Sixty Joyless De-Britished Uncrowned Commonpoor Years (1949-2009)

Elizabeth II Vice-Regal Saint: Remembering Paul Comtois (1895–1966), Lt.-Governor of Québec
Britannic Inheritance: Britain's proud legacy. What legacy will America leave?
English Debate: Daniel Hannan revels in making mince meat of Gordon Brown
Crazy Canucks: British MP banned from Canada on national security grounds
Happy St. Patrick's: Will Ireland ever return to the Commonwealth?
Voyage Through the Commonwealth: World cruise around the faded bits of pink.
No Queen for the Green: The Green Party of Canada votes to dispense with monarchy.
"Sir Edward Kennedy": The Queen has awarded the senator an honorary Knighthood.
President Obama: Hates Britain, but is keen to meet the Queen?
The Princess Royal: Princess Anne "outstanding" in Australia.
H.M.S. Victory: In 1744, 1000 sailors went down with a cargo of gold.
Queen's Commonwealth: Britain is letting the Commonwealth die.
Justice Kirby: His support for monarchy almost lost him appointment to High Court
Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst abolishes the Apostles' Creed.
Air Marshal Alec Maisner, R.I.P. Half Polish, half German and 100% British.
Cherie Blair: Not a vain, self regarding, shallow thinking viper after all.
Harry Potter: Celebrated rich kid thinks the Royals should not be celebrated
The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower

Monday 21 May 2007

Honour our traditions

Kudos to columnist Joseph Quesnel who, in his May 12 column in the Winnipeg Sun, castigated Charles Roach, a lawyer from Toronto now attempting a class action lawsuit against the government for requiring newcomers to recite an oath of allegiance to the monarch.

The oath, he said, "violates" his Charter .

Roach was born a British subject in Trinidad and Tobago and is now a permanent resident. He would recite the oath when he became a lawyer, but he was denied citizenship when he applied for it back when he needed it for admission to the bar. He asked the judge to change it, which he refused.

It is right to protest oppressive practices wherever they occur, but this is not one of them. Roach was asked to affirm the government of the country he immigrated to.

If he refuses, I hope he never gets citizenship. If Roach wants discussions on the monarchy, he can become a citizen first and enter the debate. Until then, he is a guest who should play by the rules.

It is disrespectful when some newcomers demand that Canada alter its history and tradition to suit them, rather than the other way around. Roach would probably not appreciate it if I went to his birth country and demanded the same.

If he can't handle our monarchy, he should have thought about that first.

Our system is monarchical. Our head of state is the Queen. Our founding document is the British North America Act, which states our Constitution is similar to that of Great Britain.

It is insulting that Justice Edward Belobaba, the presiding judge, referred to Queen Elizabeth as an "offshore queen." Reviewing our history, the Queen is as Canadian as the maple leaf or the beaver.

We made deliberate choices to downplay this. Roach's attitudes stem from government choices, one of which is decades of accommodating Quebec and separatism and the other is misguided multiculturalism.

We were taught Canada must be all things to all people and in the process we forgot our own past and traditions.

We consciously changed the Red Ensign in response to Quebec separatism. I love our flag, but we didn't need to change it to be independent. Australia and New Zealand retained the Union Jack and no one argues those countries don't have their own identity.

We avoided God Save the Queen, which is our royal anthem, as a way to hide our British roots.

We almost lost our country in the recent Quebec referendum and these changes did nothing.

Roach said he opposes the monarchy because, "Blacks were colonized as a people by the British throne, and were enslaved as a people by the British throne."

Perhaps he missed British abolitionism or the British tradition which includes values of limited government, freedom of speech and association, stretching to Magna Carta.

As a French-Canadian, it was the Quebec Act of 1774, passed by Britain, which guaranteed my ancestors the right to speak their language and practice their faith and legal tradition.

This is what the oath is really about.

12 comments:

Jeff said...

an oath of allegiance to the queen? how utterly childish...

Anonymous said...

Try this on the IoM and we'd give you a Viking longship. A flaming one, floating away from the coast. Leve Dronningen!

Cato

J.J. said...

What, exactly is wrong with referring to QE2 as an "offshore queen?" In what way is this an inaccurate statement? Has she moved to Winnipeg sometime in the last few months and no one told me?

Anonymous said...

At least this clown is not getting funding from the Court Challenges Program...

Matt Bondy said...

Unrelated, Beaverbrook:

Just FYI

http://dominionpages.blogspot.com/2007/05/timely-request.html

The Monarchist said...

"Offshore queen" sounds like offshore tax haven or some such. It is the tone, not the accuracy, of the connotation.

heydel-mankoo.com said...

One cannot help but reflect that if Mr. Roach had desired to obtain United States citizenship but refused to swear allegiance to the Flag and the Constitution he would no doubt receive the equivalent of a legal and media tar and feathering. I seriously doubt whether the law makers of that fallen child of the Empire would seriously entertain a challenge to the oath. Alas, it is one of the downsides of a tolerant, benevolent and accommodating Crown that such antics are permitted within our own realm.

The Monarchist said...

Well said!

Keir said...

Agree with Heydel-Mankoo. It shows a contempt and paternalistic condescension towards Canadians that some guy can come to our country and tell us that our system of government and allegiance(which served him well in two world wars, a point forgotten) while he advises us isn't good enough for us. Why does he dare do so for our little country and not attempt the same in his own, let alone the US?

redtown said...

No one is forcing him to pledge allegiance to the Queen.
He is free to return to his own country, or find another.

This is like being a guest in someone's home, then telling the host before the meal,
"I refuse to say grace with your family; it offends me."

Anonymous said...

Off-shore Queen. That's a laugh. Dollars to doughnuts if you roll that slimebag judge you'll find a Liberal party membership card and tax receipts for political donations to the same. The monarchy is inextricably entwined in our heritage, culture and political institutions. Canada is what it is because of the Crown, not in spite of it. Referring to Her Majesty as a foreign queen is the biggest Liberal lie since "sure we'll keep our election promises" and "your tax dollars are safe with us."

Anonymous said...

Mark Steyn provides a great analysis of this wacko's case in his latest column in The Western Standard.

http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?page=article&article_id=2551&pagenumber=1