The King is in town. Now, the Bloc wants to make the oath of allegiance to him optional

OTTAWA – When King Charles III and Queen Camilla first set foot on Canadian soil, the Bloc Québécois was already considering one of its first private member’s bills: making the oath of allegiance to the King optional.

“It’s (Canadians’) party. It belongs to them. We’re not part of that party. You know, there are some who say the King is welcome. I won’t welcome him here,” said Xavier Barsalou-Duval as he was leaving the House of Commons after the election of a new speaker Monday.

Outside, a few kilometres from Parliament Hill, hundreds of Canadians were present to welcome the King and Queen.

The Bloc Québécois MP for Pierre-Boucher–Les Patriotes–Verchères cares deeply about the monarchy. He cares so much about it that he will champion one of his party’s first bills to be introduced this session: making the oath to the King optional when MPs are sworn in.

The idea behind the bill is to give MPs who wish to swear an oath to the King the opportunity to do so, and if they do not, they could swear an oath to the institution they represent.

“I won’t hide from you that for me, it was a humiliation and it’s the fourth time I’ve had to go through this,” he told National Post.

The humiliation, he said, is related to a “modern incarnation of the old British colonial authority.”

Barsalou-Duval spoke of the “atrocities” and “oppression” committed by the kingdom and emphasized that nothing can excuse events like the deportation of the Acadians.

The Bloc Québécois will therefore not send any MPs to the speech from the throne delivered by the King in the Senate on Tuesday. After proposing a bill to protect supply management, making the oath to the King optional is the party’s top priority.

Barsalou-Duval said that this bill would meet the apparent priorities of Mark Carney, who wanted to invite the King at the first opportunity.

“It’s a debate that never dies and why the subject never dies because we always ask ourselves the question each time why it’s still there,” the Bloc MP said.

His bill, he said, will be similar to the one introduced by former Liberal MP René Arseneault in 2024.

At the time, a majority of MPs rejected the proposal, but many federalist MPs voted in favour.

One of them was Joel Lightbound, the Liberal MP from Quebec City who was recently appointed minister of public works and procurement.

In 2022, Lightbound voted in favour of a Bloc Québécois motion to completely abolish the monarchy. He was the only Liberal MP to do so. Two years later, he even gave a speech in the House of Commons in support of Arseneault’s bill.

“We are not preventing anyone from swearing an oath to the monarchy. We are just offering another option for those who, like me, as a member from Quebec, are uncomfortable or have reservations about swearing allegiance to a foreign monarch,” he said.

This time, the new minister said he would vote with the cabinet, despite his personal views, but also added that “it is a beautiful symbol to see the King here.”

“I don’t know what the cabinet’s position will be… I’m really looking forward to the speech from the throne,” he told reporters on Parliament hill.

Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon did not say whether the government would support the Bloc Québécois bill and said he would not comment on bills until he had reviewed them. He nevertheless called the royal visit “rich in symbolism.”

“I think it’s a recognition of our origins as a French-speaking, English-speaking, and indigenous country. And I think and believe that the King will have some interesting things to tell us,” said MacKinnon, who is a Quebec MP.

The NDP said it was also awaiting the bill, and Quebec Conservative MP Gérard Deltell said he was “not a big fan” of the monarchy, adding that the issue will be debated when the bill is introduced.

With files from Catherine Lévesque

National Post
atrepanier@postmedia.com

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