STORY about Arts posted on January 19, 2010 by michael werbowski

An open letter to the Queen of Canada (Satire)

An appeal to our illustrious monarch to defend our democracy from usurpers and abusers of power

by Michael Werbowski →Media Analysis, →Dominion Stories

Share

Also posted by michael werbowski:

Also in Arts:

Your Royal Majesty,

Since you symbolically preside over parliament as our designated “Snow Queen” and head of state, you may have realised that our parliament has ceased operation. You gave your assent to prorogue parliament for what appears to be a temporary period, for the third time in three years, at a time of great crisis, both at home and abroad for this land. It is not becoming of a benevolent ruling monarch like your-self, if I may say, to nod with approval, each time it pleases our great leader to terminate , curtail or postpone a sitting session of the house.
Your majesty as only a voter hence , a mere commoner, naught (unlike yourself) and a loyal subject, I strongly object to your complicit role in allowing our great leader to erode democratic principles in this country and thus undermine and marginalize our parliamentary process.

Each time our great leader gives you a prorogue call, your consent to his request is assured and then in a dismissive tone you add: "What do they.... the grubby masses, need parliament for when have Tim Horton's and the winter Olympics?" Your majesty may I say, that bread and circuses where fine for the subjects and slaves of the Roman empire, but times have changed a bit since then.
It seems, I am not the only subject who has expressed dismay with your whimsical ways regarding parliament. In the words of Professor Johannes Wheeldon of Heritage University it appears that you are not considered to be the best “guardian” of our democratic institutions either. He writes, “ Caught between two competing principles, namely to act on the advice of the prime minister and to ensure Canada’s government enjoyed the confidence of Parliament, the Governor General chose the prime minister over the people.”

Your Royal Highness may acknowledge, that it should be to your loyal subjects, meaning us the voters and taxpayers, represented by the supremacy and sovereignty of parliament to whom you should owe your confidence and boundless munificence and not to our great yet despotic leader. We are after all living in Canada not under the heel of some Ugandan potentate, known affectionately by his people at the time as “the last King of Scotland”. Yes, I know like many of your subjects, you also came here from a poor and forlorn land, ruled by dictators and usurpers. Perhaps you still feel a sense of nostalgia for the macho style of leadership. Or maybe after spending too much time down there, you developed a bad case of "Stockholm Syndrome."

But as you may know, those who came here did so, in order to flee oppression and to live in a peaceful, freedom-loving democracy. We all fear the iron grip of servitude as you once did. We are not slaves of an over-lord or a sugar plantation owner. We the people are citizens with democratic rights to representation in a legislature answerable only to the electorate; an elected body not beholden to the orders of a despot. This is a sacred principle, for which your native people's liberator, Toussaint Overture, fought for more than two hundred year ago. It still holds true today.

Moreover, may I say how, I share your grief and sorrow and in sincere solidarity extend my wishes of fortitude and providence, in these difficult times, to your fellow subjects, in our newest Caribbean colony. I know you have divided allegiances between your native land, your birth –place that is, and to the kingdom of the north. But please recall that you arrived here, because, you along with so many of your subjects, have found refuge and prosperity, here in a vibrant democracy and stable country. So, I ask you to ensure (in your capacity and our monarch) that these intangible yet priceless assets are not taken away from us again.

You fled the brutal oppression of a blood -thirsty tyrant. You have experienced tyranny first hand. Therefore you may be sensitive to the concerns of your fellow subjects, about the prorogation of our parliament by our great leader and thereby question his unconstitutional authoritarian tendencies. I ask you not to blindly and supinely follow the anti –democratic demands of our great leader, to prorogue parliament each year. Such abject actions can only be associated with the land of “Papa Doc”. I ask you to protect our democratic institution from the pernicious effect of abusive executive power. Our parliament is not a doormat for would-be dictators to wipe their feet on it! Your majesty, I trust you shall understand my concerns.

Your humble peon,

A subject concerned by the current state of affairs in our land