(Quebec) Fourteen elected officials out of 125 finally refused to swear allegiance to His Majesty King Charles III, a first in Quebec. This is 11% of the deputation.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Updated at 12:13 p.m.
On Friday, it was the turn of the three elected members of the Parti Québécois (PQ) to challenge the Constitutional law of 1867 by pronouncing only one of the two obligatory oaths, that to the people of Quebec.
Very moved, the PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon then insisted, in a passionate speech, on the fact that the words, according to him, had a meaning.
“When you give your word, make a commitment, affix your signature or pass a law, you engage your honor, you become responsible in the strongest sense of the term.
“We live, unfortunately in Quebec, and this, for several decades, in a straitjacket which condemns each elected representative of the Quebec people to hypocrisy.
“A straitjacket that forces democrats of all parties to take an oath in which they do not believe, and therefore, to perjure themselves, to defile the very value of their word,” denounced Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
The 11 deputies of Quebec solidaire had started the ball on Wednesday during their swearing in at the Salon Rouge, refusing to take the oath to the king, which they described as “archaic”.
During the election campaign, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon initiated this whole process by agreeing not to take the oath to the British crown.
Even recently, he had said he hoped that the elected officials could agree, in order to allow the semi-sworn deputies to be able to sit in Parliament.
For their part, the 90 elected CAQists and 21 Liberals did not hesitate, last Tuesday, to pronounce the two oaths.