The CBC has once again officially outraged me. In a short vertical clip for social media, one of their reporters referred to the story about the constitutional challenge in Quebec about the oath to the King, for which she refers to it as the “King of England.”
CBC using "King of England" in the Canadian context. Not King of Canada.There hasn't been a King of England since 1702.FFS, CBC. This is basic civics and you can't even get that right. www.youtube.com/shorts/R5B-N…
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-08-14T01:11:30.309Z
For. Fuck. Sakes.
This is basic, grade-school civics. In Canada, Charles III is the King of Canada. Canada has had its own separate and distinct Crown since the Statute of Westminster in 1931. Even more to the fact, England has not had a separate Crown since 1707, when it was merged with the Crown of Scotland to become the Crown of the United Kingdom. In fact, there hasn’t been a King of England since 1702. And yet, here’s the gods damned CBC, using the phrase in reference to the King of Canada, like it’s no big deal.
Even worse was the fact that the clip just uncritically aired the Parti Québécois leader’s completely false claims about swearing the oath to the “King of England” (who doesn’t exist) and that it’s to a “foreign monarch,” which again, hasn’t been true since 1931. Sure, we may time-share the physical person of Charles III, but the King of Canada is not a foreign imposition. These should be basic facts that the national public broadcaster should be able to correct, but chose not to, and presented the PQ’s framing as fact, which it absolutely is not. This is complete malpractice on the part of the journalist in question, her editors and producers, and the CBC writ-large. If they can’t put out accurate information about the basic civics of this country, then what are they even doing?
My Latest:
My Xtra column wonders which rights Carney will capitulate on next, once he’s finished capitulating on trade.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russia struck the grain terminal at the Danube port in Izmail, as low revel revels are making train transportation difficult, while farmers still can’t transport last year’s crops before this year’s harvest begins. Ukraine has proposed a truce on civilian targets in the Black Sea to alleviate concerns about food supplies.
Noteworthy:
- Apparently, we are being given “options” for a trade deal by the Trump administration. (It’s doubtful any of them are good options).
- We all know that America is a gerontocracy, but Andrew Potter argues that it is also a karentocracy, and he’s absolutely right.
For years now, I have been pointing to data to show that climate is the biggest driver of food price increase, and vanishingly few want to believe me, either because they are invested in "LOBLAWS EVIL!" or because they don't believe in climate change. And we're just building more pipelines instead.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-08-13T15:11:40.668Z
Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.