they don't mention is that none of those words are necessarily
the truth.
Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour
People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. What
they don't mention is that none of those words are necessarily the truth. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour A few months back I detailed the efforts that were being made to ensure a Platinum Jubilee Medal would be issued in 2022. This is a small update on how efforts are going. The Monarchist League of Canada continues to have talks with officials and is encouraging its members to reach out to their MPs. A response from Canadian Heritage was received: "The decision to create a medal is under the Prime Minister’s purview, and no Interestingly, the League also learned, quite by accident, that
a design for the medal has been completed but is under media embargo. Why the government would delay the release of the medal's design for so long is unknown. MP Cheryl Gallant's petition on this matter closed on August 7th with 1826 signatures. It is possible that the government is just waiting for the right time to announce the creation of the jubilee medal but until we know more the safest course is to continue bringing up the issue with elected officials. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour Queen & Governor General's Statements on the First National Day for Truth and Reconciliation9/30/2021
"I join with all Canadians on this first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to reflect on the painful history that Indigenous peoples endured in residential schools in Canada, and on the work that remains to heal and to continue to build an inclusive society" ~Her Majesty the Queen "As we mark the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I think back to how my childhood shaped me. How so many in our community, and thousands more Indigenous children across Canada, were ripped away from their homes, separated from their families and sent to residential schools, where they were not allowed to speak their languages or honour their cultures, and were punished if they did. As the child of a white father and an Inuk mother, I was not allowed to attend. I stayed behind, home-schooled, and visited families where there was a palpable void. I was a stand-in, a well-loved substitute, for mothers and fathers who desperately missed their children. We all felt it. The sorrow of missing a part of our community. Since the launch of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the publication of Calls to Action—and more recently, with the discoveries of unmarked graves of residential school children—Canada’s real history has been laid bare. The legacy of colonization has had devastating repercussions for Indigenous peoples, including the loss of language, culture and heritage. This pain has been felt from generation to generation, and it continues today. These are uncomfortable truths, and often hard to accept. But the truth also unites us as a nation, brings us together to dispel anger and despair, and embrace justice, harmony and trust instead. Reconciliation is a way of life, continuous, with no end date. It is learning from our lived experiences and understanding one another. It is creating the necessary space for us to heal. It is planting seeds of hope and respect so that our garden blooms for our children. As we strive to acknowledge the horrors of the past, the suffering inflicted on Indigenous peoples, let us all stand side-by-side with grace and humility, and work together to build a better future for all." ~Her Excellency Mary Simon Loyally Yours,
A Kisaragi Colour The following is a survey of the party candidates running in the riding of Fundy Royal on the topic of the monarchy. It is mostly for my own use as a voter but the questions may be of use to other monarchists who want to ask their own candidates what their views are. The CandidatesRob Moore, Conservative Party (Incumbent, 5th run) Whitney Dykeman, Liberal Party (1st run) Tim Thompson, Green Party (2nd run) Josh Floyd, New Democratic Party (1st run) Wayne Wheeler, People's Party (1st run) Questions & Replies1. What are your views on the monarchy?
