Summary
Dawson City in Canada is facing a crisis as the new mayor and councillors won’t take the required oath of allegiance to King Charles.
They refused in support of an Indigenous councillor who opposes the oath due to the Crown’s history with Indigenous people.
Without the oath, their election could be canceled, and they can’t make official decisions.
The council has asked for a different oath, but Yukon law requires the pledge. Authorities are now looking into the situation.
Sorry, when did we throw out colonialism? We’re still doing it just as hard as ever.
It’s not 100% over, but claiming is going just a strong as ever is a bit hard to swallow given that the UK was once the world’s largest empire.
Colonialism has changed significantly, but it has only grown in terms of net value being transferred from natural and human resources into private ownership. Governance in Canada is still based around the needs of capital with a thin veneer of humanism to give the air of credibility.
(For clarity, I am approaching this as a resident of Canada, I imagine the perspective is different from someone in the UK who feels that they missed out on the British Empire.)
You’re not wrong. But I was talking about the era in the 1960s when Britain shrank substantially by giving up so many overseas territories.
Awkward Canadian history here, but that time period is when our colonialism was anything but fading.