Criticism of the Queen’s reign must be acknowledged
Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. I received this news during the Faculty’s Clubs’ Fair; it was a unique experience to see the varied reactions of the law school community in one place. Reactions were generally split three ways: some were unconcerned, some expressed grief, and others discussed this news in light of the histories of colonialism and racism.
The sentiments I witnessed at Clubs’ Fair would be reflected in the online and national conversations of the coming weeks. For example, South Africa, and several other countries called for the return of the Crown Jewels immediately following the Queen’s death and were angry at the outpouring of grief. At the same time, those grieving the Queen’s death asked for the time and space to mourn.
In 1999, Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones catalogued characteristics of “White Supremacy culture” to give people one way to identify the presence of its influences in their lives. For Okun and Jones, “White Supremacy culture” is a way to divide racialized communities and reify colonial power structures through the idea that “whiteness is value.” One of these characteristics is the “Right to Comfort,” the idea that “those with power have the right to emotional and psychological comfort,” often to the detriment of those calling out racism.
This colonial history must be acknowledged, even if it is upsetting to some. On a personal level, as someone with Indian heritage, it is impossible to mourn the death of a monarch whose state inflicted so much global misery. Notably, the crown placed upon the Queen’s coffin included the 317-carat Cullinan II diamond, which was cut from a 3,106-carat diamond unearthed in South Africa in 1905 and gifted to the British monarchy in 1907. Those who urge us to see the Queen’s death as the loss of a “grandmother” ask us to ignore these very painful and contemporaneous histories in favour of respectability.
The Queen’s death calls to mind Charles Roach’s 1988 lawsuit to remove the Canadian citizenship oath that required new immigrants to swear allegiance to the Queen. Roach, an alumnus of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law who was called to the Bar in 1963, was a notable Black activist in Toronto who immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago.
Roach felt that swearing the oath to a hereditary monarch “would violate [his] passionate belief in the equality of all human beings and [his] opposition to racial hierarchies.” Instead, he wanted to swear to “observe the laws of Canada.”
After his first motion was dismissed in Federal Court, Roach continued his action through a class proceeding in 2007 on the basis that the citizenship oath was an “undemocratic vestige of a colonial experience that has no place in a modern and independent Canada.”
Even at the temporary risk of his law license, Roach pursued this case until his death in 2012. Roach never took the citizenship oath. The Superior Court ruled that the oath was constitutional in 2013, a result which was upheld by the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court denied an application to appeal.
Roach’s lawsuits show us that this dialogue has been brewing in Canada for a very long time and that a viable legal case can be made for constitutional change, even if it was originally dismissed. To many Canadians the monarchy may seem irrevocably entrenched in our constitution and national identity. Perhaps the international conversation following the Queen’s death is an opportunity to reconsider our relationship with the Crown. This conversation must take into account the continuing effects of Canadian and British colonialism on Indigenous peoples and the fact that, despite then-Prince Charles’ visit to Canada in May 2022, the Crown has yet to apologize for the roles of the Crown and Anglican Church in the residential school system. Okun and Jones ask us to understand that “discomfort is at the root of all growth and learning.” The process and outcome of such a conversation about the Crown is, of course, unknown but that should not stop us from acknowledging that our relationship with the monarchy may look different in the future.
