Media Releases

An ‘O Canada’ you won’t recognize 

July 19, 2016

The lyrics to this rare 1915 ver­sion of Canada’s nation­al aren’t remote­ly like the offi­cial anthem we know today, says P.J. Care­foote, an ear­ly-books librar­i­an at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Thomas Fish­er Rare Book Library. One of about four com­pet­ing ver­sions that were around at the time, it was sung at St. Paul’s Cathe­dral in Lon­don to hon­our Cana­di­an sol­diers short­ly after the Sec­ond Bat­tle of Ypres. Read more.