Canada and Me

Canada is a truly wonderful country. In my opinion, one of the best there are, and definitely better than the other two countries in which I have lived for long periods of time, Israel and the United States. Yet in the foreseeable future I doubt I will sign the Canadian Oath of Citizenship, and hence I doubt I will become a Canadian citizen any time soon. The oath reads:

I affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.

The laws are fine; I'm ready to observe them and to fulfill my duties as a Canadian citizen. But allegiance to the Queen? This or any, or a king, or their heirs? No, that's not for me. Royalty represents that some people may be born with a state-sanctioned privilege. This is hard for me to stomach. (And if royalty is a stain, a state-sanctioned stain is harder to stomach).

I can imagine a future time when dire needs, or merely the wish to better take part in the civil life of the country I live in, will lead me to change my position, tell a little white lie, and take the oath. But probably not for a while, and possibly never.

Just to be clear, I regret this greatly. I would much rather be a Canadian citizen.

Added July 19, 2012

On July 19, 2012 I have decided to start the process of becoming a Canadian citizen on July 31, 2012, exactly 10 years after my arrival to Canada and long after my wife and kids have become citizens. I will however uphold the following:

• For any $ amount I will be spending on becoming Canadian (fees, photographs, photocopies, stamps, anything) I will donate 10 times as much to Citizens for a Canadian Republic or a similar organization. If the expense will force a delay in the proceedings, the proceedings will be delayed. A summary of these expenses and donations will be posted here.

• On the day that I will take my citizenship oath (if it will not be changed by then), I will write a personal yet public letter to the Canadian monarch acknowledging being bound by the oath yet asking her/him to release me from the "allegiance to a monarch" part of that oath, and explaining my reasons not to be bound by an oath to a monarch.

Added August 7, 2012

On August 7, 2012 I paid $15.81 for two passport photos of myself and donated $158.10 to Citizens for a Canadian Republic. Those photos look just like passport photos; evidence on the right.

Added September 16, 2012

Over the last week I learned of a lawsuit against the government of Canada aiming to drop the requirement to affirm allegiance to a monarch; most likely I will be joining that lawsuit as one of the applicants. I will be posting material related to that lawsuit at Pensieve: Projects: Citizenship. At the moment there are only two files there:

• Roach_Canada_Fresh_application_100912.pdf - the notice of application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, as filed on June 18, 2012.
• BAR-NATAN_Affidavit.pdf - my own affidavit on that matter.

Added September 22, 2012

I have just sent my application for a Canadian citizenship (the oath itself is still about a year away, assuming reasonable processing times). The fee for the application was $200 and the postage $14.58. I have therefore put aside an amount of $2,145.80 to be spent on the above lawsuit, at the discretion of the lawyer pursuing it, Peter Rosenthal.

Added October 4, 2012

Sad news: I have just learned from Peter Rosenthal that the "first applicant" in our lawsuit against the government of Canada, Charlie Roach, passed away a few days ago. The lawsuit moves on, of course.

Good news: I have also learned from Peter that the date for the hearing of the suit has been set to be July 12, 2013.