Back in March, we questioned why new Canadians had to still take the Oath of Allegiance to the Queen.
Not that we have a personal issue with Lizzy II, but it just seems a little, well, antiquated.
And it turns out a Toronto man, Dror Bar-Natan, thinks so too. So much so in fact, that the 49-year-old math professor from Israel is now making headlines for renouncing his oath to the Queen immediately after he became a Canadian citizen this morning.
At a citizenship ceremony in east Toronto, he swore the oath along with around 80 others, then informed the citizenship judge of his intent to renounce the portion of the oath pledging allegiance to the Queen. Bar-Natan was one of three permanent residents who challenged the constitutionally outlined, mandatory practice of making Canadian citizenship dependent on the pledge to the Queen, her heirs and successors. Perhaps a little dramatically, he calls the oath “repulsive” and says that he hopes others will follow in his path.
In maintaining the requirement, Ontario’s top court said the Queen remains Canada’s head of state and that the oath was a “symbolic commitment to be governed as a democratic constitutional monarchy unless and until democratically changed.” When it will be “democratically changed” remains to be seen, however. The court also acknowledged that all citizens have the right to anti-monarchist views and new Canadians could publicly renounce what they consider to be the message conveyed by the oath.
Bar-Natan did just that, and formally recanted the oath following the ceremony, handing the judge a letter explaining his decision.
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