Before any MP could begin the business of the 45th Parliament — and before King Charles III could even begin the Speech from the Throne — Canadian officialdom had to first participate in one of the country’s most obscure and ancient displays of governmental pageantry.
It involved swords, bicorne hats, a figure by the name of Black Rod and the ceremonial slamming of a door in his face.
The ritual is rooted in traditions that long predate European settlement in the Americas, and is so old that some of the precise origins of the practice are not known.
However, the general gist of the ceremony is to assert the independence of the people from the King: A figure glittering in the various trappings of the Crown shows up at the door of the House of Commons, and Canada’s elected representatives make a show of not immediately doing what he asks.
Tuesday’s opening of Parliament began with Canada’s new MPs gathering patiently in the House of Commons chamber to await the arrival of the Usher of the Black Rod, a figure often referred to simply as “Black Rod.”
The position, currently held by retired Mountie J. Greg Peters, is actually one of the oldest government jobs in Canada. The Usher of the Black Rod position has been occupied continuously since 1791, when it was created to serve the Legislative Council of Lower Canada.
As a result, Black Rod has some of the best regalia in the Canadian civil service. His uniform includes a bicorne hat, a white bowtie, heavy silver chain and the black rod itself. Carved from ebony, it’s a throwback to the 1300s when the possession of such a rare piece of hardwood was an assertion of power and influence.
The Usher of the Black Rod is also one of the few non-military posts in Canada where the holder is issued with a sword. In March, Peters picked up the current iteration of the sword from King Charles III himself. He was handed the weapon in
a brief ceremony
at Buckingham Palace.
As Black Rod approached the door of the House of Commons on Tuesday, it was closed before he could enter, prompting him to rap three times on the door with his eponymous rod.
What followed has been described as a “ceremonial challenge” from the Sergeant at Arms, after which Black Rod invites everyone within to follow him to the Senate for the Speech from the Throne.
“A message from His Majesty, the King of Canada,” he said, before repeating it in French.
This particular part of the ceremony is believed to be rooted in a 1642 incident in which the first King Charles stormed into a sitting of Parliament and attempted to arrest five members.
After the subsequent English Civil War — and the eventual trial and execution of King Charles I — the result was a Westminster system that was particularly serious about maintaining boundaries between Parliament and the Crown.
The ritual is reportedly far tamer than it used to be. The door used to be conspicuously slammed in the face of the approaching Black Rod, and MPs could hurl invectives and catcalls at the figure as an assertion of their free speech and independence.
“Tradition has it that members of the Commons can be rude to the representatives of the Crown,” reads a 2000 obituary for Major Charles-Roch Lamoureux, a D-Day veteran who served as Usher of the Black Rod from 1947 to 1970.
By contrast, Tuesday’s ritual was performed amidst church-like silence. The whole ceremony was also complicated by the fact that both the House of Commons and the Senate chamber are not in their usual locations due to ongoing renovations on Parliament Hill.
Typically, both chambers are separated only by a short Centre Block hallway flanked by statuary and oil paintings. But the House of Commons is occupying a temporary home in what used to be a West Block courtyard, and the Senate chamber has taken up residence a few blocks away in Ottawa’s former central train station.
As such, the whole procession had to be broken up with mini-bus rides.
For the King, Canada’s version of the ceremony is still much less elaborate — and much less menacing — than what he’s used to.
While a monarch has not attended the opening of a session of Canadian Parliament since 1977, they are a regular feature of the opening of the U.K. Parliament.
In Britain, such openings are preceded by a ceremonial inspection of Westminster Palace for explosives, a relic of the foiled 1605 Gunpowder Plot. A ceremonial hostage is taken by Buckingham Palace to ensure the safe return of the King.
Perhaps most notably, before delivering the British Speech from the Throne, King Charles III is required to wait in a room that is specially decorated to warn him of the potentially fatal consequences of subverting Parliament.
The official Robing Room in which the King dons his state crown before delivering the speech features a conspicuously framed copy of the death warrant of King Charles I.
In the words of the BBC, “if ever there were a symbol to express the end of the divine right of kings and the limits of a constitutional monarchy, that document is it.”
