Council members of one Canadian town are refusing to pledge fealty to King Charles.
According to a recent report from the BBC, Stephen Johnson—the mayor-elect of Dawson, City, located in the Yukon Territory in Canada—and newly elected council members are refusing to take the King's Oath and pledge allegiance to Charles.
While Johnson and the council members were sworn in earlier this month, according to the publication, the "process is stalled" as a result of the group's refusal.
"Johnson says the refusal is in solidarity with the Indigenous council member who has raised concerns about the Crown's history with Canada's Indigenous peoples," the outlet reports, adding that "under Yukon law, a newly elected official must take the oath within 40 days of their election or else their win shall be considered null."
Indigenous council member Darwyn Lynn, a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, is reportedly hesitant to take the pledge because Dawson City sits on the land of Tr’ondëk, a hunting and fishing camp for Indigenous people who were displaced in 1896 as a result of the Klondike Gold Rush.
In an interview with the Canadian press, Mayor-elect Johnson explained that the council "can't do anything legally required of us under the Municipal Act" until the council pledges their loyalty to King Charles.
"It's a bit of a sticky situation," he added. "This is being done with no disrespect to His Majesty King Charles. And also we’re not doing this to go, ‘Rah, rah, look at us,’ to poke everybody across Canada, to get rid of the Crown."
As People reports, this is not the first time lawmakers from countries part of the Commonwealth have defied the Crown and members of the royal family.
In October, Indigenous Australian lawmaker Lidia Thorpe yelled at the king after he spoke to members of the Australian parliament.
"This is not your land. This is not your land," she shouted, and as she was removed by security. "You are not my king, you are not our king. You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people.
Later, Australian senators voted to censure Thorpe for the outburst. Following the 46 to 12 vote, Thorpe said that if given the opportunity to face King Charles for a second time, she would do it again.
“If the colonizing king were to come to my country again, our country, then I’ll do it again,” Thorpe told reporters. “And I will keep doing it. I will resist colonization in this country. I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands; First Peoples are the real sovereigns. You don’t have some random king rock up and say he’s sovereign."
