MONTREAL — Two law professors are going to ask a Quebec court Monday to quash the Harper government’s move to change a federal law dealing with succession in the British monarchy.
In 2011 the leaders of 16 commonwealth countries agreed to change the succession rules to allow the eldest heir to take the Throne whether male or female.
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Before the change, if the eldest child was a woman, she would have been passed over in favour of her brother.
The Harper government made the change by a simple federal law in 2013.
But University of Laval law professors Patrick Taillon and Geneviève Motard said it was a change to Canada’s constitution that should have required the consent of the provinces, which Prime Minister Harper never sought.
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Now the professors are aiming to have the law on royal succession declared unconstitutional.
If the court rules in their favour the government will either have to default on Canada’s obligations to the Commonwealth, or open constitutional negotiations.
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