Reflecting on the Monarchy’s role in Canada and around the world

Upon taking the throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II inherited millions of subjects around the world, many of them unwilling.

Today, in the British Empire’s former colonies, her death is also renewing talks about ditching their royal connection.

Asjad Bukhari, a member of the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation, says many Canadians have ancestors who were harmed by the British monarchy.

“Especially some communities — if I talk about First Nations, if I talk about Indian or Pakistani [people], the generation before me went through the colonial system, so we have big scars,” Bukhari said.

There is some bitterness about the past in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean as well. Talk has turned to the legacies of colonialism, from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British institutions. For many, the Queen came to represent all of that during her seven decades on the throne.

Anger also came from ordinary people around the world. Some called for apologies for past abuses like slavery, others for something more tangible.

“This Commonwealth of Nations, that wealth belongs to England. That wealth is something never shared in,” said Bert Samuels, a member of the National Council on Reparations in Jamaica.

Elizabeth’s reign saw the hard-won independence of African countries from Ghana to Zimbabwe, along with a string of Caribbean islands and nations along the edge of the Arabian Peninsula.

Some historians see her as a monarch who helped oversee the mostly peaceful transition from empire to the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 nations with historic and linguistic ties. But she was also the symbol of a nation that often rode roughshod over people it subjugated.

READ MORE:

• Trudeau announces federal holiday on Monday to mourn Queen Elizabeth II

• Members of some diaspora communities call for Canada to break ties to Crown

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Bukhari decided to immigrate to Canada decades ago. He says the idea of Canada severing its ties to the monarchy would be similar to the separation of church and state.

“There’s a lot of power associated with that institution, [it doesn’t] matter that it’s a constitutional monarchy. Still, it’s unfair only to give one family [power], [based on] the bloodline, not merit.”

During her many trips to Canada, the Queen sat down with several Indigenous communities, yet, a formal apology for colonization has never been issued.

The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, RoseAnne Archibald, released a statement, which reads, “as many mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, let’s remember that grief and accountability can exist in the same space, simultaneously. As National Chief, my next step in Crown relations is to fulfill TRC Call to Action #45, Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation.”

While Canada may not be finished with the monarchy, there is hope that important conversations surrounding reconciliation will arise.