Toronto — The five newly elected councilors of a small Canadian town refused to take the oath of allegiance to Britain’s King Charles III at their inauguration ceremony Tuesday, despite it being a legal requirement in the northwest territory of the Yukon, where Dawson City is located.
Under a regulation of the Yukon Municipal Act, elected councilors must swear an oath of allegiance to the British monarch, who remains Canada’s official head of state despite the connection to the colonial era which does not give the king no longer has any real power in the country. .
The oath of allegiance to the monarch is generally taken by Yukon councilors when they take the oath of office, immediately after taking the separate oath of office, within 40 days of their election.
If politicians fail to do so, their election may be declared null and void, which would leave the position vacant and could lead to a special election, called a by-election.
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Dawson City Mayor Stephen Johnson told CBS News partner network CBC News that the decision was made collectively by all of the newly elected councilors ahead of Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony, in support of a new councilor who broached the idea.
“Early in the morning we all got an email from Darwyn,” Johnson told CBC News, referring to council member Darwyn Lynn. “And he said I was hesitant to sign this, basically because of my background. history with (the) Crown and the First Nations of Canada.”
Four of the new councilors present at Tuesday’s meeting were sworn in, and the fifth new member is expected to do so after returning from vacation, according to regional media outlet Yukon News. But all five agreed not to take the other oath, pledging allegiance to the British crown.
Yukon’s director of community affairs, Samantha Crosby, told CBC it’s rare for an entire group of new councilors to refuse to take the oath of allegiance collectively. She said she had been in contact with councilors to find a solution to avoid having to call a by-election for Dawson City, which would result in councilors and the mayor losing their seats.
“The requirement to take or confirm the oath is in the (municipal) law itself, but the prescribed forms are governed by a regulation within the municipal law,” Crosby told CBC News. “The language contained in the forms is therefore a regulation and not the legislation itself. Changing a law is a very long process, but changing a regulation is something that can be done much more quickly.
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King Charles is the official head of state of a number of former British colonies, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica and many other so-called Commonwealth countries. He and his family, however, have faced growing criticism from indigenous communities around the world, highlighting the complex relationship between the former colonial power and communities that were exploited and marginalized to build the 19th-century British empire. .
In October, the king Charles was heckled by an Australian lawmaker during a visit to the country and accused of complicity in a genocide of the country’s indigenous peoples.
Senator Lidia Thorpe, a staunch indigenous rights advocate who has previously spoken out against the British royal family, approached the king in Australia’s parliament after he gave a speech and shouted: “This is not your country !
“You committed genocide against our people. Give us back our land. Give us what you stole from us – our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” Thorpe shouted at Charles and Queen Camilla as they sat on a stage next to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese .
A source close to the king and queen told CBS News after the incident that while Charles “understands that there is always a debate to be had around the role of the monarch, he firmly believes that it is an issue that is for the Australian people to decide.”
Following September 2022 death of Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth IIa poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute suggests that a majority of Canadians (52%) oppose recognizing Charles as the country’s head of state and favor severing Canada’s formal ties to the monarchy.
Earlier this year, a member of the Canadian National Parliament from New Brunswick introduced a bill to amend the country’s constitution to make the oath of allegiance to the monarch optional. The bill was rejected by a vote of 197 to 113.
Ahmad Moukhtar
