Coronation of Charles III

Failed Attempt to Square a Circle

The coronation of Charles III as “King of the United Kingdom and all His Realms” was a failed attempt to square a circle. The sovereign as person of state is supposed to represent the people, their values and unity around those values. Besides the fact that these have always been the values of empire which in no way represent the people, today, the display of the wealth and power “tradition” represents, makes that a very tall order. The rich are getting ever richer the more they usurp the states’ decision-making power directly. The forms of governance designed to keep conflicts between individuals and collectives and the contending factions within the ruling class in check can no longer keep everything under control. This is giving rise to civil wars at home and predatory wars abroad, as well as to serious additional dangers to humankind posed by famines, impoverishment on ever-greater scales, and climate disasters.

Given these developments in the world, the message of “service” the King and his Archbishop presented at the coronation is an attempt to perpetuate a constitutional order that is anachronistic and requires replacement on a modern and democratic basis. This irrational and self-serving pursuit on display at the coronation in fact re-affirms the importance of abolishing the monarchy once and for all so that society’s path to progress can be opened. That is the truth of the matter as concerns this coronation.

The values which the monarchy and ruling circles espouse — said to be god-given — will not wash away the crimes they have committed in the past, which are many, many, many, nor their crimes in the present, which are also many, many, many. This will not wash.

The more graven images of Charles III the Canadian official circles create on coins, stamps, $20 bills, and portraiture, the more people will give short shrift to the monarchy as these remind them that it is high time they empower themselves.

Letters to the Editor

On Renaming Victoria Day Patriots’ Day

A timely call

CPC(M-L)’s call for Victoria Day to be renamed Patriots’ Day is a good one. It is timely for all of Canada and is presented in a thoughtful manner – that we should establish the day as Patriots’ Day to have the discussion in the public domain as to who are the Patriots in Canadian history and what did they stand for. In doing so, we debunk the myths imposed by Empire of who were patriots. These myths block looking at what kind of a constitution and political process we need today. It is significant to make the point that to celebrate a colonial foreign monarch is a national humiliation that should be ended.

Myths of Canada and its history do not jibe with reality

Renaming Victoria Day Patriots’ Day gives the initiative to people whether longtime Canadians or people newly arrived. Already the coming to the fore of the genocide against the Indigenous Peoples with the finding of the unmarked graves, underscores that the myths of Canada and its history do not jibe with the reality in many peoples’ consciousness.

Looking at who were the Canadian patriots

It is timely to make the call to rename Victoria Day this year because the death of the Queen and coronation of Charles III has opened the conversation in the sense that people are already thinking about what is the place of such medieval institutions in today’s world. The call raises the point that the Canadian and Quebec people never had a say when any of these constitutional arrangements were imposed, let alone the nation of Quebec and the Indigenous Peoples who were subject to colonial conquest and rule.

Replacing Victoria Day with Patriots’ Day would lead us to consciously look at who at different periods in Canadian history were the patriots – whose words and deeds were consistent with the needs of their people in their times. It is to bring into public consciousness the patriots of lower and upper Canada, the role of leaders like Riel, Dumont and Big Bear and the Indigenous leaders who fought for their sovereignty. But also many others such as the Acadians who were expelled by the British who seized their land, all the workers who fought to establish the unions, first at the turn of the century, then after the war, and those who fought in Spain, Norman Bethune who died in China, all those who fought against fascism in WWII and all the women who fought for their rights and the rights of all and all those who oppose Canada’s path to war.

It is to open space for the people to reject the official myths which say what it means to be a legitimate Quebecker, or Canadian or Indigenous person and to establish their own line of march. Endless images immediately come to mind from all fields of endeavour! Let the people speak to bring forth who they think the patriots are and why and we will not only learn so much but learn how to identify Canada anew as a People’s Canada.

Blocks to discussion on abolishing the monarchy

The article which elaborates on the need to debunk the monarchical-patriotic legends peddled by official circles in Canada deals with the blocks set up by the ruling circles to stop discussion on the need to abolish the monarchy and provide ourselves with a modern constitution and modern institutions consistent with the needs of the times. It raises the constraint placed on discussion by putting the amending formula in the hands of a consensus between the House of Commons, 10 provinces and three territories, pointing out that it is the same outmoded constitution which gives us a foreign king as head of state that sets these conditions – and neither were of our deciding.

Another colonial legend is the presumption that somehow it should be kept because the relation with the Crown is “important” to Indigenous Peoples. It is true that the Crown is responsible for the treaties which cannot be abolished for the sake of expediency but it was also the instrument of colonization and negation of Indigenous sovereignty. Discussing how to make sure Indigenous sovereignty is guaranteed and no longer comes under the purview of “the Crown” but of the Indigenous Peoples themselves is fundamental to Canada’s future. It can be done!

Compelling argument to rename Victoria Day

CPC(M-L) is presenting compelling arguments to rename Victoria Day Patriots’ Day. What the Party calls the monarchical-patriotic legends which are repeated from the day we are born or come to Canada and must swear allegiance to a foreign monarch to acquire citizenship provide an outlook which keeps us from seeing the essence of the relations we enter into as humans to humans and humans to nature. These monarchical-patriotic legends are created to act as a block to renewal and having our own say on what can be done to move society forward.

Relic of foreign monarch a block to conceptualizing a modern democracy

The entire conception of democracy that the ruling elite in Canada want the people to accept is founded on their self-serving monarchist rendering of the history of Canada and the unquestioning acceptance of what the Party calls the monarchical-patriotic legends which form an outlook that Canada is the best most peaceful and democratic country in the world and we should not rock the boat.

The mythology created by the monarchical-patriotic legends and the symbolism of the crown is to cover up the abject subservience to what the crown represents. Everything bears the King’s name, even “His Majesty’s loyal opposition!” The institutions, courts, legislatures, the constitution itself, all spell out the bounds within which we can operate and reinforce the fact that the democratic revolution in Canada must be completed way beyond the skewed notion of self-rule. The relic of a foreign monarch as head of state and all it stands for historically and in the present, is a block to conceptualizing a modern democracy in which the people decide.

Discussing our patriots is important. Their contribution is important. Rejecting the heroes of the conquest of Canada is necessary – those who committed genocide against the Indigenous Peoples and suppressed the rebellions of those trying to form the Republic of Canada in Upper Canada and the Republic of Quebec in Lower Canada and hoisted the two-star flag as well as the tricolour, as well as those who brutally suppressed the Métis fighting for their own nationhood.

Deciding for ourselves who are patriots and heroes to emulate

The proposal to rename Victoria Day Patriots’ Day opens up the discussion of what heroes and symbols express the modern Canadian nation and the aspirations of its peoples for their nation and the world. It raises the level of discussion above the confines of the impossibility of amending what already exists because the amending formula makes it impossible to reach consensus and “we have better things to do.” All of it covers up that the Constitution has as its foundation the exclusion of the people from having any say about governance, and going into the realm of conceptualizing the needs of a modern democracy.

In Canada today to bring down all the monarchical-patriotic legends that perpetuate the subjugation of the people as immutable removes a fetter that perpetuates our humiliation as a people. We can decide ourselves who are the patriots and heroes to emulate on the path to liberation from the weight of the old society and the thought process it imposes.

Taking up the discussion

The Party’s proposal to rename Victoria Day Patriots’ Day presents a clear argument for how and why to end the ignominy of monarchical-patriotic legends, in particular the celebration of Victoria Day, and to abolish the monarchy. We should all take this discussion up and debunk the myths which create an outlook which constrains our struggles within a juridical framework which blocks the path to progress.