Canada’s High Commissioner meets with King Charles III in ’emotional reunion’

Canada’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom says it was an emotional reunion at the palace on Sunday where he met with King Charles III.

Charles III met with the secretary-general of the Commonwealth at Buckingham Palace before holding a reception with the foreign secretary and commissioners from those countries, including Canada, for the first time since being proclaimed king.

In an interview with CityNews special correspondent Lisa LaFlamme, Ralph Goodale recalled walking down the same hallway where only a few months ago they had gathered to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee.

“It was a very emotional reunion for a lot of the Commonwealth representatives that were there,” he said. “Thinking very much of Her Majesty and what she meant … as a person and the human qualities that she stood for.”

“I think in the room there was a sense of history – this hasn’t happened for 70 years, who knows when it will ever happen again,” he explained. “It’s the first time many of us have experienced anything of this sort. An era is changing. So there was a lot of history going on, grief and mourning for the loss of a loved one.”

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Since the Queen’s death, some Commonwealth nations are grappling with affection for her and lingering bitterness over their colonial legacies, which ranged from outright slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British cultural institutions.

Goodale noted those legitimate concerns but also sensed excitement about the new King’s reign.

“We all have a sense that we know him quite a bit because he has been the heir apparent for a very long time – the longest in the history of the world I’m told.”

Charles became king following Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday at her summer retreat in Scotland.

Her coffin left Balmoral Castle on Sunday for the journey to Edinburgh where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be flown to London ahead of a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19.