The pandemic had derailed the grandeur of an in-person swearing-in ceremony, leaving 140 excited, gracious faces to meet on a Zoom screen. “It was such an important moment for him and he wanted people dear to him to be present. We’re in his living room, looking at a computer,” said Rocha, a reporter at the Investigative Journalism Foundation. “But it still meant a lot to us to be there with him.” As news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death made its way around the world on Thursday, Rocha and his friends unexpectedly witnessed the effective protocol that goes into effect after such a moment. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. EST (6:30 a.m. GMT). But after 20 minutes, Rocha’s friend and 140 others waited patiently. Rocha was scrolling through Twitter when he saw the news: just moments before, Buckingham Palace had announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II. While he immediately realized the seriousness of the news, he also realized the implications it had for his friend. “We started to wonder – what are they going to do? Will they adjust the oath?’ Rocha said. “Will it be Charles now? Will they go by the book and keep the original text?’ Latency increased. “We had no idea what was going on behind the scenes. There was no official explanation. Was there protocol and they waited patiently to find out what name Charles would use? Were World Affairs frantically calling? Did the governor-general say anything?’ After more than half an hour, the presiding judge came on the screen to greet the audience. “And then the judge said, ‘Now, just to inform you, the monarch of the United Kingdom, the Queen, is dead. Our sovereign is now King Charles III, the King of Canada,” Rocha said. “And we were initially surprised at how quickly they changed it. They probably had a protocol, but we were impressed with the speed.” After speaking to each of the 141 attendees and watching them cut their permanent resident cards, the judge began the oath. “He told them to say just a few words at a time and repeat it… And they all say King Charles III, King of Canada. And that’s when it hit. It was official,” Rocha said. The historic nature of the event – enhanced by the deeply personal connection he had to his friend’s inauguration – was not lost on Rocha and others. His Twitter thread chronicling the ceremony quickly went viral, garnering more than 70,000 likes on the social media platform. “He caught an unexpected error in the system. What happens in a Commonwealth country just when the monarch dies? And do you have to swear someone to become a citizen?’ he said. “It’s unexpected. But somehow, it was exciting. My friend was among the first citizens to swear in a new monarch in seven decades. We continued to admire it.”
