The Canadian national anthem is now officially gender neutral, though the transition from the old lyrics to the new may take some time.

A new federal bill called the phrase "in all our son’s command" to be changed to "in all of us command". The bill was passed and has received royal assent.

Ironically, the original lyrics of O Canada were already gender neutral, if a little awkward, reading ``Thou dost in us command.''

Cindi Rempel Patrick is the Chief Creative Officer of the Steinbach Arts Council. She says for many years now they have been in charge of lining up anthem singers for Steinbach Pistons games. She notes for now they will hold off on any changes. 

"We discussed it within our organization and we discussed it with our program staff and we have decided that at least until the end of the Pistons season this year we would be keeping the anthem the same. We will look at it again when we do our strategic planning in the summer with our board and then we will make decisions going forward on how we incorporate that."

Randy Dueck is the Superintendent of the Hanover School Division. He notes the changes are coming but may take some time to work into the school system.

"I would imagine that the government of Canada will send out a lot of information to schools and also give schools an explanation of the changes so that schools can use that educationally in their programming. Also, schools will have to be equipped with updated recordings of the anthem."