Back to video

And the reason is simple; while English Canadians will now sing a gender neutral “in all of us command,” the French version of O Canada will still be chock full of gendered language, Christian triumphalism and straight-up 19th century saber-rattling.

“Your arm knows how to wield a sword,” sing Francophone Canadians in the “with glowing hearts” part.

Altogether, the official French lyrics bear almost no resemblance to those in English. While Anglophones hint at a northern land that they’ll guard somehow, the French version directly addresses Canada as a devout figure ready to smite its enemies.

Described as a someone whose “valour is steeped in faith,” the Canada figure carries both a cross and a sword and is cloaked in heroic wreaths of flowers.