In 2023, the National Assembly took two significant steps towards the abolition of the monarchy in Quebec. At the beginning of the year, she abolished the oath of allegiance of MPs to the King of Canada. On December 8, she unanimously demanded the abolition of the office of lieutenant governor. Let us particularly congratulate the Parti Québécois (PQ) and Québec solidaire (QS), who were at the origin of these measures and were able to collaborate on an issue of historical importance beyond their partisan interests.
In doing so, our elected officials reflect the clear and indisputable will of the Quebec people and the voters of each party represented in the National Assembly. According to polls, more than 70% of Quebecers, including 80% of French speakers, want the monarchy to be abolished. It would have been particularly undemocratic for the Quebec government to continue to refuse to express this powerful consensus.
The representative of the monarchy within the National Assembly is the lieutenant-governor. It is logical that this function is particularly targeted. The lieutenant governor is the soft underbelly of the Canadian state and the Canadian Constitution, which has been imposed more than once on Quebec. According to this constitution, no bill adopted by the National Assembly can become a law without the signature of the king’s representative appointed by Ottawa. This fundamental structure of the Canadian state has become completely unacceptable. It is rejected by the State and the people of Quebec. On this point, there is a flagrant constitutional incompatibility.
The Canadian government is desperate to extend the lifespan of dying monarchical institutions by appointing Indigenous women from Quebec to the positions of governor general and lieutenant governor. It is a sterile attempt to oppose Quebec and Indigenous nationalisms. This federal exploitation of the Aboriginal cause will not work because contemporary Aboriginal people do not seem more attached to the monarchy than all Quebecers or immigrants. Indigenous people have a more modern and in-depth vision of our society.
Denial
At a time of global and growing questioning of the British monarchy in the United Kingdom itself, in Australia, throughout the Commonwealth, including English Canada, it is obvious that this question will arise with increasing frequency. more acute in the coming years. Canada’s current position on this subject is the same as for the unresolved question of Quebec: denial. These two forms of denial have a common cause: the constitutional paralysis which followed the events of 1982 and the referendum draw of 1995.
Canada is incapable of abolishing the monarchy because the rules it imposed on Quebec paradoxically force it to obtain the latter’s consent. This Quebec consent cannot be given without a major overhaul of the Constitution which Canada refuses to consider. The question of the monarchy reveals the constitutional impasse into which Pierre Elliott Trudeau has led Canada.
The National Assembly can no longer stop there. She announced her colors and took the lead as necessary in what could be the ultimate constitutional debate in the Canadian context. For everyone, the monarchy is incompatible with Quebec values of democracy and equality. This debate healthily and strongly affirms our national identity. The monarchy and its representatives have no social acceptability in Quebec.
The mistake to avoid is to demand the reopening of the Canadian Constitution. A Quebec constitutional policy of the 21st centurye century must agree that such a demand is no longer realistic. We must build our own constitution by abolishing the monarchy in Quebec.
Unilateral actions
The National Assembly must take other unilateral and more concrete actions to this end. She must reduce the lieutenant governor’s budget to zero, invite him to empty his offices in the National Assembly, never again allow him to set foot within the perimeter of the Assembly, remove the mace which symbolizes the presence and royal authorization for the debates of our elected officials, modify the coat of arms of Quebec which appears on official documents.
Above all, it must add to the signature of the lieutenant governor on the bills adopted a second one, that of the president of the National Assembly, which will immediately have greater legitimacy. This signature will be the only one valid under Quebec law, until the day when the holder of a real presidency of the State or the Republic of Quebec can provide it. Thus, the function of lieutenant governor, resulting from a colonial past, will certainly be marginalized before disappearing completely. Nobody will regret it.
All of these unilateral acts are compatible with the current Canadian constitution. None can be successfully challenged in court. The required elements are not legal: they are will, courage and lucidity. No party represented in the National Assembly will risk its political benefit to defend the monarchy.
The Republic of Quebec is slowly being born before our eyes. It could be proclaimed under the Quebec constitution as a prelude to a third referendum on sovereignty. This will be a fair expression of the right to self-determination of the Quebec people.