A constitutional lawyer has filed an emergency injunction in an attempt to force the incoming Parti Québécois government to swear allegiance to King Charles.
The application for an interim stay was filed in Quebec Superior Court by the Public Interest Litigation Institute and its founder, Lawrence David.
David said political parties “regardless of their stripes” are “not at liberty to freely flout the laws that apply to all democratic institutions in Canada.
“That is precisely why we are standing up,” David, who teaches at University of Ottawa’s faculty of law, said in an interview.
“We are taking measures using the legal system, which is precisely what the legal system is there for, to ensure that … governments respect the law that is applicable to them.”
The injunction asks the court to immediately suspend a 2022 provincial law that made the oath to the monarch optional for members of the National Assembly. David already filed a lawsuit in August over the same matter.
The latest move comes following Monday’s election victory by the sovereignist Parti Québécois.
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Premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has pledged to move to cut funding to the office of Quebec’s lieutenant-governor within his first 100 days in power, as part an attempt to “abolish” the monarchy in the province.
The legal filing argues that if the newly elected MNAs refuse to take the oath to the King, they are not constitutionally qualified to sit in the legislature.
The lawsuit warns that any laws passed by an illegally assembled body — especially a law attempting to abolish the lieutenant governor — would be void, creating an “unprecedented legal crisis.”
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The request will be presented in a Montreal courtroom on Friday morning.
If the stay is granted, MNAs would be legally required to take the oath before taking their seats. The National Assembly is expected to reconvene on Nov. 17.
Karine Millaire, an expert in constitutional law and an associate professor at the Université de Montréal, said in an email the “injunction was to be expected as there is an ongoing constitutional challenge of the 2022 law before courts.”
Referring to the emergency injunction, Millaire said the burden will be “on the shoulders of the applicants” to show the case has serious legal arguments.
Ultimately, she said in an email, “these debates on the monarchy could lead to a constitutional crisis, which is not to be hoped [for].”
