The Intellectuals for Sovereignty (IPSO) denounced the very bad theater being played out in the National Assembly, the first consequence of which was to exclude the three patriotic deputies from the Parti Québécois. This exclusion takes place under rules that have not changed since the very beginnings of a very undemocratic British colonial regime. It is time to question these, because otherwise don’t they make the parties that support them the columns of the temple?
That we feel no direct oppression on the part of the now “Canadian” British crown and that we naively believe that it keeps itself aloof from political life in Canada, does not in any way prevent us from being collectively compelled to pay an annual royal annuity nor to maintain its representatives, governors for the whole of Canada and lieutenant-governors in each province. To “top it all off”, these merry fellows who teach the various governments a lesson are sometimes tempted to lead a truly scandalous princely lifestyle themselves.
Do we need to recall the extent of their powers to understand this powerful symbolic reality of submission to God and his representative on earth? Remember that the King (or Queen) of England is himself Supreme Governor of the Church of England AND Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of Canada? This divine association indeed condemns the dream of a secular Canada to endless wandering. And even if the Quebec state decreed the end of it, it remains indeed subject to this constitutional order which makes the Canadian king the commander of the believers.
Introducing the supremacy of the king and his works is also giving way to political conservatism. Valuing individual charity over community solidarity. The governor swears federal governments before God in the House of Commons, while his “deputies,” the lieutenant governors, similarly swear provincial governments. Both open parliamentary sessions and announce the legislative program of their respective governments, also giving “royal” assent to all bills, even if passed democratically.
This supreme power is most irritating when it is not covered with ridicule, for governors and lieutenant-governors expressly have a function of propaganda. They are called upon to build Canada’s religious and monarchical identity by rewarding citizens deemed “remarkable”, by promoting a sense of “Canadian” identity, by supporting social causes in defiance of the priorities and commitments of the federal and provincial and those of the citizens themselves.
And we would like to prevent from sitting deputies who swear allegiance to the people who elected them but who refuse to submit to the strongest symbol of the Canadian political order? Swearing a false oath to the king has something humiliating, even outrageous, because it reiterates the supremacy of the interests defined by the representative of God here below, the king of England, over the interests of a community. entire policy. We, the signatories of the IPSOs, note that refusing to submit to this degrading masquerade for a nation is nothing short of futility.
The IPSOs therefore call for protest against the illegitimate exclusion of the three patriotic deputies and against the submission of the National Assembly. Quebecers have a republican spirit, Mr. Legault. They expect your bill to aim for the right target: exempt our deputies from the oath to the king, but make the oath to the people of Quebec unavoidable.