MPs water down motion to honour Prince Philip
When the Queen Mother died in 2002, a motion passed by the House of Commons expressing condolences was full of words like “most excellent majesty, “most gracious sovereign,” and “dutiful and loyal subjects.”
It would seem to be a template for the deaths of senior royals, though it does not appear that a motion on the death of the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, will get the same treatment with similar wording.
A motion headed for the House on Thursday — when it will be deemed adopted by the chamber — is shorter than what was first proposed, according to documents obtained by the Star, which show the Bloc Québécois succeeded in chopping off most of the royal language.
In a session plagued by delays in getting bills passed and accusations of filibustering, it would seem even a rather routine statement from parliamentarians can face hurdles.
“The discussions that occurred on the motion successfully reached a consensus. The objective in these discussions was to prepare a motion that receives unanimous consent. That is what happened here,” said Mark Kennedy, a spokesperson for Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez, in an email to the Star Wednesday.
Gone from the motion is any mention of gracious sovereign and excellent majesty, under changes proposed by the Bloc. The Queen’s “subjects” may not be so loyal and dutiful after all, as that language was also removed by the Bloc.
The House also no longer expresses “our deep and heartfelt sorrow” — as worded in the original version of the motion — but rather expresses its “condolences.”
And the axe came down on an entire sentence indicating the House mourns “the loss of His Royal Highness whose devotion to duty and service inspired generations of Canadians and earned the respect and admiration of us all.”
What is left is that the House expresses its condolences to the Queen, with the hope that “the expression of the high esteem in which His Royal Highness was held may comfort Her Majesty and the members of the Royal Family in their bereavement” — the only sentence that appears to have emerged unscathed in the changes.
“The Bloc Québécois opposes the monarchy and all of its symbols,” the party said in an emailed statement in French to the Star regarding the proposed changes. “We offer our sincere condolences to Queen Elizabeth II because she is the official head of state of the United Kingdom.”
(Of course, the Queen is also Canada’s head of state.)
The Bloc’s stance on the monarchy is well known and longstanding, but the government faced accusations of working together with the Bloc to water down the statement, a charge both parties deny.
“The watering-down of the motion of condolence and working together to water that motion down is another example of a pattern of behaviour and partnership that we’ve noticed between the two parties and that started with the shutdown of the investigation into sexual misconduct in the Canadian armed forces at committee,” said a Conservative party source, not authorized to speak publicly on House matters.