After comments came down from the Canadian province of Ontario’s highest court, a group of Canadians both new and old, have been publicly disavowing their oath to Queen Elizabeth that they took when becoming citizens.

The pledge is still required during the citizenship ceremony, but some are renouncing it as soon as the ceremony is over. Other Canadian’s are now declaring their anti-monarchist views decades after becoming Canadian. “It is pretty hard for me to consciously swear to be faithful and to bear true allegiance to someone who has inherited her privileges and without having to prove any other merit than the fact to be the ‘child of’,” said Eric Dumonteil, a French national who became a citizen last week.

Eric Dumonteil, a French national who became a Canadian citizen last week, said: “It is pretty hard for me to consciously swear to be faithful and to bear true allegiance to someone who has inherited her privileges and without having to prove any other merit than the fact to be the ‘child of’

“How could I rationally swear the same thing to her heirs and successors? Signing a blank cheque to some people that don’t exist yet? Not for me.”

Dumonteil from Montreal, 31, first came to Canada five years ago. After undergoing the citizenship ceremony he passed a letter disavowing the oath to the citizenship judge.

Dror Bar-Natan, an Israeli national, a women from Jamaica and an Irishman all lost a battle in 2014 to have courts strike down the requirement for would-be citizens to swear to be “faithful and bear true allegiance to Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, her heirs and successors” as it is discriminatory.

The Ontario Court of Appeal did, however, note that the three had the opportunity to “publicly disavow what they consider to be the message conveyed by the oath” and the chance to “freely express their dissenting views as to the desirability of a republican government.”

Last year the Supreme Curt refused to join in, bringing an end to the legal matter.

Bar-Natan has leaned on the Appeal Court comments saying that the oath is equivalent to a “hazing” ritual, he has recalled his oath both orally and in a letter just moments after he became a citizen in November.

He set up a website (www.disavowal.ca) to allow others to do the same, so far that number is around 30 people.

The monarchy is a “form of abuse of the masses” according to Jake Javanshir of Toronto, a man from Iran who took his oath in the early 1970s. He disavowed in December saying the monarchy is something he couldn’t support, saying:

“I resented the part of the oath in regard to a few privileged people in England in 1970 but could not do anything about it, and resent it up to this day,

“My solidarity is to Canada and humanity, which is based on justice and decency and being a good citizen of the world, not to an antiquated system of ‘royals and royalties, kings, queens, princesses and on.”

Some other posts on the setup website showed the same feeling, many saying that they feel an allegiance to Canada but feel hypocrisy in taking the oath.

Masrour Zoghi, who became a Canadian in 2001, explained his disavowal with the words: “As someone put it recently, because it’s 2015,” a reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s comment on why his new cabinet is half female and mix-raced. Terence Stone, who became a citizen a year ago, wrote:

“I have carried the terrible feeling that I compromised my integrity; and so now I’m repairing that harm to myself by disavowing my pledge of allegiance to the Queen and body royal in perpetuity,”

The 30-year-old Karolina Sygula, made it known that she was “no one’s subject.”

The Canadian government, which fought to keep the oath, has made it understood that disavowals are legal and do not jeopardize anyone’s citizenship.