Swearing In Ceremony

Chretien Took The Oath And The Queen Laughed

A former Canadian prime minister has revealed how an inadvertent swear word made the Queen laugh. Jean Chretien was speaking on the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Chretien helped draft the Charter as the minister of justice at the time, and signed the document on April 17, 1982, along with then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau and the Queen.
But problems with a fountain pen created a last-minute hurdle and less-than-polite language in front of the monarch.
"What happened is that Trudeau broke the tip of the pen," Chretien told CTV. "He asked me to sign right after him. I started to sign it but there was no ink! It was broken! So I said "merde" and the Queen laughed. "She's bilingual and knew very well what I said."