From Reuters:
“Quebec's elected officials
must swear oath to King Charles to sit in National Assembly”
Quebec National Assembly speaker
ruled on Tuesday that all elected members must swear an oath to Britain's King
Charles and not just to the people of Quebec in order to perform their duties
in the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province. "As the law
currently stands, this oath is not optional," Speaker Francois Paradis
wrote in his ruling, adding that a member who does not take the oath cannot
take his seat in the Assembly. Charles, 73, automatically became king of the
United Kingdom and the head of state of 14 other realms, including Canada, when
his mother, Queen Elizabeth, died on Sept. 8. Shortly after an election on Oct.
3, Parti Quebecois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, stated that he and the two
other elected members of his party would not swear an oath to the King, CBC
News reported, after which 11 elected members of Quebec Solidaire followed the
same. Both parties advocate independence from Canada for Quebec. The Quebec
Solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois described the oath to the King
as "colonial, archaic and outdated," CBC said. The separatist party
Bloc Quebecois also called on the federal government last month to sever ties
with the British monarchy, saying the recent transfer of the crown to King
Charles was an opportunity to do so. Britain colonized Canada beginning in the
late 1500s, and the country remained part of the British empire until 1982. Now
it is a member of the Commonwealth, made up mostly of former empire countries
that have or had the British monarch as head of state.
^ I’ve said it before and I’ll
say it again (and again) Canada should hold a nationwide referendum on whether
to stay a Constitutional Monarchy or become a Republic. Only then will this
problem be addressed. Until/if that happens every elected Government Official
across Canada has to swear allegiance to the current Canadian Monarch – that’s
the law. ^
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