O Canada! Canadians and our native land made big headlines this week

Hey, Canada. Lots happened this week.

Some of our country was found in Australia. Our anthem was changed (pending royal assent). And maybe, just maybe, we’re getting rid of the nickel.

And that’s not including all the weather stuff. Here’s the Canadian news roundup:

1. Senate approves gender neutral wording for Canada’s national anthem

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The Senate of Canada has passed a bill to make the national anthem more gender neutral.

This fulfils the dying wish of former Liberal MP Mauril Belanger, who died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2016.

The amended anthem would change the second line from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.”

And Canadians sure had opinions on this — to the tune of 23,000 interactions, including 6,500 comments!

Here’s what some had to say:

Maybe we should just adopt Classified‘s version “Oh…Canada” as our national anthem and everyone will be happy.

2. Super old chunk of Canada found…in Australia!

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Have you ever felt that the Aussies were like cousins to us Canucks?

Well that may be because, according to geologists, Canada and Australia might’ve once been part of an ancient “supercontinent.”

This comes after 1.7-billion-year-old bedrock from the Canadian Shield was found in Northern Australia.

As Global’s Katie Dangerfield reported:

This discovery suggests the Georgetown area was originally part of North America and formed a supercontinent called “Nuna,” the researchers said.

The story made its way as a top post on the r/worldnews subreddit, and hit 29,000 likes/comments/shares overall.

Here’s how some people reacted on Reddit:

Allegedly Dirty Dancing Canadians in Cambodia

Two Canadians were among 10 charged with producing pornographic pictures this week.

As the Canadian Press reports: they were arrested at a party in Siem Reap, near the country’s famed Angkor Wat temple complex.

Police said they raided a rented villa where the foreigners were taking part in what organizers billed as a pub crawl and found people “dancing pornographically.” 

They face up to a year in prison if convicted.

The prosecutor said after producing the photos, the foreigners shared them on social media.

“Any people producing pornography is contrary to Cambodia’s traditions.”

Toronto cops accused of stealing pot, getting high on shift

1:26 2 Toronto police officers suspended after allegedly getting high

WATCH ABOVE: Sources tell Global News Const. Vittorio Dominelli and his partner have been suspended after ingesting some edibles from a recent dispensary raid.

Toronto police raided a dispensary.

Two of the cops allegedly consumed some of the pot.

One of them reportedly felt like he was going to pass out and had to be taken hospital.

They’ve both been suspended.

And… in a case of possible self-fulfilling prophecy, one of the officers previously tweeted a selfie video of himself set to the tune of rapper Afroman’s 2001 stoner anthem “Because I Got High.”

WATCH BELOW: Toronto police officer sings along to “Because I Got High”.

1:16 2 Toronto Police officers accused of stealing marijuana edibles, getting stoned on the job

Here’s some reaction to the story:

There was actually a… ahem, high number of comments for this piece.

Unfortunately, we can’t show many of them here.

In other Canadian news…

A report says Canada is a “full democracy” while the United States is not.

Meanwhile, the RCMP is looking for names for 13 puppy recruits.

Canada’s nickel could soon be phased out like the penny, according to an economist.

And Canadian Alessia Cara won the Grammy for Best New Artist!

— With files from The Canadian Press, Katie Dangerfield, Rahul Kalvapalle

eric.do@globalnews.ca
Follow @ericmarkdo