The Queen is Canadian

Maybe it's an impertinent question. We feel awkward asking it. But we can't be the only ones who have been buffaloed by news reports about Charles Roach's continuing litigation crusade against the oath of allegiance to the Queen for immigrants. So let's put it out there: If you don't want to live in a constitutional monarchy governed by the British Crown, why the heck would you come to Canada? Mr. Roach is a lawyer originally from Trinidad who believes that the language of Canada's citizenship oath -- which requires new Canadians "to be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen" -- is offensive.

In particular, he says it is offensive to black individuals from countries that, in the words of a republican press release about his Charter challenge, "were oppressed or forcibly subjugated during the height of the British Empire." Most historians would identify the peak of the British Empire as arriving around 1902, after imperial victory in the Second Boer War. This was, let it be noted, many decades after the British government had succeeded in largely eradicating the world slave trade. And the Boer War itself was a struggle against the future practitioners of apartheid -- one which transpired partly as a consequence of native African pleas for imperial protection against racist Boer republicans. This is not to suggest that the Crown's history is without actions worth regretting, but to believe, as Mr. Roach apparently does, that the Queen is analogous to Adolf Hitler -- well, one can only imagine how offensive Canadian life might be to such a person. Our visual and textual landscape is a cornucopia of regal and imperial symbolism that remains subliminal to most of us, from British Columbia (ouch!) all the way to Prince Edward Island (gasp!). Mr. Roach has been suffering for 48 years now. As a final humiliation, he must now seek relief in the Charter of Rights, whose authority derives entirely from the E-R II signature at the bottom. Is this what they mean by "fighting fire with fire"? (20/02/2008 “National Post”)

Marni Soupcoff