A group of newly elected deputies in the province Quebecno CanadaThis Wednesday, the 19th, refused to take the oath of allegiance Ray Charles III, is considered the king of the country under the constitution. Eleven representatives from the left-wing Quebec Solidarity Party refused to take the oath and failed to win a seat in Quebec’s National Assembly in late November.

In a televised speech, parliamentarians swore an oath to “the people of Quebec.” Party spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois assured the speech that it had acted “with full knowledge of the cause”. “We campaigned to change the ages in Quebec, and if we were sent to Parliament, it was to open a door,” he added.

Under Canadian constitutional law, any deputy at the federal or provincial level is required to swear allegiance to the British monarchy in order to exercise his power, as Canada is an institutional monarchy of the Commonwealth.

However, the oath of allegiance to the British crown has always been a source of conflict in Quebec, a province increasingly tied to France. The province even held two referendums to secede from the rest of Canada in 1980 and 1995. In both cases, the majority voted against independence.

Paul St-Pierre Plamonton, leader of Quebec Solidarity, reported last week that the relationship with the British monarchy was a “conflict of interest” because “you cannot serve two masters”. And, according to him, the monarchy costs “67 million Canadian dollars every year” and the oath is a “reminder of colonial dominance”.

Prime Minister of Canada Justin TrudeauAbolishing the monarchy would require a rewrite of the constitution and the unanimous approval of parliament and ten Canadian provincial governments, reaffirming this Wednesday that “there was not a single Quebecer” who wanted to “reopen the constitution,” which would take years. /AFP