Elizabeth II left in peace last Thursday. His reign will arouse a multitude of stories illuminating an exceptional life. By basing herself entirely in a role that history has intended to be immense and that modernity has made sensational, the queen has kept alive an institution that stands out in this era of democratic hopes. We owe him great respect and lasting admiration, as well as compassion for citizens who are sometimes attached to the person, sometimes to the institution.
The space that Elizabeth II occupied in the world, Canadian and Quebec news as well as the sincerity invested in the desire to be a positive force must not, in all courtesy, obscure the duty to question ourselves about the institution “by divine right” which has since been eclipsed by others, democratic and wanting to separate the State from the Church.
Under the Constitution to which Quebec is bound even without having adhered to it in forty years, the heir to the Crown, Charles III, is head of Canada, represented at the federal level by the Governor General and at the provincial level by the lieutenants- governors. No law is applicable without the seal of the monarchy, even if practice reduces it to an obsolete symbol.
Outdated, but expensive, the monarchy cost taxpayers an average of $67.1 million per year between 2018 and 2021 to finance, for example, honorary ceremonies, trips by the royal family (in 2016, that of Prince William cost $3.9 million), compensation for the Governor General ($306,067 in 2019-2020), and lifetime pension for all former Governors General and their surviving spouses ($747,418 in 2019-2020). This considerable expenditure is then broken down to the level of the provinces.
About three-quarters of Quebecers want the monarchy to be abolished, stripping this institution of all legitimacy to intervene, even symbolically, in the choices of the National Assembly of Quebec.
Isn’t it surprising that the head of the Quebec and Canadian states is also the head of the Anglican Church, when both want to be secular? It will be agreed that with a prayer preceding the daily parliamentary work, Canada practices with timidity the separation between the State and the Church. On the other hand, since the Quiet Revolution, Quebec has progressed, despite Canadian multiculturalism, towards an increasingly assured secularism.
The monarchy is based on the certainty that The King can do no wrong. However, they are indeed fallible humans, sometimes endearing and sometimes heartbreaking in their reality not so different from ours, if not by opulence. Moreover, it was first by arms that the English crown established its authority over New France, which has since become Quebec.
Finally, if we accept the legal argument to affirm that we cannot easily put an end to the monarchy in Canada and in Quebec, and if we admit that the current constitutional framework would make the exercise complex, perhaps We need to consider our independence more in order to obtain, in this respect too, what is desirable and desired.
With all due respect for the institutions and with compassion for the bereaved citizens, I think that the succession to the throne of England is conducive to reflection on the continuation of our subjugation to a power that Quebecers, as a people, have never chosen. .