Queen Elizabeth II waves as she leaves the Royal York Hotel in Toronto Friday October 11, 2002. The Queen left for New Brunswick where she will continue her 12-day Golden Jubilee tour of Canada. (CP PHOTO/Kevin Frayer) As momentous as Queen Elizabeth II’s death is after 70 years on the throne, it’s pretty much normal when it comes to Canadian governance. The monarch remains the constitutional head of state in this country, regardless of who fills the role at any given time, says Philippe Lagassé, an associate professor of international affairs at Carleton University and an expert on the Crown’s role in the Westminster system. of the goverment. As such, the succession from the Queen to her eldest son Charles is automatic, without any disruption to governing bodies sitting in her name or to legislation, oaths and other legal documents issued in her name. “This transition requires no action on the part of Canada,” says Lagasse. “The phrase ‘The queen is dead, long live the king!’ applies here and in the UK” At common law, says Lagasse, the queen and the king are “the same legal person”. This is because the Crown is what is known as a “corporate sole”. “This means that, in their official capacity, the legal personality of the Queen (or) the King does not change when different natural persons hold the position. “This further means that any legal documents and instruments issued in the Queen’s name or referring to the Queen will be valid and deemed to have come from the King.” This includes taking oaths of allegiance to the monarch, which are required in many situations, including becoming a member of Parliament or a member of the Canadian Armed Forces or a Canadian citizen. “So we don’t have to re-swear or re-sign anything,” says Lagasse. It wasn’t always like that. In the past, the death of a monarch meant that parliaments sitting in that person’s name in the United Kingdom and its colonies, including those that eventually became Canada, were automatically dissolved and elections had to be held. The ‘dissolution by death of the Crown’, as it is known, arose from ‘the supposition that the Sovereign summons a parliament in his personal capacity, and that therefore a parliament must die with the individual King or Queen who sent it ask. ,” says James Bowden, a recognized authority on such matters, in an April 2021 post on his scholarly blog, Parlamentum. The practice reflected “an earlier medieval regime of the Crown” when parliaments met infrequently, summoned by the monarch only when necessary, Bowden says. It was apparently “impractical and subversive” in more modern times, as parliaments began to meet regularly and the monarch’s role became more ceremonial. Dissolution by death of the Crown was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1867, and Canada’s newly formed Confederation Parliament followed suit in its first session that same year, according to Bowden. Today, the Parliament of Canada Act expressly states that “Parliament shall not resolve or be dissolved by the death of the Crown, and shall, notwithstanding the death, continue, and may meet, convene, proceed, and act, with in the same way as if this destruction had not happened”. Similarly, oaths of allegiance to the Queen have been changed to include the words “and her heirs and successors”, expressly removing the need to re-swear to the new monarch after her death. The provinces and territories have all adopted similar provisions. However, in their zeal to remove references to the monarch in the act governing the National Assembly in 1982, Quebec also removed a provision that said the legislature would not automatically dissolve upon her death. Historians and constitutionalists have raised the alarm that this omission could plunge the province into an election after the Queen’s death and potentially mean that all laws passed after her death would be invalidated. The Quebec government introduced a bill in March 2021 to correct the omission. While government business in Canada will continue undisturbed, Lagasse says there are certain formalities that will need to be followed. For example, Canada’s Privy Council, which includes all current and former cabinet ministers, is expected to meet when a new monarch ascends the throne. The governor general, the Crown’s representative in Canada, must also issue a proclamation for the new monarch. “It is important to note, however, that this step merely confirms what has already happened in the legislation,” Lagasse says. There are also some protocols regarding the official mourning period, which the governor general’s office declined to discuss in advance.