Moore: I think it’s important for Canadians to understand and be proud of our history within the Commonwealth and the role of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Dykeman: Canada and the United Kingdom share a long- standing and valuable history, which we respect and acknowledge. As a constitutional monarchy with a Parliament comprised of the Sovereign, the Senate, and the House of Commons, Canada’s form of government is among the most stable and enduring in the world. We were proud that, on the Prime Minister’s recommendation, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has approved the appointment of Mary Simon as our Governor General. Thompson: I believe that a constitutional monarch plays an important role in Canada and support maintaining our place as a commonwealth nation with the Queen being the Head of State. I also recognize the challenges surrounded by colonialism and believe we need to follow through with the Calls of Action for Truth and Reconciliation. Floyd: [The] Monarchy generally is less relevant to Canadians today, but any kind of constitutional change isn’t a priority for us or for Canadians during the pandemic. Wheeler: My view on the monarchy is this - it’s part of our history and therefore should be taught in schools; but I think we should be our own country. 2. As MP would you push to make the Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments that was active between 2010 and 2015 a permanent part of the process for choosing governor generals and lieutenant governors? Moore: Conservatives created the Vice-Regal Appointments Committee as a non-partisan appointment process to nominate Canada’s Governor General - and it works. We’ve seen, and will pay for, the consequence of the Liberals snubbing this proven process. Thompson: Choosing a GG, LG and/or territorial commissioner is a very important process. I support the Advisory Committee but would ensure to have First Nations / Indigenous representation on the committee, which has not been done before. Floyd: We would like to see a more transparent and multi- partisan approach to selecting the Governor General. Wheeler: As for the Advisory Committee, it could still be useful to find qualified people for the position but I think they should be voted on by Canadians other then appointed. 3. During the previous parliament the government cancelled a program that mailed physical copies of the Queen's portrait to any Canadian who asked free of charge. Would you restore this program? Moore: When the Liberals ended the service of sending portraits of The Queen to Canadians, they said that a digital copy would be universally accessible. That would only be true if all Canadians have access to a computer and reliable internet - they should know better than anyone that this isn’t the case. Government agencies send hard copy correspondence to Canadians regularly. I would be interested to know why this particular service was ended, and how it could be salvaged under a Conservative government. Thompson: Canadians and NGOs that wish to have a copy of the Queen's official portrait should be able to visit their constituency office and a copy be provided. In an effort to reduce the amount of copies printed that are not sent out and to promote engagement with MPs I think offering this service locally across Canada would benefit all Canadians. Floyd: It is not currently a focus of the NDP to restore the portrait program. Wheeler: The program to supply portraits not a problem with that whatsoever...it’s part of our history. 4. The government also removed the Queen's portrait from the lobby of the Foreign Affairs Office and replaced it with paintings by Alfred Pallen. Would you find a way to have both paintings and portrait share the ample wall space of the Foreign Affairs Office lobby? Moore: When the Liberal’s removed The Queen’s portrait from the lobby of Foreign Affairs shortly after their election in 2015, they signaled to Canadians that it was okay to ignore that history. The Conservative Party of Canada takes a very different approach to acknowledging and respecting our ties to the monarchy. Thompson: With the Queen being the constitutional monarch in Canada the official portrait should be displayed by Canadian Departments. With this I would also wish to have Indigenous Art displayed to recognize Canada's diversity. Wheeler: ...the portrait should be on the walls of parliament! 5. There are currently no plans for a Platinum Jubilee Medal to mark Her Majesty's reign in 2022. Given the large number of health workers (among others) deserving of special recognition will you work towards making sure a medal is issued? (Note: This question was added after replies from the NDP, Liberals, Conservatives, and People's Party had already been received. I will contact the other parties again and add their responses if given.) Thompson: As a veteran that has served Canada and the Monarch for over 14 years I believe it is important to mark this special occasion. Covid_19 has demonstrated that essential workers are the true heroes in Canada. Utilizing the Queens Platinum Jubilee with the creation of a medal would be a very respectful way of saying Thank you to those front line workers. I would work towards marking this milestone with a medal. Thank you to all the candidates who took the time to get back to me and good luck with your campaigns. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour The world was shocked earlier this month when the Taliban effortlessly retook control of Afghanistan. Ever since a great deal of ink has been spilled trying to explain why. Some hold this to be a direct result of the manner in which the USA withdrew from the country. Some argue it is due to longstanding issues with political corruption in the halls of power which sapped the country's strength. Still others argue this result was inevitable as the Taliban were freedom fighters seeking to overthrow a puppet regime. All of these explanations have a bit of truth to them but I consider them to be symptoms of a larger problem. A problem stemming from the events of one day when Afghanistan had the potential to avoid its current fate; June 10th, 2002. On that day the Loya Jirga met to decide how the new Afghan government would be organized. There were to be 1450 delegates to the meeting from all walks of life. In the end 2000 delegates were given permission to participate. This included 50 added at the request of various warlords. But a funny thing happened. A petition started circulating that called for Zahir Shah, former King of Afghanistan, to retake his throne, even if only in a ceremonial role. It had 800 signatures when the USA and UN got wind of it. This would have been a majority of the original number of delegates and it is likely it would have reached a majority of the enlarged delegation. In a move that was largely seen as an attempt to buy time the meeting of the Loya Jirga was pushed back by one day. No one knows what went on during that time but when the day came Zahir Shah announced he was not a candidate for any position in the government. The former king had been preparing for a return for some time so it is odd that he would step aside so easily. Odd and unfortunate. What Western powers had not understood about Afghanistan was that there was very little sense of national identity on which to draw. Indeed, one of the pressing issues for the monarchy during its time had been instilling a common identity. They were never completely successful and when the monarchy fell only two institutions held the loyalty of the Afghan people; the monarchy and Islam. Having banished one the communists made an enemy of the other. And when the communists were sent running Afghanistan was left a patchwork of ethnic factions and a new religious faction; the Taliban. The Americans kicked out the Taliban and sought to build an Afghan government. But the rules persisted from before and there were still only two institutions that held the people's common loyalty; the monarchy and Islam. And if the Kingdom of Afghanistan had barely managed to create the start of a national identity then the chances of the Americans succeeding were slim. So it is no accident the government gave Zahir Shah a place of honour in the country but in failing to restore the monarchy they made themselves vulnerable. The Taliban, on the run but not destroyed denounced the republic as a puppet regime. The Afghan government, lacking a strong national identity nor a figure of respect to lead them, took to spreading the country's wealth among their own supporters. June 10th, 2002 was an opportunity for the new government to put at its head a man whom all Afghans respected. It was a chance to set Afghanistan on the right footing for the future. And the failure to see this doomed America to a humiliating defeat and Afghanistan to the tender care of monsters. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour REPUBLICANISM WILL NOT HELP WITH RECONCILIATION Release July 3rd.
Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour The year 2022 will mark the Queen's 70th year on the throne of Canada. It is customary for medals marking a jubilee to be given out to deserving Canadians during the jubilee year. However, it was learned earlier this year that no such medal is planned to be issued for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. This is made all the more unfortunate by the pandemic having produced a long list of people who are deserving of special recognition of the type a periodic medal would be well-suited to provide. Timeline of EventsApril 9th: Before this decision became public knowledge a petition was already being posted on the House of Commons website by MP Cheryl Gallant. April 29th: Chairman Finch of the Monarchist League of Canada informed the membership that he has learned there are no plans for a platinum jubilee medal. A call for a letter writing campaign was made at this time. May 14th: Chairman Finch posted an update noting he has had several good conversations with various individuals, in and out of public life. May 19th: NDP MP Daniel Blaikie called one League member stating he was surprised to learn no medal was being considered and noting, "I've known many that have received the Diamond Jubilee Medal and it was a wonderful encouragement to them." May 29th: The League released a simple infopic for posting to social media: June 13th: Two League members shared excepts from their
conversations with their MPs. They were MPs Nelly Shin and Michael Chong and both expressed support for, at the very least, a platinum jubilee medal. June 16th: Chairman Finch provided an update on the fight. The government was reviewing the costs associated with the issuing of a jubilee medal. It was also revealed several premiers had been privately advocating for the medal. June 19th: Monarchist League details the social media reach of a single League member. Currie Dixon, the Leader of the Official Opposition in the Yukon Legislature thanked the League for its efforts and informed them Motion 77, urging the federal government to issue a platinum jubilee medal, had been added to the order paper. June 28th: A League member in Ontario was thanked for his letter writing campaign which has seen hundreds of letters go out. And this is where the jubilee medal campaign stands today. It is possible with MPs returning home for the summer and the pandemic restrictions lifting it will be easier to do the sort of in-person advocacy that greatly benefits these sorts of endeavors. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour Happy Victoria Day! It is amazing how much difference a
year makes. This time last May Canada was still coming to terms with what fighting Covid-19 would look like (even as New Brunswick remained an island of security) and we didn't know when things would start looking up. But now there is light at the end of the tunnel and a hope that the events of the past year and a half can finally be behind us. Queen Victoria herself lived through the cholera pandemic of 1854 which she noted in her diary along with meeting Florence Nightingale. Much like the current pandemic there was a great deal of fear. No one knew how cholera spread and victims would often die within days. This actually leads to an odd connection. The doctor who figured out what was causing London's repeated cholera outbreaks was a man by the name of John Snow. In previous years he had used anesthesia to help the Queen give birth to two of her children. Anesthesia had until this point been seen as unethical to administer during childbirth but the Queen's repeated use of it and John Snow's research into making anesthesia safer led to it being more widely used in the following years. The month of May also marks seven years of The Maple Monarchists. The rest of this post is a bit of an update on what I've been up to over the last year as Longtime readers will note that I don't post as often as I once did. This largely due to other activities taking up an ever larger portion of my attention. For starters, I continue to be the New Brunswick Chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada. Recently a list of educators in the province was compiled so that educational resources on the monarchy can more easily be made available to classroom teachers. I'm also a moderator of a monarchist subreddit. While I have been a moderator for many years now, the growth of the subreddit over the last two years has been exponential. It has now surpassed 27,000 members and the moderation team has had to step up its efforts as a result. In a bit of news more related to this blog I have received an offer from a French Canadian to translate some of the articles I post. It is possible that most future articles will be bilingual. Stay tuned for more information on this. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour All three policy proposals concerning the monarchy that were submitted to the NDP policy convention4/10/2021
