(Quebec) The Liberal Party of Quebec opposes the adoption of a bill that would make the oath of allegiance to the Queen optional for Quebec elected officials, proposed by Quebec solidaire and supported by the CAQ and the PQ . Rather, he sees it as a “gesture of separatist rupture”.
Posted at 7:04 p.m.
“The Coalition avenir Québec supports Québec solidaire’s gesture of separatist rupture, supports Bill 192, and makes sure to, yes, stir up a dispute with Ottawa, creates the crisis from scratch,” launched the MP. liberal Marc Tanguay during a debate in the chamber on Wednesday, in a vibrant plea to defend “the constitutional order”.
The bill is defended by the deputy of Quebec solidaire Sol Zanetti and can be summed up very simply: currently, elected officials must, to be sworn in, pledge allegiance to the people of Quebec, and to the Queen. If adopted, the second oath will be optional.
Mr. Zanetti was deeply marked by this exercise he had to do when he arrived at the National Assembly in 2018. “I feel, I think, stained forever and I hope that at least I will be able to succeed in ensuring that there is no longer anyone who will be forced to do this, ”he said when the bill was introduced in 2019.
It is rather rare for an opposition party to pass a law. But in this case, Mr. Zanetti has the support of the ruling party. “The CAQ said they would pass at least one bill from each opposition. […] On the side of Québec solidaire, we had still not had a project adopted at the start of the legislature. They decided to call that one, but calling it last week [de la session]the only way that works is to have the consent of all the parties,” laments the member for Jean-Lesage in an interview with The Press.
photo yan doublet, Le Soleil archives
Quebec Solidarity MNA Sol Zanetti
Monarchist
He must therefore ask the Liberal Party for its consent. “I’m not even asking them to vote for it. I just want them to think of those who want to stop making this humiliating oath, against our values, ”said Mr. Zanetti. He points out that “a well-monarchist liberal could always take the oath to the Queen”.
However, the PLQ sees things differently. This bill is “useless” and doomed to failure, according to Marc Tanguay. “We don’t need the Queen, we don’t need the Lieutenant Governor. But the way to do it is not for us, deputies, to pretend that it does not exist and then to vote by closing our eyes, ears and then our nose, to vote for a bill that goes head-on against the Constitution established then the constitutional order,” he said.
In his opinion, it is impossible for a majority of the CAQ caucus to be federalist, since the party of François Legault has decided to support this bill. “On this constitutional debate [la CAQ] sits on the same side as Québec solidaire, a clearly independentist party, ”he said.
Sol Zanetti affirms that he consulted constitutional experts before tabling his bill, and he believes that Quebec can very well do without the oath to the Queen, as it did without the Legislative Council, unilaterally abolished in 1968 ” because we believe that it is in the internal constitution of Quebec”. “The question of the oath is also part of the internal constitution of a Canadian province, which means that we can modify these things unilaterally,” he said.