Lawyer asks Quebec court to make incoming PQ members swear allegiance to the King before they take their seats

A constitutional lawyer has gone to court to try to force the incoming Parti Québécois government to swear allegiance to King Charles before its members sit in the National Assembly. Lawrence David and the Public Interest Litigation Institute, which he founded, filed an application for an interim stay in Quebec Superior Court asking it to immediately suspend a 2022 provincial law that made the oath to the monarch optional for members of the legislature, CBC News reported Wednesday. The request will be presented in a Montreal courtroom on Friday morning.

The filing follows the PQ’s victory in Monday’s provincial election. The party took 59 seats, five short of a majority, and its 28 per cent share of the popular vote is the lowest of any government in Quebec history, according to The Globe and Mail. The governing Coalition Avenir Québec lost all of its seats, the Quebec Liberals won 40, the Conservative Party of Quebec entered the legislature with 19 and Québec Solidaire won nine.

The legal filing argues that if newly elected members refuse to take the oath to the King, they are not constitutionally qualified to sit in the legislature. It 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.” If the stay is granted, members would be legally required to take the oath before taking their seats. The National Assembly is expected to reconvene on Nov. 17, CBC reported.

David, who teaches at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of law, said political parties “regardless of their stripes” are not free to disregard the laws that bind every legislature in the country. “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,” he told CBC.

The injunction builds on a lawsuit David filed in August, before the Oct. 5 vote. Quebec dropped the mandatory oath in 2022 after three PQ members refused to swear allegiance to King Charles III and were barred from sitting in the legislature, the Montreal Gazette reported at the time. That suit seeks to strike down Bill 4, which added a provision to the Constitution Act, 1867, exempting Quebec legislators; David argues the change affects the role of the Crown and therefore required the unanimous approval of the House of Commons, the Senate and every provincial legislature. It also alleges the law violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by infringing on Quebecers’ right to effective representation. The suit names Quebec Attorney General Simon Jolin-Barrette as respondent and federal Attorney General Sean Fraser as an interested party. “The oath is not a personal oath to the King,” David told the Gazette, describing it instead as an oath to the monarchy as the personification of the Canadian state and its constitution.

The case collides with the incoming premier’s plans. 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 of an attempt to “abolish” the monarchy in the province, CBC said. Before the vote he said he would redirect the provincial government’s contribution to that office, about $1.3 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year, to fighting homelessness, and would ask Lt.-Gov. Manon Jeannotte not to attend the opening speech at the National Assembly, The Globe reported. The lieutenant-governor’s salary and pension are paid by the federal government.

Legal experts expect a fight. Karine Millaire, an associate professor of constitutional law at the Université de Montréal, said in an email that the “injunction was to be expected as there is an ongoing constitutional challenge of the 2022 law before courts,” and that the burden will be on the applicants to show the case has serious legal arguments. “These debates on the monarchy could lead to a constitutional crisis, which is not to be hoped [for],” she told CBC. Patrick Taillon, a constitutional law professor at Laval University, told The Globe that cosmetic changes have a low chance of provoking challenges, but that scrapping the lieutenant-governor’s role entirely would carry a “high risk of being challenged.” David told the paper that such an amendment would require the unanimous consent of Parliament and every provincial legislature.

On his first day as premier-designate, St-Pierre Plamondon played down the prospect of an early clash with Ottawa, saying sovereignty would not be a top priority in the first part of his mandate and repeating his promise not to hold a referendum while U.S. President Donald Trump is in the White House. “We’ve got time. We’ve got plenty of urgent problems to solve, so I think the upcoming months will more be about … things that are urgent,” he said. He also repeated his wish to abolish the lieutenant-governor’s office and said he has sought a legal opinion on the matter. Prime Minister Mark Carney, who spoke with him Tuesday, told reporters: “It’s a crucial time for Quebec. It’s a crucial time for our country.”

Sources: CBC News; The Globe and Mail (Oct. 6, 2026); The Globe and Mail (Oct. 1, 2026); Montreal Gazette (Aug. 12, 2026).