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The Queen is Canada’s head of state and commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces. She is ceremonially ubiquitous in the Forces — from the Loyal Toast given at regimental dinners to the playing of God Save The Queen and the recent renaming of the “Royal” Canadian Air Force.

According to the Attorney General of Canada, though, the monarch “cannot unilaterally deploy the Canadian Forces,” which may seem an odd thing for Canadian officials to say, given that she has never tried.

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But the unusual declaration came in the settlement of a longstanding dispute between the Canadian Forces and Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh, a lifelong military man who served in Afghanistan and recently retired as professor of physics at the Royal Military College of Canada.

As a Canadian with Irish heritage who resents the trappings of British monarchy, he fought for many years against being made to toast the Queen at formal dinners, and only reluctantly swore allegiance to her as a representative of Canada.