London's Aeolian Hall has canceled a show that was set to feature a musician who changed the lyrics to the Canadian national anthem at the MLB All Star Game.
Clark Bryan, the Aeolian Hall's executive director, says they decided to cancel the show after The Tenors singer Remigio Pereira changed a line of the anthem on Tuesday during their on-field performance at Petco Park. The lyrics were altered from “With glowing hearts we see thee rise, the True North strong and free," to “We’re all brothers and sisters, all lives matter to the great.”
Bryan says whether it intentional or unintentional, "all lives matter" is viewed as a rejection of the Black Lives Matter movement.
"We began to get a tremendous amount of Tweets and Facebook postings from our Aeolian community about refunds for the tickets, and indignation over the statements," he says. "We needed to make a quick ethical decision on this. We're an organization that's often looked at in the community as a leader of diversity."
The incident at the All-Star Game follows a series of “Black Lives Matter” protests which were prompted by police shootings in the United States that left two black men dead. It also comes after the deadly sniper attack on Dallas police officers on July 7.
Pereira was set to perform at the London hall on September 28 with guitarist Pavlo.
"Hopefully we can get past this and we can all practice some forgiveness and get him back on the stage. But in the meantime, he had to make a strong statement... We needed to make sure that people understand that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable in our view."
Members of The Tenors quartet took to Facebook to blame the incident on Pereira, saying he acted as a “lone wolf” who changed the anthem to “serve his own political views.”
Those who have already purchased tickets for the cancelled show are asked to contact Aeolian Hall for a full refund.
-With files from The Canadian Press
