Charles Conliff Mende Roach (September 18, 1933 – October 2, 2012) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

lawyer and an activist in the

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

community in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Early life

Born in

Belmont, Trinidad and Tobago Belmont, in north-east Port of Spain, in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is located at the foot of the Laventille Hills; it was the city's first suburb. In the 1840s–'50s, parts of the area were settled by Africans rescued by the Royal Nav ...

, the son of a trade union organizer, Roach arrived in Canada in 1955 as an aspiring priest to study at the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

. Roach was politicized by the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, stating: "after the '50s, I started being more political... This was the spirit of the times. I'm really from the civil-rights era." He then studied law at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

and was called to the bar in 1963.

Activism and law

Roach worked as a staff lawyer for the city of

in the 1960s, while also participating and organizing marches and demonstrations for equal rights. He opened his own law practice in 1968, eventually becoming the firm of Roach and Schwartz Associates. Among his clients were Black Panthers attempting to seek refuge in Canada from prosecution in the United States and other asylum seekers. He also represented domestic workers being deported in the 1970s. He further became a vocal critic of the police, accusing them of racism.Kopun, Francine; ''Toronto Star'': He says nay to the Queen; May 11, 2007
/ref> In 1999, Roach went to Rwanda to represent

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the p ...

journalist Mathieu Ngirumpatse against human rights abuse charges before the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nation ...

. Through his work, Roach became a leading figure in Toronto's Black community. He was a founder of the

Caribana The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly known as Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a pan-Caribbean Carnival event and has been billed as North America ...

festival, serving as its first chair. Roach further established the Movement of Minority Electors in 1978 to encourage non-caucasians to enter electoral politics and was a founding member of the Black Action Defence Committee.

Republican advocacy

Roach was a member of the executive committee of

Citizens for a Canadian Republic Citizens for a Canadian Republic (French: ''Citoyens pour une République Canadienne'') (CCR) is a Canadian advocacy group founded in 2002 that advocates for the replacement of the Canadian monarchy with a head of state who could either be chos ...

(CCR) and commented publicly on his desire to end the

Canadian monarchy The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The monarchy is the founda ...

. He was a

permanent resident Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with suc ...

of Canada, not obtaining Canadian citizenship because of his refusal to swear the Oath of Citizenship, as it contains a promise to bear allegiance to the

Canadian monarch The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional Canadian federalism, federal structure and Westminster system, Westminster-style Parliamentar ...

. Roach swore allegiance to the

Queen of Canada The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional Canadian federalism, federal structure and Westminster system, Westminster-style Parliamentar ...

twice before: once as a reservist in the 1950s, and again when he was called to the Bar.Brean, Joseph; ''National Post'': Immigrant takes oath of allegiance to court; May 9, 2007
In 1992, Roach argued in the

Federal Court of Canada The Federal Court of Canada, which succeeded the Exchequer Court of Canada in 1971, was a national court of Canada that had limited jurisdiction to hear certain types of disputes arising under the federal government's legislative jurisdiction. O ...

that the Canadian oath for new citizens, which includes a statement of allegiance to the

, was a violation of the

Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...

. The court ruled against his motion to have the requirement to take the oath struck down and his appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed. In 2007, Roach again sued, this time as a

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

. On May 17, 2007, Justice Edward Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Roach could proceed with the lawsuit, dismissing a Crown motion to have the action quashed as frivolous and vexatious. On February 19, 2008, the appeal by the federal government was dismissed by judges at the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the case went before the Ontario Superior Court. Roach's case was dismissed by the court in January, 2009. Roach again went to the courts in 2012 with another class action suit to argue the oath of allegiance to the sovereign is unconstitutional. On June 18, the Ontario Superior Court permitted the case's continuance. The case was dismissed in September, 2013.

Death

Roach died from malignant brain cancer on October 2, 2012 in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roach, Charles Lawyers in Ontario Black Canadian activists Canadian civil rights lawyers Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to Canada University of Toronto Faculty of Law alumni University of Saskatchewan alumni Canadian republicans 1933 births 2012 deaths Deaths from brain tumor Black Canadian lawyers