Pierre L. J. Vincent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pierre Vincent is a co-founder and current Associate Director of Toronto, Ontario based Citizens for a Canadian Republic, a non-profit, non-partisan organization representing the Canadian republican movement. The organization, founded in 2002, is the main group promoting Canadian republicanism.

Born in 1964 in Red Deer, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Pierre Vincent studied law at Université de Moncton and geology at University of Alberta.

He became a republican activist in 1998 when he objected to taking the Oath of Allegiance to the Queen, then required by law for all Canadian public servants beginning employment within the Civil Service. His refusal, partly based on his Acadian ancestry, sparked a ([[1]]) publicized three-year legal battle involving the federal government’s Public Service Commission.

In 2001, the commission ruled that he could keep his job, a legal precedent that was later applied to a similar oath refusal. Both cases are recognized as being a major impetus for the 2003 Public Service Modernization Act, which ended the requirement for federal civil servants to swear an oath to the Queen as of December 31, 2005.