oath
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A Parade of Horribles
I wrote yesterday about the decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario in McAteer v. Canada (Attorney General), 2014 ONCA 578, which upheld the constitutionality of the oath of allegiance to the Queen which would-be Canadian citizens are required to swear. As I said in that post, I believe that that the Court’s decision Continue reading
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You’re Wrong
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal for Ontario ruled that the requirement that naturalized Canadian citizens swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen is constitutional. In McAteer v. Canada (Attorney General), 2014 ONCA 578, it found that the oath infringed neither the freedom of expression, nor the freedom of conscience and religion, nor yet the equality Continue reading
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Swearwords without Borders
One rather remarkable feature of the debate about the constitutionality of the citizenship oath, and more specifically of its promise of “true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada,” is that those who believe that the oath is constitutional insist that the oath really does not mean very much. Those who refuse Continue reading
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True Allegiance
I have blogged at great length about the Canadian citizenship oath, which requires naturalized Canadians to swear “true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, [and] Her Heirs and Successors”. So I’m happy to report that all this blogging has led me to produce a (hopefully) scholarly paper, which I will Continue reading
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Hornblower and the Oath
I have just come across an excellent illustration of the complex ― I am tempted to say schizophrenic ― relationship between our constitutional law and the monarchy, which is at the heart of the litigation about the constitutionality of the reference to thee Queen in the Canadian citizenship oath. On the one hand, as Justice Continue reading
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Say It Ain’t So
I wrote yesterday about the decision of the Superior Court of Ontario in McAteer v. Canada (Attorney General), 2013 ONSC 5895, which upheld the constitutionality of the reference to the Queen in the oath of allegiance which would-be Canadian citizens must take. As I said in that post, believe that the decision is wrong. Here is Continue reading
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As Expected
The Superior Court of Ontario has ruled yesterday that the Canadian citizenship oath, which requires would-be citizens to promise “allegiance” to the Queen, is constitutional, thus rejecting the challenge of a group of anti-monarchists who argued that it infringed their freedoms of speech and of religion, as well as their equality rights under the Canadian Continue reading
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Against the Queen’s Oath
Just a brief post to note that the Globe has published an op-ed by Peter Rosenthal, the lawyer representing the applicants in the challenge against the constitutionality of Canada’s citizenship oath because of its reference to the Queen and her heirs and successors, about which I have written a great deal in the last couple Continue reading
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Swearwords
I have written at great length recently about a challenge, now before the Superior Court of Ontario, to the constitutionality of the requirement that would-be Canadian citizens swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen (my posts on the topic are all here). For those who want to read more on the topic, Liav Orgad’s Continue reading
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The Crown and the Oath
A friend comments on my earlier post, in which I argued that the oath of allegiance to the Queen which would-be Canadian citizens are required to swear is unconstitutional: The wording of the oath of allegiance found in the Citizenship Act flows directly from the preamble and various sections of the Constitution Act, 1867 which Continue reading
Double Aspect 