Charles Conliff Mende Roach was a Canadian civil rights lawyer and an activist in the Black community in Toronto.
17 Facts About Charles Roach
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Charles Roach worked as a staff lawyer for the city of Toronto in the 1960s, while participating and organizing marches and demonstrations for equal rights.
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Charles Roach opened his own law practice in 1968, eventually becoming the firm of Roach and Schwartz Associates.
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Charles Roach represented domestic workers being deported in the 1970s.
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Charles Roach further became a vocal critic of the police, accusing them of racism.
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In 1999, Charles Roach went to Rwanda to represent Hutu journalist Mathieu Ngirumpatse against human rights abuse charges before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
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Charles Roach was a founder of the Caribana festival, serving as its first chair.
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Charles 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.
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Charles Roach was a member of the executive committee of Citizens for a Canadian Republic and commented publicly on his desire to end the Canadian monarchy.
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Charles Roach was a permanent resident 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.
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Charles Roach swore allegiance to the Queen of Canada twice before: once as a reservist in the 1950s, and again when he was called to the Bar.
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In 1992, Charles Roach argued in the Federal Court of Canada that the Canadian oath for new citizens, which includes a statement of allegiance to the Canadian monarch, was a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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In 2007, Charles Roach again sued, this time as a class action.
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On May 17,2007, Justice Edward Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Charles Roach could proceed with the lawsuit, dismissing a Crown motion to have the action quashed as frivolous and vexatious.
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Charles Roach's case was dismissed by the court in January, 2009.
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Charles Roach again went to the courts in 2012 with another class action suit to argue the oath of allegiance to the sovereign is unconstitutional.
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Charles Roach died from malignant brain cancer on October 2,2012, in Toronto.