Standard advice, dinned into the mind of the public for generations, is: Never stand up in a canoe!
Probably no greater fallacy has ever been perpetrated.
You can be sure that whenever this counsel is urged upon you its proponent knows little, if anything, about canoes. He is merely repeating an old saw, one that should be set to rest once and for all!

Bill Riviere.. Pole, Paddle & Portage A Complete Guide to Canoeing