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Diane Francis: Quebec's unconstitutional assault on the oath of allegiance

The biggest mistake Ottawa made was allowing the Bloc Québécois to have legal status as a federal party

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I immigrated to Canada from America a long time ago, made Toronto my home, and became a Canadian citizen. To do so, I had to swear an oath of allegiance to the monarchy, as all New Canadians must, and did so despite my disdain for monarchies. But I realized the oath wasn’t about upholding the monarchy or pledging fealty to a King or Queen. It was symbolic, and about swearing allegiance to Canada’s laws and constitution which I gladly did.

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This is why I find it tiresome and unacceptable that elected politicians, who are Quebec separatists, refuse to swear allegiance to Canada which is a constitutional monarchy, or admit that they do so only to keep their jobs. “My oath to the British Crown was not sincere,” admitted Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet in October in Parliament. “It was under compulsion, a forced oath” and he added that Quebecers “are a conquered people that still have to swear allegiance to a conquering King.”

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Give me a break. This is the same bleating that resulted in two failed referenda in Quebec and is being resurrected once more. This latest incarnation began in October after 14 Parti Québécois MNAs in Quebec refused to take the oath and were duly banned from their seats. Most relented, satisfied to take advantage of a loophole that allowed them to separately swear allegiance to Quebec privately, but three did not. It was a stunt.

But on December 8, all the parties in Quebec’s legislature unanimously adopted a law that abolishes the requirement that elected members of the legislature swear an oath of allegiance to Canada requirement. Legally speaking, “the law adds to the Constitution Act of 1867 a section exempting Quebec from the application of the section that requires the oath,” reported the CBC.

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Here we go again. This is the same provision that Quebec invoked last May when it passed it’s embarrassing, oppressive French language law, or Bill 96, which unilaterally “amended” the Canadian Constitution and declared that Quebecers form a nation and that French is the province’s only official language.

University of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes told the CBC that Quebec’s does not have the authority to amend the constitution to abolish the oath or declare French as the only official language in the province. “And stunningly it looks as if they may get away with it” because there are few legal challenges to Bill 96. (The federal government has adopted a wait-and-see stance even though the language bill abrogates bilingual rights to Quebecers and businesses.) “Quebec is basically acting … as if it is a sovereign government and is claiming it can do whatever it wants regardless of what’s in the Canadian constitution.”

Months later, there are some rights challenges involving sections of Bill 96.

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A civil rights lawyer filed in motion court earlier fall, objecting to the fact that judges will no longer required to be bilingual and that court documents won’t be available in English. “There is a fundamental legal principle of lawyers and clients of lawyers having a right not to disclose what’s in their files,” the lawyer told the Montreal Gazette. “It can be overcome, but it takes a warrant. And in (Bill 96), this gigantic bureaucracy has the right to just walk in and seize it.”

Other challenges to the bill are that it threatens the English community’s right to self-determination and that it threatens the rights of non-French-speaking patients to receive medical care.

It’s time to put an end to attempts to incrementally undermine rights and obligations contained in the constitution. But it’s been ongoing because I believe the biggest mistake Ottawa made was allowing the Bloc Québécois to have legal status as a federal party, sit in Parliament, and allow its leader to participate in national leadership debates when his only allegiance is to Quebec.

This should change but at the very least the Prime Minister must challenge Bill 96, which is aimed at eradicating the other official language inside Quebec, and challenge Quebec’s attempt to exempt politicians from swearing an oath to Canada required of police, teachers, lawyers, judges, military, police, and “New Canadians”.

So Trudeau has done nothing. But Canada is his country, not Quebec. Canada must uphold principles and does not deserve to have whiners snacking off the public purse and pursue an agenda to benefit one region or language at the expense of the rest.

Financial Post

Read and sign up for Diane Francis’ newsletter at dianefrancis.substack.com

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