Everything indicates that the deputies of the National Assembly will no longer have to perjure themselves by taking an oath of fidelity and “true allegiance” to His Britannic Majesty against their conscience.
The Legault government placed on Friday’s order paper the notice for the tabling, Tuesday of next week, by the Minister responsible for Democratic Institutions, Jean-François Roberge, of the bill “to recognize the oath provided for in the Act respecting the National Assembly as the only obligatory oath to sit there. This sole oath is the one instituted by René Lévesque in 1982, which requires the member to declare that he will be “loyal to the people of Quebec”.
In a motion adopted unanimously on Thursday, all the parties sitting in the National Assembly pledged to vote quickly, that is to say by the end of the short fall session on Friday, for the bill, provided that it meets their expectations. This bill, in effect, exempts elected officials from the obligation to take an oath of allegiance to the British crown as required by Article 128 of the 1867 Constitution.
Thursday, the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, and his two colleagues, MPs Joël Arseneau and Pascal Bérubé, were turned away by the Sergeant-at-Arms of Parliament when they wanted to enter the Blue Room. She was carrying out the orders of the President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, who, in a decision handed down the same day, argued that “current parliamentary law ensures that every Member must take the oath of allegiance in order to be able to participate in parliamentary work.
This decision of the presidency is not unanimous. Leading jurists believe that exercising parliamentary privilege is the surest way for elected officials to achieve their ends and that passing legislation instead would be open to legal challenges.
Fast-tracking the bill would not have been possible without the Liberals’ flip-flop. Last June, at the end of the parliamentary session, they had refused to consent to a vote on a similar bill being held quickly. Last Monday, the leader of the official opposition, Marc Tanguay, still demanded that the bill be the subject of consultations in parliamentary committee, which would have postponed its adoption until the resumption of work in February.
“There is a large majority of Quebecers who think that a member should be able to sit if he [seulement] oath to the people of Quebec, and I am one of them, ”said Liberal MP for Pontiac André Fortin in a press briefing on Thursday. He even said he supported the abolition of the monarchy in Canada: if there was a referendum to that end, he would vote “yes”.
Some have seen childishness, bluster in this refusal to take the oath by PQ members. Others silly told them to swallow their beliefs and go to work. However, it now seems obvious that the commitment of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will advance Quebec democracy by allowing all elected members of the National Assembly to get rid of an enslaving colonial symbol. The PQ leader will also have advanced the movement demanding the abolition of the monarchy in the country, a cause that unites a large majority of Quebecers.