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Toronto, September 12, 2007
- Buoyed by last May's Ontario Superior Court judge’s
favourable decision, members of a class action suit will
be back in a Toronto court room next week to press ahead
with their legal battle to remove the current mandatory
swearing of allegiance to the British monarch from the
Canadian citizenship oath.
Such a requirement, they argue, violates their freedom
of conscience, speech, and association, as guaranteed by
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the
Constitution Act 1982. They also believe that swearing
an oath of fealty to a monarch and all of his or her
descendents contradicts the Charter's commitment to
equality.
“I have strongly-held beliefs about our free and
democratic society today, as do other class members,”
says Toronto civil rights lawyer Charles Roach, who
filed the class action suit.
“An oath is a solemn declaration and the government
should not force people to swear to things they don’t
believe in to gain citizenship. This oath is a coercion
of my conscience.”
In his decision, Judge Edward Belobaba dismissed a
motion by Canada’s Attorney General to deny an
application to register the class action suit. The
Attorney General promptly appealed the judge’s decision
and it's that appeal that will be heard before three
Ontario Court of Appeal judges at Toronto's Osgoode
Hall, Wednesday, September 19, at 10:00 a.m.
Finding no good reason to deny the applicants their
right to proceed, Belobaba, who referred to the monarch
as an “offshore queen” during the Osgoode Hall hearing,
said, “The constitutional challenge to the requirement
that new Canadian citizens swear or affirm an oath of
allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen and not simply to
the country, its people and its laws, is neither
frivolous nor vexatious. There is a plausible argument
that this requirement violates the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms.”
Saying there is nothing in the Constitution Act that
requires a Canadian citizenship oath, or that a new
citizen must swear allegiance to the Queen, Belobaba
noted that in Australia, which is a constitutional
monarchy like Canada, new citizens are simply required
to take a “pledge of commitment” to Australia, its
people, and its laws. “This ‘pledge of commitment’ makes
no reference to Her Majesty the Queen,” Belobaba said.
Along with Roach, who has lived in Canada for more than
half a century and has adult children who are Canadian
citizens, the prospective class action already includes
close to three dozen members. If the Court of Appeal
agrees with Judge Belobaba that registration should
proceed, the action could eventually attract hundreds of
additional class members, or more.
Current members of the class action plan to hold a rally
on Sunday, September 16, 2:00 p.m., at Speakers’ Corner,
City Hall Square in Toronto, on Queen Street West next
to Osgoode Hall.
In support, Citizens for a Canadian Republic, which
fully endorses Mr. Roach's initiative, will have
representatives from its national executive and Toronto
chapter in attendance at the Osgoode Hall hearing.
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