Québec solidaire MNAS swear oath to King
‘IT WASN’T FUN’
QUEBEC• Ten out of 11 newly elected Québec solidaire MNAS have sworn the oath of allegiance to King Charles III and now are legally entitled to sit in the National Assembly.
And the lone QS MNA who has not done it, Haroun Bouazzi, had an appointment with the legislature’s secretary-general Thursday to get the job done.
In all cases, the QS MNAS took the oath behind closed doors. There was no ceremony.
“It will be done in the coming hours,” QS co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-dubois told reporters emerging from a oneday party caucus to prepare for the resumption of work at the legislature. “Except for one, everyone has been through this disagreeable but, unfortunately, necessary moment.
“It wasn’t fun for anybody.”
The decision means the only MNAS still holding out on taking the oath, which is required to sit in the legislature, are the three Parti Québécois MNAS including PQ Leader Paul St-pierre Plamondon.
Time is running out to decide. The National Assembly resumes sitting Tuesday for a marathon two-week session before Christmas. As things stand, the PQ MNAS will not be allowed to be seated in the legislature.
“For the moment, nothing has changed,” a PQ official said when asked if the party was sticking to its line. “We still have no intention of taking the oath.”
Initially in line with the PQ on the issue, QS shifted gears after a ruling Nov. 2 from the speaker of the legislature, François Paradis. Paradis ruled that all MNAS must swear the oath to the monarch, who is Canada’s head of state, or face expulsion from the Blue Room, where legislators sit, as well as all committee rooms.
Paradis remains speaker until the legislature votes on his replacement once it resumes sitting.
Nadeau-dubois announced his party members would swear the oath, but only to get back into the legislature to be able to table a bill abolishing the obligation.
“We had a choice to make,” Nadeau-dubois said. “Do we want to change the system or do we want to work in the hallways of parliament. We want to change that system and the way to change the system is to table a bill. And the only way to table a bill is to take that archaic oath one last time.”
Nadeau-dubois had no advice to offer the PQ, which finds itself in legal limbo as far as the legislature goes.
The governing Coalition Avenir Québec has also promised such a bill. On Wednesday, CAQ house leader Simon Jolin-barrette said he would “rapidly” table a bill making the oath to the king optional, but was not more specific.