Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will not take the oath to King Charles III
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon refuses to take the oath to King Charles III.
The leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) and deputy for Camille-Laurin, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, will not be sworn in to King Charles III. This Tuesday, he reiterated his campaign commitment. He made a formal request to the National Assembly of Quebec to “swear an oath to the people of Quebec and not to the King of England”.
“The monarchy costs us $67 million each year, it’s waste of public funds. The usefulness of the monarchy is nil. […] It reminds us of colonial domination and conquest. It reminds us that we cannot make decisions by ourselves” in Quebec, he declared.
It should be noted that this cost of $67 million applies across Canada, and would cost $10 million in Quebec, according to the PQ.
The PSPP’s swearing-in ceremony will be held on October 21. . “I, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, swear fidelity and sincere allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III, King of Canada, to his heirs and successors. So help me God”, must pronounce the leader of the PQ, according to article 128 of the Constitutional Law of 1867.
The leader of the PQ believes in return that there is “no written law in the corpus of the National Assembly which obliges to take an oath to the king. The only document that requires loyalty to the King of England is the British North America Act.”
The ball in the court of the National Assembly
And to clarify that the Constitution Act of 1982 on Canada, which put an end to the last legal links between the United Kingdom and Canada, was never signed by Quebec. But the British sovereign is also that of Canada. And according to federal law, federal and provincial deputies are required to take an oath to him. Quebec deputies also take an oath to the Quebec people.
“We cannot serve two masters when we know that these interests are contradictory, believes the leader of the PQ. We cannot on the one hand say: I will be loyal and my work will be based on the interest of the people. And at the same time say I will be loyal and my work will be in the interest of the British crown, a sovereign of another country.”
M.St-Pierre Plamondon n’a however, did not specify what he would do if the AN rejected his request. With several legal opinions in his possession, he also did not indicate what he would do if he was refused a seat in the Blue Room. “Insofar as I have already taken an oath to the people, I ask the Assembly to let me sit,” he simply declared.
“I consider that this is not not the most urgent issue in Quebec, but we have to stand up. […] The madness of squandering $ 67 million a year [for the British crown] has gone on long enough, ”PSPP launched.
In 2018, PQ MPs took the oath to the Queen of England. Those of Quebec solidaire, they had chosen to do it behind closed doors. Solidarity MP Sol Zanetti proposed Bill 192, thus making the oath to the British Crown optional.
