Government should 'not be at liberty to freely flout the laws,' lawyer says
Benjamin Shingler · CBC News · Posted: Oct 07, 2026 8:45 AM PDT | Last Updated: October 7
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The National Assembly in Quebec City. In 2022, MNAs passed a law putting an end to a requirement to swear an oath to the King in order to sit in the legislature. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)A constitutional lawyer has filed an emergency injunction in an attempt to force the incoming Parti Québécois government to swear allegiance to King Charles.
The application for an interim stay was filed in Quebec Superior Court by the Public Interest Litigation Institute and its founder, Lawrence David.
David said political parties "regardless of their stripes" are "not at liberty to freely flout the laws that apply to all democratic institutions in Canada.
"That is precisely why we are standing up," David, who teaches at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of law, said in an interview.
"We are taking measures using the legal system, which is precisely what the legal system is there for, to ensure that ... governments respect the law that is applicable to them."
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The injunction asks the court to immediately suspend a 2022 provincial law that made the oath to the monarch optional for members of the National Assembly. David already filed a lawsuit in August over the same matter.
The latest move comes following Monday's election victory by the sovereignist Parti Québécois.
Could the Parti Québécois actually abolish the monarchy in Quebec?
Premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has pledged to move to cut funding to the office of Quebec's lieutenant-governor within his first 100 days in power, as part an attempt to "abolish" the monarchy in the province.
The legal filing argues that if the newly elected MNAs refuse to take the oath to the King, they are not constitutionally qualified to sit in the legislature.
The lawsuit warns that any laws passed by an illegally assembled body — especially a law attempting to abolish the lieutenant governor — would be void, creating an "unprecedented legal crisis."