Everything We Learned From The Tenors’ ‘Lone Wolf’ Canadian Anthem Fuck Up

The last time I thought about The Tenors was when I saw them make an Oprah appearance in 2010. As it turns out, that makes me 100 percent more knowledgeable about the opera "crossover" quartet than the rest of the country, or at least it did until last night.

While performing at an MLB all-star game in San Diego last night, one of the BC-based singers, Remigio Pereira, altered the lyrics to "O Canada." He replaced "With glowing hearts we see thee rise / The True North strong and free" with "We're all brothers and sisters / All lives matter to the great."

Why? Video via YouTube

Just in case his racist remix was lost on anyone, Pereira also doubled down by holding up a sign that read "All Lives Matter." There are lots of reasons why this was a stupid fucking idea. Changing the lyrics of a national anthem is generally frowned upon—it took Mauril Belanger, better known as "Dying MP" years to have "sons" switched to "us" in an effort to make "O Canada" more gender neutral. Pereira's stunt went way beyond that; he used an entire country's anthem to promote a phrase that detracts from the Black Lives Matter movement, and he did so in the US, the country where the fight for racial equality is currently extremely tense. (Apparently Fox didn't air the singing of the Canadian anthem, so the only audience who probably would've been into Pereira's improvisations didn't even see it.)

In what is undoubtedly the most attention anyone has ever paid to The Tenors, the internet proceeded to drag the group for the rest of the evening, forcing them to apologize and single out Pereira as a "lone wolf" who was acting on his own.

"Our sincere apologies and regrets go out to everybody who witnessed this shameful act, to our fellow Canadians, to Major League Baseball, to our friends, families, fans and to all those affected. The actions of one member of this group were extremely selfish and he will not be performing with The Tenors until further notice," they said in a statement. Note that they didn't address the black community, the people who stand to be most offended by this ridiculous debacle.

Pereira later defended himself on his (bonkers) Facebook page. "I've been so moved lately by the tragic loss of life and I hoped for a positive statement that would bring us ALL together. ONE LOVE. That was my singular motivation when I said all lives matter. I am disturbed that people would attribute anything other than the purist of intentions to my actions," he said.

His clueless non-apology reminds us that people still don't understand why the phrase "All Lives Matter" is offensive. So let's go over it again. First off, YES, obviously all lives matter. But all lives are not being disproportionately carded, beaten, incarcerated, and/or killed by institutions like the police force and judicial system. All lives don't have a disproportionate number of children in foster care; all lives aren't suspended at much higher rates in school. The black community is facing these injustices, and the slogan "Black Lives Matter" is a way for them to draw awareness to that. To appropriate their movement by saying "All Lives Matter" is essentially dismissing their very real problems. It's ignorant and inexcusable.

But a cursory browse through the rest of Pereira's Facebook profile suggests the most surprising thing about this train wreck is that it took so long to manifest itself.

He appears to use the phrase "All Lives Matter" pretty loosely, applying it to a post about German Shepherds and veganism and, ironically, a video about racism in which a woman on a plane refuses to sit next to a black man.

He's also a flat earther. As in, he believes the earth is flat and not round. Like, he shared this YouTube video that aims to answer why "all the governments of the world are conspiring to lie and cover this up," accompanied by the hashtag #gravitydoesntexist.

He also litters his feed with a heavy dose of blown-up inspirational quotes—of things that he's said. Science says posting these types of quotes means you're dumb, and I'm pretty sure that goes double for people who are quoting themselves.

So if you're one of those people in the "All Lives Matter camp" and no argument has convinced you it's wrong, just know that this is the company you keep.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.