Siegfried Peters' Response to Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
Office of the Secretary General
October 13, 2022
Mr. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
Member of Parliament for Camille-Laurin
paul.st-pierreplamondon@assnat.qc.ca
Dear Mr. Plamondon
I am writing in response to your correspondence of October 11, 2022, in which you request that the National Assembly recognize that the oath provided for in the Act respecting the National Assembly is sufficient to take our seat. You are therefore asking me to authorize you to perform your parliamentary duties without taking the oath referred to in Section 128 of the Constitution Act, 1867 since, in your opinion, only the oath to the people of Québec would be required by the Standing Orders of the National Assembly.
First of all, I would remind you that the parliamentary law in force in Québec is governed by provisions that are found at several levels in the hierarchy of legal sources. So, although the Standing Orders of the National Assembly reinforce most of the rules of parliamentary procedure, some rules originate from other sources of law, and the Constitution ranks first among these.
Section 128 of the Constitution Act, 1867 provides explicitly that Members of Parliament must take and subscribe the Oath of Allegiance before taking part in parliamentary proceedings:
128. Every Member of the Senate or House of Commons of Canada shall before taking his Seat therein take and subscribe before the Governor General or some Person authorized by him, and every Member of a Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly of any Province shall before taking his Seat therein take and subscribe before the Lieutenant Governor of the Province or some Person authorized by him, the Oath of Allegiance contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act; and every Member of the Senate of Canada and every Member of the Legislative Council of Quebec shall also, before taking his Seat therein, take and subscribe before the Governor General, or some Person authorized by him, the Declaration of Qualification contained in the same Schedule; (emphasis added).
This obligation is distinct from the one provided for in Section 15 of the Act Respecting the National Assembly, which added the obligation to take an oath of loyalty to the people of Québec in order to be able to sit in the National Assembly. The Act Respecting the National Assembly does not, therefore, have the effect of exempting an elected official from the obligation to take the oath provided for in the Constitution Act, 1867.
Rather, the taking of the two oaths must be seen as prerequisites to the exercise of parliamentary functions. Thus, in Quebec, failure to take either of these oaths deprives a Member of the right to sit in the National Assembly and to take part in parliamentary deliberations. It has been the constant practice since the Act Respecting the National Assembly came into force for Members to take these two oaths before taking their seats.
The role of the Secretary General, as a person authorized by the Lieutenant-Governor, is to witness the taking of the oaths and the signing of the register that serves as proof. In addition, I exercise my role with the utmost political neutrality in order to accompany both collectively and individually the Members of the Legislative Assembly in the performance of their important duties, without interfering in the debates on current issues. You will understand that, while I respect your reservations about the Oath of Allegiance, as Secretary General, I do not have the authority to exempt an elected official from a legislative or constitutional obligation. Nor can I, on my own authority, change anything in the Constitution.
The possibility of amending or abolishing the pledge of allegiance has already been raised in the National Assembly. To date, however, the National Assembly has not taken any action in this regard, and it is not for me to make a decision on this matter. Therefore, until the law changes, if it does, it is my duty to enforce the existing law.
I hope that these clarifications will enable you to properly assess the scope of a refusal to take one of the two oaths at the beginning of the 43rd legislature.
Yours sincerely
Siegfried Peters
Secretary General
(Transcribed from the copy of the original letter and translated from the original French by TML)
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 30 - October 18, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520305.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca