Qubec Solidaire MNAs skip oath to King when sworn in, PQ to follow suit

A rule at the National Assembly is beingput to the test with MNAsfromthe province's main two sovereignist parties decidingnot to swear allegiance to King Charles III, Canada's monarch.

Eleven Qubec Solidaire (QS) MNAs swore only an oathto the people of Quebec during the party's swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday. The ceremony for the three Parti Qubcois (PQ) MNAs is scheduled for Friday.

Swearing-in including the oath to serve the King isrequired to sit as an MNA, and the two parties' decisions calls into question their eligibility to serve in the National Assembly.

In a news conference that followed Wednesday's ceremony, Qubec Solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Duboisdescribed the oath to the King as "colonial, archaic and outdated."

"We are now at an impasse.... The ball is now in the court of the elected [officials]," he said.

In 2018, QS skirted the rule by swearing the royal oath in private, an action MNA Sol Zanetti has said made him feel dirty.

On Tuesday evening, Nadeau-Duboiswrote to all parties, asking to discuss solutions.Plamondon suggesteda motion be passed eliminating the oath to the Crown.

Plamondon, speaking with Radio-Canada'sTout un matinWednesday, saidhe was very happy to see QS would also choose not to swearallegiance to the King.

"If some parties show that they don't have good faith and they don't want to come to anegotiated agreement, that would bedeplorable, but I don't think that's the case," Plamondon said."I hope that everyone will accept at least to discuss the most efficient way and structure to arrive at the result."

He says his party will keep weighing its options between now and Nov.29 when the National Assembly resumes.

In response to the debate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Wednesday morning that theNational Assembly has the right to decide how it wants to organize its swearing-in process.

"It would takea bill, but for that it takes sittingMNAs to vote on bills," he said. "There are surely rules that regulate how those oaths are taken. I'm not a constitutional expert,but I know the National Assembly will continue to do its job responsibly."

By later in the day, the prime minister had modified his stance and said he did "not want to speculate about what the National Assembly can or cannot do."

Trudeau also saidthere are no plans to change the oathat the federal level for the House of Commons.