Getting A Life

"I cannot see myself taking an oath to a symbol that is racist ...  It's against fundamental freedoms.  I will just continue struggling - so long as I live, I have to struggle for what is right ... and get my satisfaction in the fact that I have not relented."  Toronto lawyer Charles Roach

It is abundantly clear that the Toronto lawyer, who emigrated from his country of birth as a British subject in Trinidad to Canada in 1955, was offered the opportunity to advance his self-interests and that of his family, living in Canada, a former British colony, like his home country.  He found a life in Canada that was to his liking, offering him quite splendid opportunities to make the most of himself.

Mr. Roach long ago embarked on his own very personal crusade to convince Canada and Canadians to sever historical ties with Britain.  Canada is one of many countries, part of the Commonwealth of Nations, once colonies of Britain, during her heyday as a great colonial power.  Mr. Roach is now 78 years of age, and engaged in his battle against Canadians pledging allegiance to the monarchy since 1988. 

It is, he claims, unconstitutional that those wishing to become Canadian citizens must pledge allegiance to the Crown.  He remains a permanent resident in Canada, living here since 1955, and while he most certainly qualifies for citizenship he cannot qualify because he steadfastly refuses to pledge allegiance to the Queen. He doesn't stand in judgement of others who do, but it defies his personal ethics to himself succumb to it.

His wife, on the other hand, also from Trinidad, took the oath when she became a Canadian citizen.  The elderly man had a brain tumour removed two months ago, and suffered a minor stroke two days before he stepped into Ontario Superior court yesterday in his ongoing determination to appeal for a change in the law.  He objects to the British monarchy's past connection to slavery, claiming its system of hereditary privilege is racist.

That Britain was the very first country among nations practising slavery, to disown it on moral and ethical grounds, and to free British slaves seems to cut no ice with the man at all.  He will not forgive nor will he forget - and no one is asking him to, and nor should anyone else forget - the past.  "The monarchy is not an equal-opportunity kind of institution", he states.  No, it is not, it is a tradition that people prefer to maintain rather than dissolve.

And the monarchy is an integral part of British heritage and history.  Just as it remains so for the Commonwealth countries.  Who, after independence, inherited British jurisprudence, democratic values, human compassion and orderliness, all of which traits have added value to the societies to which British colonialism brought them.

The oath that new Canadians must swear, to be "faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors ...", bespeaks Canada's heritage as well. 

It is Mr. Roach's individual right to disdain the oath.  There may come a time when a majority of Canadians may agitate to separate themselves from their colonial past.  That time is not yet arrived.

And Mr. Roach will continue to attend Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital for treatment of his cancer.