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.

Quick Links

The section above was written in January 2008 and it still correctly described my thoughts. Yet things are happening! A log of developments is in the sections further down. For quick reference, here are some links to the most important documents:

Document	Link	Posted / Modified
Factum of the Attorney General of Canada (the government's response)	AttorneyGeneralFactum.pdf	2013-07-04
Applicant's Factum (in practice, a summary of our case)	APPLICANTS'_FACTUM.pdf	2013-06-13
The application to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice	AmendedApplication-121121.pdf	2012-11-21
My affidavit	BAR-NATAN_Affidavit.pdf	2012-09-16
Affidavit of Michael McAteer (the "first" applicant)	AFFIDAVIT_OF_MICHAEL_MCATEER.pdf	2012-11-12
Affidavit of Simone E.A. Topey (the "second" applicant)	Topey_Affidavit.pdf	2012-11-12
Affidavit of Ashok Charles	AFFIDAVIT_OF_ASHOK_CHARLES.pdf	2012-11-12
Affidavit of Howard Jerome Gomberg	AFFIDAVIT_OF_HOWARD_JEROME_GOMBERG.pdf	2012-11-12
Affidavit of Randall White	AFFIDAVIT_OF_RANDALL_WHITE.pdf	2012-11-12

Further documents and links are in Pensieve: Projects: Citizenship.

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 for wishing 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.

Added November 1, 2012

Added November 8, 2012

My friend Brendan McKay wrote:

Good luck with that. We in Australia still have that queen person but we got rid of swearing allegiance to her long ago. New citizens have to make the following pledge, but can choose to leave out "under God" if they want:

From this time forward, [under God,]

I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,

whose democratic beliefs I share,

whose rights and liberties I respect, and

whose laws I will uphold and obey.

Added November 12, 2012

Some new affidavits at Pensieve: Projects: Citizenship:

• AFFIDAVIT_OF_MICHAEL_MCATEER.pdf - the first-named applicant.
• Topey_Affidavit.pdf - the second-named applicant.
• AFFIDAVIT_OF_ASHOK_CHARLES.pdf, who signed the oath under duress.
• AFFIDAVIT_OF_HOWARD_JEROME_GOMBERG.pdf, who signed the oath under duress.
• AFFIDAVIT_OF_RANDALL_WHITE.pdf - an expert witness.

Added November 21, 2012

Three things today:

• I got an envelope from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, confirming that they are processing my application for citizenship.
• I got confirmation from Peter Rosenthal that I was formally added as an applicant to the application (lawsuit) (ChangingApplicants-121121.pdf), and that the application itself was slightly revised, mostly to reflect the name changes. The revised application is AmendedApplication-121121.pdf.
• I've added a "Quick Links" section near the top of this page.

Added July 4, 2013

Posted APPLICANTS'_FACTUM.pdf (2-3 weeks ago) and AttorneyGeneralFactum.pdf (today).

Added July 8, 2013 - Press Release

CHARTER CHALLENGE TO OATH TO THE QUEEN

This Friday (July 12) the long-standing Charter challenge to the requirement of taking an oath of allegiance to the Queen in order to obtain Canadian citizenship will be argued at the Superior Court of Justice at 10 AM in a downtown Toronto courtroom to be determined. (A second reminder notice will be sent shortly, once the location of the courtroom becomes available.)

The Citizenship Act requires applicants for citizenship to swear or affirm that they will bear true allegiance to Queen Elizabeth the Second and her Heirs and Successors. Many people who feel that the monarchy is an anti-democratic relic of the past conscientiously object to taking such an oath and feel that it should suffice to take an oath to Canada.

Twenty years ago, the late civil rights lawyer Charles Roach launched a Charter challenge to this oath in the Federal Court; he lost. In 2005, Mr. Roach started a similar case in Ontario's Superior Court. The Attorney General of Canada argued that this case should not be heard because of the earlier dismissal by the Federal Court. However, it was ruled that, as a result of changes in Charter jurisprudence in the past twenty years, the case could go ahead.

Mr. Roach died on October 2, 2012.  The case is now proceeding on behalf of three new applicants: Michael McAteer (retired former journalist for the Toronto Star), Simone Topey (of the Black Action Defence Committee) and Dror Bar-Natan (Professor of Mathematics at the University of Toronto).

For reasons of conscience and/or religion, the applicants feel that they cannot take the oath. They are arguing that the oath requirement violates their rights to freedom of religion and conscience pursuant to section 2(a) of the Charter, their right to freedom of expression provided by section 2(b) of the Charter, and their equality rights guaranteed by section 15(1) of the Charter. The Attorney General of Canada is arguing that "The inability to enjoy the benefits of citizenship - to hold a Canadian passport and to vote - are amongst the costs reasonably borne by individuals whose personal beliefs run counter to Canada's foundational heritage." 

Peter Rosenthal, one of the lawyers representing the applicants, said: "Like the present applicants, Charles Roach really wanted to become a citizen of Canada but his conscience would not allow him to take an oath to a person that symbolized inequality. I hope that that this case will vindicate Mr. Roach's extraordinary efforts to promote equal dignity of all human beings."

For more information, contact any of the applicants or Peter Rosenthal: Michael McAteer, mrpmcateer@bell.net; Simone Topey, racquiah@hotmail.com; Dror Bar-Natan, drorbn@math.toronto.edu; Peter Rosenthal, rosent@math.toronto.edu.

--  CITIZENSHIP OATH CHALLENGE COMMITTEE Ashok Charles. Michael McAteer, Peter Rosenthal