On May 2016, the Prince George Citizen published an article about my stand against the monarchy and disavowal to pledge my allegiance to Queen Elizabeth during a ceremonial oath taking event on April 29, 2016, at the John McInnis Centre in Prince George. This letter is to defy the allegation and to correct the misleading information the Prince George Citizen published in their original article covering the disavowal.
The article drew an array of polarized comments, the majority of which pointing out how deceitful it was on my part to reject the oath partially (the partial rejection involved the disavowal to pledge the allegiance to the Queen) only after, not prior to, becoming a Canadian citizen.
Weeks prior to the oath ceremony, I contacted the then Minister of Immigration, John McCallum, by letter, stating my intention of partial oath rejection and clearly stating the reasons. I did the same with the citizenship judge via email, confirming my intention of disavowal, and sent the letter and email copies to several national daily editors.
The Prince George Citizen was the first one to contact me.
"If the intention of disavowal before the oath disqualifies me from taking the oath or the partial rejection strips of the Canadian citizenship or even subjects me to deportation, I'm prepared for any repercussion," I said when I was asked for any unexpected consequence owing to the oath rejection.
It wasn't particularly the Queen as a person that I didn't like but it was the monarchy system that I was against. Unfortunately, the original Citizen article did not capture any of this.
Canada is not predominant of any single element or attribute but a coalescence of freedom and rights, cultural and religious diverseness - no matter how brown, yellow or white a Canadian is, if he or she is not a native, must either be a Canadian by birth descending from an immigrant family, or a naturalized Canadian as the newest Canadian.
Monarchy is just a medieval reminiscence awaiting a complete abolishment. There are hundreds of reason to embrace Canada as one's own despite the fact that Canadians don't have the Canadian head of the state, which I hope would be amended sooner than we can anticipate.
Srabon Salim,
Prince George
