All councilors in Dawson City, Yukon, have refused to do something required under territorial law: take an oath of allegiance to the king.
All five members of the council were sworn in on Tuesday. Under Yukon Municipal Law, elected municipal councilors must take the oath of office and the oath of allegiance to the King.
The law also stipulates that council members must take the oath within forty days of their election. Failure to do so may result in the election results being null and void and the office being deemed vacant.
While all council members swore or affirmed their oath of office, all five refused to take the oath of allegiance.
Newly elected Mayor Stephen Johnson said the decision not to take the oath was decided by the group before the oath was taken.
“Early in the morning we all got an email and it was from Darwyn,” Johnson explained. “And he said I’m hesitant to participate in this mainly because of the background history with (the) Crown and First Nations in Canada.”
After reading the email and thinking about it for a few minutes, Johnson decided to back his decision.
All five Dawson City councilors decided not to take the oath of allegiance to the king when they were sworn in Tuesday night. According to municipal law, elected council members have forty days to take the oath. If they don’t, the election could be declared invalid. (Chris MacIntyre/CBC)
Johnson said he then contacted the other council members to see what they thought about it and they agreed to support their fellow councilor as well.
CBC News reached out to councilor Darwyn Lynn for comment, but he declined, saying he didn’t have much to say on the subject.
“I think this is an important issue for the Yukon.”
According to Community Affairs Director Samantha Crosby, this particular situation doesn’t happen often. She said she has never heard of all council members refusing to take the oath of allegiance.
Crosby said she has been in contact with council members to determine the best path forward because she does not want a by-election to be called.
“The requirement to take or swear the oaths is in the (municipal) law itself, but the prescribed forms are governed by a regulation within the municipal law,” Crosby said.
“So the language that is in the forms is a regulation and not within the actual legislation. Making changes to the legislation is a very long process, but making changes to a regulation is something that can be done much faster. “
Crosby said her department is considering alternative options around the oath to ensure all council members feel included and respected within governance structures while still meeting legal requirements.
She did note that if an alternative could not be reached and by-elections were held, all councilors, including the mayor, would no longer hold their seats.
Mayor Johnson said this situation occurring early in the new council’s term has laid the foundation for how they will address the issues in the future, if they can.
“I think this is an important issue for the Yukon,” Johnson said. “Whatever happens, this could perhaps be a regulatory change.”
“Also, understand that we won’t agree on everything. We have our own thoughts and experiences. Disagreement is okay, as long as it’s respectful and you can learn something from it. And if you learn something from it, it may be that you get turned around in your mind too. So we’ll see.”