The NDP is having a policy convention this weekend (so are the Liberals in what must have been a scheduling snafu). The NDP membership has once again put forward policies concerning the Canadian Monarchy to be debated. The following is a summary of the good, the bad, and the ugly. The GoodI actually like this and would support it. The return of the vetting committee created during the premiership of Stephen Harper would be a welcome reform. The BadEssentially this proposal would end, or greatly limit, the ceremonial role of the executive branch (unless the slack was taken up by the prime minister which is another concern) and give the constitutional parts of the job to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The obvious problem with this is that the chief justice is appointed by the governor general. Without a governor general the chief justice would be in charge of appointing their own replacement... and those of their fellow justices. Even if everything is above board it looks sketchy as all hell. The UglyPutting aside the call to abolish the monarchy for a second I just want to note that the actions of former Governor General Julie Payette only confirm the dysfunctional nature of Julie Payette. How Likely Are These To Pass?The last time this issue came up it wasn't even debated by
the entire membership. This time the party has a lot of popular motions to debate (you will note each of these is only supported by one riding association). Jagmeet Singh has also been trying to walk back some of the more extreme proposals so it may be possible they will avoid committing to large constitutional reforms which would take the third proposal off the table. The second proposal above raises so many legal questions that it probably won't make it to a full membership vote. I can see the first one being debated and passed. This creates an interesting situation. Due to the limit placed on how many proposals will be debated (70) does the party allow a single issue to take up three slots? If you limit which ones go through does this favour the policy most likely to pass and be implemented? These policies, if they are to be debated, will come up on Sunday so we will find out then. Stay tuned. UPDATE: As predicted the motions did not even come up for debate. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour Earlier this month the government announced the creation of an ad hoc advisory group for selecting the next governor general. This is not a full revival of the former Advisory Committee on Vice-Regal Appointments. Still, this is welcome news and something this blog has been calling for since 2018. Membership(Co-Chair) Dominic Leblanc, the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs (Co-Chair) Janice Charette, interim Clerk of the Privy Council Daniel Jutras (Rector of the Université de Montréal) Judith LaRocque (former Secretary to the Governor General) Natan Obed (President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami) Suromitra Sanatani (Interim Chair of the Board of Directors of Canada Post). ScopeUnlike the previous committee the advisory group has been created solely for choosing a governor general. Provincial lieutenant governors are excluded from the group's mandate. This may speak to how temporary this group is intended to be. While disappointing it should be noted the previous committee also started out as an ad hoc group. CritiqueA second major difference is the greater prominence of the
government in the advisory group's structure. The previous committee had one (non-voting) representative of the government in its membership. This advisory group makes the government's representative a co-chair. And the member in question also happens to be a close personal friend of the prime minister. If you are trying to create an arms-length process this is not how you go about it. The inclusion of Janice Charette and Suromitra Sanatani may be a nod to the tension created between the former governor general and the bureaucracy. Suromitra Sanatani presumably knows something about vetting candidates from their corporate experience. Judith LaRocque's (former secretary to the governor general) inclusion mirrors the appointment of Shelia-Marie Cook (at the time the current secretary to the governor general) to the previous committee. A current secretary was not included as that individual was shown the door the same time Governor General Julie Payette was. Natan Obed is an interesting inclusion. Getting First Nations input on the selection of the governor general makes sense when you consider the close relationship they have with the monarchy and the fact this relationship often flows through the governor general. Overall, a positive step away from the prime minister being able to unilaterally appoint their own boss. Loyally Yours, A Kisaragi Colour |
AboutThis website is intended to be a resource for those arguing in favour of Canada's monarchy, researching Canada's royal past, or wondering what the various vice-regal representatives of the Canadian Crown are up to currently. As well, articles about other monarchies may appear from time to time. Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|