It is an oath that all new Canadians have to take. In Park-Extension home of many newcomers it is known all too well. At the National Assembly, an oath to the King also must be taken until the recent dissention from the members of the PQ. The Monarchist League of Canada, which supports the oath to the king, is sorry to have been shunned by the media on a subject which nevertheless concerns it to the highest degree, they say.
It’s true that we look like extraterrestrials. But we have things to say, argued its spokesperson, Karim Al-Dahdah. A few hours before the tabling of the bill that will make the controversial oath in the National Assembly optional, the spokesperson for the Monarchist League of Canada in Quebec denounced a one-way public debate, from which the monarchist voice was excluded.
Only one message was hammered home, according to him, the oath is outdated, archaic, but nothing on the importance of the symbol for which the Monarchist League has fought since its founding in 1970. We are supporters of Canadian unity, we are attached to heritage, to Canadian symbols, to traditions, summed up Mr. Al-Dahdah, deploring a relentlessness against the monarchy.
“There’s nothing more Canadian than the monarchy…as Canadian as maple syrup, Niagara Falls, hockey” said Karim Al-Dahdah.
Furthermore, Mr. Al-Dahdah said he was shocked by certain information conveyed in the media, which he considers to be erroneous. We are talking about an oath to the King of England, but he is the Canadian head of state, he is not a foreign monarch, he defended. The monarch is the embodiment of the Canadian state, of the rule of law, of democracy.
By becoming king, Charles III took on not only the role of Head of State of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, but also that of the Anglican Church, a title strategically recalled to stir up passions, to bring back the old demons of the past and position the PQ and Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon as victims, martyrs of the nationalist cause.
Last Wednesday, Prime Minister François Legault reiterated his government’s intention to legislate to abolish the obligation for deputies to take the oath to King Charles III. That day, the three deputies of the Parti Québécois could not enter the Blue Room, the Sergeant-at-Arms of the National Assembly having blocked their access because they had not taken the oath to the king. The President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, stressed for her part that it was up to the elected officials to change the rules and not to the presidency.
