Ethics Heroes: 18,000 Canadians

/ Jack Marshall

 Canadian country music star Brett Kissel was supposed to sing the U.S. and Canadian national anthems before Game 3  of the NHL play-offs between the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers over the weekend, but his microphone malfunctioned. He couldn’t be heard.

The estimated crowd of 18000 took over, and sang both national anthems. They really belted out “The Star Spangled Banner” too. Now that’s being a good neighbor.

Would a US crowd so enthusiastically croon “O Canada”?

I wonder.

I hope so.

24 thoughts on “Ethics Heroes: 18,000 Canadians”

  1. I am amazed the Canadians know the words to our anthem. I think very few Americans know the Canadian anthem, including me.

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  2. I guessing that there was a respectable contingent of United States citizens at the game too.

    It’s a fabulous representation of mutual respect for your a close international neighbor. Great job!!

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  3. You may not believe this about Portland Oregon but a lot of the fan base of our WHL team (Portland Winterhawks… 11 year STH) does know the words to both anthems and you hear a lot of singing in the stands…. Except when Sgt. Eric Bunday of the Hillsboro P.D. is singing anthems (our version of Jim Cornelison) because he can do it half in French…

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    • slickwilly wrote, “Most people don’t know the American National Anthem has more than one verse! There are 4 total.”

      I bet many of those same individuals that don’t know the entire National Anthem know nearly every word of Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A., or Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven, or the ever popular “Fuck Tha Police”.

      Sad.

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        • Sweepings from the dustbin of history….

          The “hirelings and slaves” whose “blood washed out their foul footsteps pollution” apparently referred to the Colonial Marines. Francis Cott Key certainly was a slaveholding anti-abolitionist who viewed Blacks as a distinctly different and inferior species.

          All told, more than 4000 people were freed from slavery – the largest emancipation that took place in the U.S. until the Civil War. Three companies of Colonial Marines were formed, and their presence did inspire hatred and fear among the Americans. The corps took part in the burning of Washington, fought in the Battle of Baltimore, and skirmished against American forces all along the coast. The British comman­der-in-chief said they were “infinitely more dreaded by the Americans than the British troops”.

          At the end of the war Americans demanded the either the return of ex-slaves or monetary reparations for the loss of property. With few exceptions, the British refused. According to custom, a slave arriving on British soil was free; a British ship at war had the status of British land itself.

          The British offered the Colonial Marines farmland in Trinidad in February 1816, nearly a year after the end of the war, when the marines refused to be transferred out of naval service into the army as soldiers in the West India Regiments. Their descendants live in Trinidad still, in freedom, and call themselves “the Merikans.”

          http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/essays/black-soldier-and-sailors-war/

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  6. I think Kissel deserves particular credit in signaling the crowd to sing it, rather than hold up the proceedings by waiting on the mike to get fixed.

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  9. As a born and raised US citizen with a Canadian mother, this makes me so happy. I doubt the US peeps would do this, not because they didn’t want to but because they just wouldn’t know the words. I am sure they would if they knew them.

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    • Laurent, I suspect the US crowd would gleefully shout out “OOOOH CANADAAH,” and then sort of mumble along for a while. The spirit (fueled by, among other things, spirits [Canadian Mist anyone?]) would be willing, but….

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      • They’d kind of shout hum the rest of the melody and repeat “Oh Canada” again toward the end. And everyone would have had a really good time. It’s a hockey game. What’s not to love?

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      • That would be me. I could hum along. I know more than a dozen words. And the smart phone would provide the rest. No guarantee I could carry a note though.
        -Jut

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  10. How do you distinguish an act of extreme courtesy from an ethical act, or are they the one and same?

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  11. I learned “O Canada” decades ago, but have forgotten the lyrics since. I am always up for learning (or re-learning) patriotic lyrics, even if not patriotic about my own country. So, it’s off to re-education music class – while I can still carry a tune. This post reminded me to audition for the chance to sing the Star Spangled Banner – fourth verse – at a local private, Christian school’s football pregame. (With a “Has Made” instead of a “Hath Made.”) Maybe later this year…

    Reply

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