‘When, not if’ Canada cuts ties to royals, anti-monarchist says

A bound-to-fail motion to have a reference to the Queen removed from Canada’s oath of citizenship may not succeed now, but anti-monarchists in Canada say support for the movement is present among all political stripes.

Tom Freda, national director of the Citizens for a Canadian Republic, said that at one point or another, every political party has considered removing the oath’s reference to the Queen. Including the Conservatives, who are currently pushing a pro-monarchist stance in Ottawa.

“It was first put forward by a Conservative government. Immigration minister (David) Crombie first discussed removing the Queen from the citizenship oath in the Mulroney government,” Freda said. “But it didn’t get much traction and it has been introduced periodically by successive Liberal governments, and the NDP is probably the most vocal opponent of it right now.”

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A motion by NDP MP Pat Martin to have the Queen’s reference removed from Canada’s citizenship oath has the topic back in the headlines. Freda told Yahoo! Canada News in an interview that it was a matter of “when, not if” Canada changes its ties to the monarchy, adding it will likely coincide with a change on the throne. Here are excerpts from that interview.

On the Conservative government:

“It is probably a major misconception to think that Conservatives are against this. Given the recent actions by our Conservative government, one would probably assume that. But there is a pretty large contingency of Conservatives who would vote in favour of this if they were left to their own devices, if there was a free vote…. The Conservative government has developed a pro-monarchy policy they won’t deviate from.”

On the movement’s future:

“I fully expect someday that will be addressed. Conservatives will come around to it someday because the issue of the monarchy and its future will be one that will be discussed on a major basis in Canada. It is something that many Canadians figure is a simmering pot that will boil over sooner or later.

“Unfortunately the timetable is largely dependent on the Queen’s health – which I will repeat. It is very unfortunate. I don’t think any movement wants to have their objectives dependent on the health of the Queen, or anybody for that matter.”

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On NDP MP Pat Martin:

“Mr. Martin is one of the few who feel this should be dealt with now. We follow his actions quite closely, as we do with members in all the parties who support us. We salute him and we wish him luck. But history is not on his side, unfortunately. I predict his initiative will have more success if there is a government change in two years time.”

On the citizenship oath:

“The Citizenship Act is totally separate from our constitution. We can change it easily without touching the constitution. It in no way affects would relationship with the monarchy. Australia has already done what Mr. Martin is advocating. And they did it 21 years ago. And they are still a constitutional monarchy. New immigrants that come to Australia, instead of swearing an oath to the Queen they swear an oath to Australia and its citizens. Nobody seems to be up in arms about that.