Legal Challenge Seeks to Require Incoming PQ Lawmakers to Swear Loyalty to King

Constitutional lawyer Lawrence David has filed an emergency injunction with the Quebec Superior Court requiring all members of the province’s National Assembly to swear allegiance to King Charles before they can take their seats in the legislature.

The request for legal intervention comes as the Parti Québécois (PQ), which won Quebec’s Oct. 5 election, is planning on taking steps to end the province’s ties to the monarchy. PQ Leader and Premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said one day after winning the Oct. 5 election that he is seeking legal advice on how to prevent Quebec’s lieutenant-governor from attending the opening of the parliamentary session after he takes office.

David’s Oct. 6 request for an interim stay seeks to suspend the 2022 Quebec law that made swearing an oath of allegiance to the monarch optional for lawmakers.

David’s interim application is part of a broader constitutional review the Ottawa-based lawyer and the Public Interest Litigation Institute filed this past August seeking to fully strike down the 2022 law, arguing Quebec exceeded its constitutional authority in passing it.

The application is scheduled to be heard in Montreal on Oct. 9. The National Assembly is expected to reconvene on Nov. 17.

In David’s interim application, he argues the matter must be addressed before the legislature reconvenes and that if Bill 4 is left in place, it could lead to an “unprecedented legal crisis,” including potentially impacting the legality of laws passed by Quebec legislators.

The PQ, whose platform supports Quebec independence and whose leader has called for cutting the province’s ties with the monarchy, is set to form a minority government after winning the Oct. 5 Quebec election.

St-Pierre Plamondon and two other PQ members previously refused to swear the oath of allegiance to the monarch in October 2022, swearing an oath to the people of Quebec instead.

The three were temporarily barred from taking their seats in the National Assembly as a result, until Bill 4 abolished the loyalty oath to the monarch requirement on Dec. 9, 2022. They took their seats without having sworn the oath on Jan. 31, 2023.

St-Pierre Plamondon has vowed not to hold a referendum on Quebec separation until U.S. President Donald Trump is out of office, but said Oct. 6 that his dream of Quebec achieving independence “will be realized one day.”

In late September during Quebec’s election campaign, St-Pierre Plamondon also called for ending Quebec’s provincial funding for the office of the lieutenant-governor, who acts as the representative of the king in Quebec, and said the funding that goes to the lieutenant-governor should instead go toward efforts to fight homelessness in the province.

The Epoch Times reached out to the PQ regarding David’s interim application but did not hear back by time of publication.