{"id":3188,"date":"2013-07-17T16:48:59","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3188"},"modified":"2013-07-24T17:16:27","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T21:16:27","slug":"brocks-banter-i-love-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-i-love-you\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: “I Love You…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!”
\nBy Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

A good section of the Commonwealth prepared to get comfortable this weekend, fire up their 24 hour news channels, log onto the internet for one of the invariable web feeds outside of the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth (and still due at press time) to a future King or Queen.
\nWomb watch was in high gear, but at least three individuals in Toronto courts last week might have been wise to swing by eBay to pick up the newly designed Royal Baby Barf Bags.
\nIt is a very Canadian scene, so familiar to everyone on Canada Day, seeing people from all corners of the world, right hands raised as one, and pledging allegiance to a country they have now come to hold dear. Amid the group of impending Canadians are many people for whom Citizenship has been theirs since birth, something they may have taken for granted, but feel compelled to also raise their hands to renew their commitment to their country.
\n\u201cI swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.\u201d
\nThis is what is repeated in either official language in unison as the time-honoured ceremony unfolds. For people looking on, it might seem like a simple recitation but in talking to those who have come from many other parts of the world, some leaving countries in turmoil, others looking for better jobs and an improved quality of life, or often simply following their hearts in obtaining citizens enjoyed by their spouse and\/or their children, they are not mere words.
\nIt is the beginning of a new relationship with a country where they have chosen to plant roots, raise a family, and carve out a better existence.
\nFor the Toronto Trio, however, this oath is \u201cthe antithesis of democracy\u201d, \u201crepugnant\u201d, \u201canachronistic\u201d, \u201crepulsive\u201d, and, for a man of Irish heritage, a \u201cbetrayal\u201d of his republican roots.
\nAlthough I don\u2019t personally share their views, I am not without a degree of sympathy. I can see some of their arguments, and a couple of them are not necessarily invalid. In my view, however, a constitutional monarchy such as ours works quite well within our democratic principles for the checks, balances, and cultural perspective that comes with it as an institution.
\nBeing forced to swear allegiance to a principle they do not believe infringes on their human rights, they argue, and their \u201cinability\u201d to undertake the Oath of Allegiance keeps them from receiving a Canadian passport, voting, or any of the other privileges that come with being a Canadian citizen. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, that is, quite frankly, the point.
\nPeople vying for citizenship are given rigorous and comprehensive guides on what it means to be Canadian, our parliamentary democracy, and all other aspects of Canadian identity. It seems unlikely they\u2019ve only now started to crack the books, seen the Queen\u2019s face pop out of an ATM, or flipped a coin.
\nYet, Citizenship is a road they\u2019ve decided to embark on despite knowing the process is anathema to them.
\nIt is, in my view, political grandstanding at best and grandstanding in a time honoured form. This is not the Ontario Courts\u2019 first time to this rodeo. As long as the rights of Canadians are maintained and enshrined into law and maintained by our institutions, it will not be the last.
\nThe fact people have a voice in this matter, a principle also enshrined in our culture, is a good thing. But can we have too much of a good thing?
\nSouth of the border lies a republic where rather than swearing allegiance to their President as head of state, they vow to \u201csupport and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic.\u201d
\nIf I fell in love with an American, followed my heart into the States, married, started a family, deciding to share the same citizenship \u2013 and all the privileges that come with it \u2013 of my wife and children would not be unreasonable.
\nWould I have the balls to go to the highest court in the land to argue the Oath violates my human rights as I\u2019m vehemently against the Constitution\u2019s Second Amendment protecting the right to keep and bear arms? I think not.
\nWould I go to court and say I couldn\u2019t take the Oath of Allegiance because \u2018all enemies foreign and domestic\u2019 is vague and I\u2019m a firm believer in \u2018know thine enemy?\u2019 Probably not.
\nWould I write to President Obama that before he can enjoy the privilege of my citizenship, an executive order changing the orientation of the American Flag is necessary as I\u2019d like to wear patriotic t-shirts on July 4 and horizontal stripes make me look fat?
\nCertainly not \u2013 although that, again, might be due to a hesitation to state the obvious.
\nCanada\u2019s Oath of Citizenship is not a collection of mere words and not something which should be taken lightly. Nor should it be something that can be easily tinkered with to bend whichever way the political winds are blowing.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!” By Brock Weir A good section of the Commonwealth prepared to get comfortable this weekend, fire up their 24 hour news channels, log onto the internet for one of the invariable web feeds outside of the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge is due to give birth (and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-Pq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 10:54:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}