Quebec’s governing Coalition Avenir Quebec will introduce a bill today making it optional for members of the provincial legislature to swear an oath to the monarch..Jean-Francois Roberge, the minister responsible for democratic institutions, said that once the bill is adopted, members will only be required to swear loyalty to the people of Quebec and to the Constitution..All members of provincial legislatures and the federal parliament are required by the Canadian Constitution to swear loyalty to the monarch before taking their seats..But last week, three recently elected Parti Quebecois members were barred from taking their seats in the legislature after refusing to swear allegiance to King Charles III, who took over the throne after Queen Elizabeth II passed away in September..Constitutional scholars are divided over whether Quebec has the power to unilaterally eliminate the oath requirement for its legislature or if changing that element of the Constitution requires the consent of all provinces and both houses of Parliament..Quebec solidaire, whose members swore the oath under protest, had also introduced a bill to eliminate the requirement that members swear loyalty to the monarch..Back in October, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet ignited controversy by revealing he didn’t mean it when he swore an MP’s oath of true allegiance to the Crown..“The Bloc is not sincere in its oath,” Blanchet while rising in the House of Commons. “The Bloc is irrevocably sincere, heart and mind, in its oath and its commitment to the people of Québec.”.“Excluding the foreign king, my only allegiance is to the people of Quebec and the Quebec nation,” he said in French. “Mr. Speaker, you can tell the prime minister and you can tell it to the King.”.READ MORE: Liberals outraged after Bloc leader says his oath of allegiance to Crown was insincere.Several Liberal MPs were outraged and demanded Blanchet be censured under an 1867 House rule that has never been enforced. .“The significance of the oath to each member is a matter of conscience,” replied House Speaker Anthony Rota. “So it must remain.”
