Eleven newly elected MPs from the Canadian province of Quebec refused to swear allegiance King Carlos III during his swearing in on Wednesday.
Although mandated by the Canadian Constitution, party legislators Solidarity Quebec winners of the last provincial elections did not want to take the oath british crownwhich puts the inauguration of his position in legal danger.
The party hopes to force MPs to carry out a comprehensive overhaul of the rules to make the oath of allegiance to the British Crown optional.
Section 15 of the Act respecting the National Assembly stipulates: “I declare under oath that I will be loyal to the people of Quebec and that I will exercise the functions of Member with honesty and fairness in accordance with the Constitution of Quebec.
The second oath says, “I swear that I will be faithful and maintain true loyalty to His Majesty the King Charles III“.
In 2019, the Québec solidaire party submitted a proposal to eliminate the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, but its opponents opposed the bill.
Several constitutional experts considered that it was possible to refuse to to take an oath. They offered various interpretations and solutions which they said would allow legislators to sit in the National Assembly (MNA) without taking an oath of allegiance to the king.
Some experts pointed out that they were duly elected by the voters and that, in accordance with the principle of democracy, the National AssemblyIt should allow them to sit without having to take an oath of allegiance.
Part of the population opposes the monarchical aspect of Canadaconsidering it anachronistic.
Although Canada may one day give up the monarchy and become a republic, as several other Western democracies have done, some jurists insist that until then the principles of constitutionalism and the rule of law require elected officials to respect Constitutionthe supreme law of Canada, and the system of democratic constitutional monarchy which it establishes.
With information from Reuters
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