Canada Letter: A Royal Wedding and a Royal Holiday Weekend

The Times’s recent Canada-related coverage with back stories and analysis from our reporters along with opinions from our readers. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Friday, May 18, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Canada »]( [A Royal Wedding and a Royal Holiday Weekend]( By IAN AUSTEN For many Canadians, there is an apt coincidence this Saturday: a royal wedding that takes place on the holiday weekend marking Queen Victoria’s birthday. [Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to Ottawa in 1997.] Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to Ottawa in 1997. Fred Chartrand/Associated Press Canadians aren’t immune to the global interest in the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the American actress who called Toronto home for a period. We even have an affinity for monarchic history. And as I [wrote last year,]( Canada appears to be the only place in the world that officially celebrates the former monarch’s birthday. But at the same time we also seem to have avoided heated debate about whether our democracy should have a British aristocrat as head of state — the kind of discussion that’s swept mainstream politics elsewhere, particularly Australia. Part of the reluctance to debate a change in the system comes from the Constitution. An end to the British monarch’s role would need the unanimous consent of both houses of Parliament as well as all 10 provincial legislatures. Winning the lottery seems reasonable by comparison. Views in Canada on individual royals vary. Various [polls suggest]( that Queen Elizabeth still commands respect, even within Quebec, where there’s little support for the idea of a monarch. Less of that sentiment has transferred to Prince Charles. When [I followed him around]( his visit to Canada in 2009, there was none of the excitement surrounding this weekend. (Although the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, [certainly drew crowds]( two years later.) Whatever you think of Prince Charles becoming Canada’s king, however, doesn’t mean the system has been entirely without merit. [Windsor Castle will host the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday.] Windsor Castle will host the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday. Frank Augstein/Associated Press [David E. Smith]( a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Saskatchewan, suggested to me this week that it was important to separate the institution of the crown from the royals themselves who are taking part in this weekend’s wedding. [Prince Charles during a visit to Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1996.] Prince Charles during a visit to Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1996. Andrew Vaughan/Associated Press Professor Smith argued that the institutions of the crown — which includes the offices of the governor general, the queen’s representative, and the 10 provincial lieutenant governors — have been an important force in creating a Canadian identity. Governors general long ago stopped coming from Britain. Now the post is used to recognize distinguished Canadians. [Julie Payette,]( the current governor general, is an astronaut, research engineer and an accomplished musician. In turn, the governor general’s office honors important Canadians through the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honor, and presents some of Canada’s most prestigious arts and literary awards. In Professor Smith’s view, by creating a barrier between the function of government and politics, the crown has played an important role in creating the country’s reputation for being well governed. Criminal cases, for example, are brought by “crown prosecutors,” who are usually public servants, rather than district attorneys, who are politicians. To emphasize that prosecutions should be independent of politics, criminal charges are brought in the queen’s name rather than the government’s. "I understand that people don’t think the monarch of Canada should be the monarch of Great Britain,” Professor Smith said. “But the crown, in many ways, has been valuable for protecting and establishing Canadian identity.” As for Prince Charles as Canada’s king? “We’ll see,” Professor Smith said. “We might all be surprised.” Read: [It’s a Royal Wedding! Ride a Tour Bus! Buy Some Cereal and Condoms!]( Read: [What Meghan Markle Means to Black Britons]( Read: [Tips for Meghan Markle on How to Be Married to a Briton]( Read [Meghan Markle and How the British Monarchy Became a Matriarchy]( Confession Caliphate, [The New York Times’s podcast]( follows my colleague Rukmini Callimachi as she covers the Islamic State, made its way into the Canadian political sphere. As I mentioned in a recent Canada Letter featuring an interview with Rukmini, she interviewed a Canadian who acknowledged going overseas to join ISIS. In a recent episode, that man, who asked to be known by his nom de guerre Abu Huzayfah, confessed to shooting two people in Syria as an executioner. In the [House of Commons]( Conservative members of Parliament Pierre Paul-Hus and Candice Bergen asked the government if it knew the man’s whereabouts and if he would be arrested under Canadian law that prohibits participating in terrorist groups. The government offered assurances that the public was safe but not much more. During [a subsequent interview]( with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the man retracted his claims. But subsequent episodes of Caliphate will lay out how Rukmini fact-checked aspects of his story. The series continues until June 21. Times subscribers get to hear the episodes one week before everyone else. Listen and Subscribe: [Caliphate]( Trans Canada [Noted Humanitarian Charged With Child Rape in Nepal, Stunning a Village]( Peter Dalglish, a lawyer originally from London, Ontario, was made a member of the Order of Canada for his work with children in war-torn areas. His work around the world is now being reassessed after he was charged in Nepal with raping children. [For the Comedy Iconoclasts of ‘SCTV,’ a Joyful Reunion Tinged With Loss]( Katrina Onstad attended the Toronto cast reunion of Canada’s ultra low budget comedy hit SCTV and wrote that “Comedy doesn’t always age well, but ‘SCTV,’ rarely bound to the politics of its moment, remains fairly timeless.” Op-Docs [A Teenager Starting Over in Canada]( The Op-Docs videos from the Times’s Opinion Department are often moving. That is particularly the case for this short video about Ibraheem Sarhan, who lost his mother and four siblings and was severely wounded when their house in Syria was bombed in 2014. Mr. Sarhan narrates the story about rebuilding his life, along with his father, Sleman Sarhan, in Winnipeg, where they moved nearly two years ago. The New York Times Magazine [My Adventures With the Trip Doctors]( As mainstream health care reassesses the role of psychedelic drugs as therapy, much of its work is still being guided by research conducted in Saskatchewan in the 1950s. HOW ARE WE DOING? We’re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to [nytcanada@nytimes.com](mailto:nytcanada@nytimes.com? subject=Canada%20Letter%20Newsletter%20Feedback). A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for over a decade. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten. LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTIMES [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Canada Letter newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2018 The New York Times Company 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018