Canada’s First Nations, Suing To Stop Alberta Referendum, Loom as Final Hurdle to Independence Vote

Alberta separatists are close to getting their October 19 referendum on leaving Canada. The final challenge for the independence movement is a lawsuit by the Sturgeon Lake Cree and other First Nations who assert that the vote is “unconstitutional” and violates treaties. Canvassers for a citizen’s group, Stay Free Alberta, were required to submit 177,732 signatures by Tuesday to get on the ballot. They announced having surpassed that figure, ten percent of voters in the province’s last election, a month early — vast support for a group dismissed as “wackos” when they began.As the independence movement gained momentum in December 2022, this columnist wrote for The New York Sun that Alberta is “almost as big as Texas” but with “greater economic output.” A Conservative Party bastion, the oil-rich province “chafes under the arbitrary diktats of Ottawa” and its ruling Liberal Party.Opponents of independence have tried to blunt Stay Free Alberta by alleging they’re the cat’s paw of President Trump. Supporters say they have no interest in “Wild Rose Country” becoming the 51st state, but Vermont and Texas were independent, too, en route to joining the union, which has local politicians and Ottawa paying attention. A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation story on Monday cited a new online poll conducted by Abacus Data finding that 26 percent of residents “strongly or somewhat support an independent Alberta” with 64 percent “strongly or somewhat disagreeing.” A lawyer for the group, Jeffrey Rath, posted Tuesday on X that the independence push is more popular than conventional wisdom north of the 49th Parallel realizes. He cited a survey by Ekos, “liberal pollsters,” showing “41 percent support for Alberta independence.” Mr. Rath said that support is so strong that there are “lines of people signing petitions in dark, January nights.” The first month of the year is Alberta’s coldest, with average highs of 30 and lows of -3 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the website of Banff, a town in the south, temperatures there dip as low as 30 below zero. Alberta’s Conservative Party premier, Danielle Smith, says she’ll proceed with the referendum once the petition signatures are verified by Elections Alberta. Since Stay Free Alberta has a cushion in excess of 177,732 names, it’s unlikely that enough will be voided to stop the vote. Objections by the Cree loom as the final obstacle. “No separation of Alberta from Canada,” the chief of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Sheldon Sunshine, wrote in a statement, “can occur without First Nation consent.” He argued that secession “will invite foreign interference and economic, societal, and legal harm” to Albertans “but especially all First Nations.” Mr. Sunshine cited Treaty No. 8, which was signed in 1899 as men flooded west for the Klondike gold rush. The treaty guaranteed 39 First Nations control over their affairs. Although often violated by Canada’s federal government, it has been used with success in recent years to challenge projects impacting tribal lands. Also invoked are Treaties Nos. 6 and 7, signed in the 1870s. Based on these agreements, made prior to Alberta joining Canada in 1905, a judge ruled the independence effort unconstitutional in December. A justice minister, Mickey Amery, responded by passing a bill giving his office final say on referendums to keep Stay Free Alberta’s hopes alive.Speaking to reporters after court proceedings on March 31, Mr. Rath dismissed the argument that treaties empower the Cree to halt the referendum. “The idea,” he said, that “they need to be consulted prior to citizens being able to communicate their views to the legislature is, frankly, just silly.” A lawyer for Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, Orlagh O’Kelly, argued for an injunction against the referendum in court at Edmonton. He said there is no “unbridled right to petition to break up Canada” and that the vote would be “legislative legitimization” of “the tyranny of the minority.” The Canadian government is hesitant to side against First Nations, which may bode ill for Stay Free Alberta’s chances. But the group has already surpassed what detractors thought possible. Whether their dream of an independent province reaches the ballot or dies in court, nobody is dismissing the idea anymore.

Canada’s First Nations, Suing To Stop Alberta Referendum, Loom as Final Hurdle to Independence Vote

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