A University of Ottawa law professor is challenging Québec's abolition of the oath of allegiance to the King, arguing the province cannot unilaterally rewrite Canada's Constitution.Blacklock's Reporter says Lawrence David, president of Montréal's Public Interest Litigation Institute and a professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, filed the constitutional challenge in Québec Superior Court.“Abolition of the Oath Of Allegiance requires unanimous consent of Parliament and the provinces,” David wrote in his application.Québec's National Assembly unanimously passed Bill 4, An Act To Recognize The Oath, in 2022.The legislation sought to abolish the requirement for members of the National Assembly to take and subscribe the oath of allegiance to the King prescribed by the Constitution Act, 1867.David argued Québec acted unlawfully because an individual province cannot “unilaterally amend the text of the Constitution Act.”He maintained only Parliament acting with the unanimous consent of all provinces can make a constitutional change involving the King as Canada's head of state.David described the Constitution Act as “unequivocal” on the limits of provincial authority.“It only authorizes each of Canada’s 10 provincial legislatures to amend the constitution of their respective provinces,” he wrote. “It does not authorize the provinces to make amendments to the Constitution of Canada.”The Québec government has not yet filed a response to the claim.The court challenge comes as the Supreme Court of Canada prepares to consider a separate case involving the oath.The Supreme Court agreed Aug. 6 to hear a challenge involving a 1912 Alberta law requiring new lawyers to swear an oath of allegiance to the King.Federal law dating to Confederation also requires MPs and senators to swear allegiance to the monarch before taking up their duties.The House of Commons Procedure And Practice guide says legislators who pledge allegiance to the King are also pledging allegiance to the institutions represented by the Crown, including democracy.The oath also signifies that parliamentarians are pledging to conduct themselves in the best interests of Canada, according to the guide..Bloc Québécois MPs have taken the oath while openly objecting to it.“The Bloc is not sincere in its oath,” Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet previously told the Commons. “The Bloc is irrevocably sincere, heart and mind, in its oath and its commitment to the people of Québec.”Former Bloc MP Denis Trudel went further in 2022, calling Parliament “a symbol of 260 years of oppression” for French Canadians.“We should end all ties with the monarchy in our political institutions,” Trudel said.“In the time of Elizabeth II one could understand. She was an old lady. We didn’t want to hurt her. It could have finished her if we had told her that we no longer wanted her as the head of our country. It was nothing personal.”The Citizenship Act also requires new Canadians to swear they will “bear true allegiance” to the King.Parliament rewrote part of the citizenship oath in 2021 to recognize treaty rights of indigenous people but retained the pledge of allegiance to the monarch.The Commons indigenous affairs committee voted 10-1 that year against a Bloc amendment seeking to remove a portion of the oath requiring new citizens to declare: “I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada including the Constitution.”“I understand where the Bloc’s coming from,” Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski said at the time. “Of course they would not want a reference to the Constitution in there.”
