Québec solidaire is following in the footsteps of the Parti Québécois. Its deputies will not be sworn in to King Charles III on Wednesday, bringing to 14 the number of elected officials likely not to sit at the start of the legislature.
In interview with The duty, the solidarity co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois indicated that his political party had come to an agreement with the National Assembly more than a month before the opening of the parliamentary session. “This agreement will allow us – the deputies of Québec solidaire –, on Wednesday, to take an oath only to the people of Quebec,” he said.
This means that during their swearing-in ceremony, scheduled for 2 p.m., the eleven elected representatives will not have to say that they will be “faithful” and will bear “true allegiance to His Majesty” King Charles III.
Except that this agreement is temporary.
The secretary general of the National Assembly, Siegfried Peters, was quick to tell QS that they were only enjoying a grace period, the time to find a permanent agreement with the other parties represented in Parliament. He relies on elected officials by the start of the school year on November 29. ” [Ça] will enable us to continue discussions with the other political parties. Because right now there is a dead end. We are in a cul-de-sac,” Mr. Nadeau-Dubois said on the phone.
Access to the Blue Room in-game
Since election day, October 3, the three elected members of the Parti Québécois have maintained that they will avoid taking the oath to the king of Canada on Friday, during their own swearing-in ceremony. The Constitution Act of 1867, however, states that it must be done to sit in the Blue Room.
Last Thursday, the National Assembly informed the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, that it had to “enforce [le règlement] which is in force”. The Secretary General thus revealed his intentions to prevent the PQ MNAs from performing their duties in the Blue Room as long as they have not taken this oath of allegiance.
Tuesday evening, the leader of the PQ however confirmed that he and his colleagues could, like the elected officials, participate in their swearing-in ceremony without pledging allegiance to Charles III. Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) MP Simon Jolin-Barrette also says that in the long term, it will be impossible for PQ MPs to walk through the doors of the National Assembly hall without undergoing the exercise .
“It does not please us more than anyone to take the oath to Charles III, but it is currently provided for by the Constitution. So, the elected representatives of the Coalition avenir Québec will take the oath, ”he argued in a scrum of the press, a few moments before rushing into the Red Room, where he swore allegiance to the king flanked by Prime Minister François Legault. and a smiling Siegfried Peters.
All caquistes were sworn in on Tuesday. MNA Sylvie D’Amours was the only one to show a preference for the second part of the oath, made to the people of Quebec. “My favorite”, she exclaimed before chaining it after the one made to the British monarch.
According to the constitutionalist Patrick Taillon, the participation of those in solidarity with the protest process gives weight to the anti-oath argument. “There, suddenly, there are two groups that refuse. […] The game changes radically”, he analyzed in an interview with The duty. “It’s starting to be a lot [de gens] in the Assembly. »
“The most dangerous thing for the three Parti Québécois deputies is that there, they occupy all the space, but, at some point, we could fall into a situation where no one talks about them anymore,” added Professor at the Faculty of Law of Laval University.
A law project ?
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois intends to unblock the parliamentary “impasse”. He sent letters on Tuesday to all his counterparts in order to organize a meeting and “to find a transpartisan solution” to this “very unpleasant” oath. “This meeting could quickly bring together, from next week, representatives of our respective political parties,” he wrote.
The solidarity parliamentary leader opens the door to discuss the motion imagined the day before by his PQ colleague Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. The latter had proposed on Tuesday that the National Assembly decide to rule that “not taking an oath to the King of England should not prevent an elected official from sitting in the Blue Room”. According to him, the adoption of such a motion would open the doors of the Blue Room to dissident MPs.
“It’s an option that deserves to be studied,” said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois to the To have to. I think Mr. Plamondon should clarify it. »
On Tuesday, the CAQ parliamentary leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, refused net dry freight the option of the motion. “A motion does not have the force of law,” he argued to journalists before saying that he favored the legislative route. In 2019, Québec solidaire had already tabled a bill to make the oath to the Crown optional. This is the “long-term solution, the permanent solution in addition to the independence of Quebec”, according to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
What will happen if the elected officials do not agree between now and the start of parliament? Will the deputies in solidarity have to betray their convictions and take the oath? Accompanied by The duty Coming out of the Salon Rouge on Tuesday, Secretary General Peters declined to comment and redirected us to the National Assembly’s communications team.
” We’ll see. What I think is that we have a responsibility to examine all the possibilities, said Mr. Nadeau-Dubois. Me, I think that the positions can evolve if we are in good faith. »
With Alexandre Robillard