ALBERTA Separation Referendum Petition Gets THROWN OUT Suddenly? - Episode #146

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Alberta separation referendum petition thrown out suddenly has left many wondering what this means for the future of the province. The sudden dismissal of the petition has sparked controversy and debate among Canadians. In this video, we explore the details surrounding the separation referendum petition and what led to its rejection. We delve into the implications of this decision and how it may impact the relationship between Alberta and the rest of Canada.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Saturday, May the 16th, 2026. Alberta separation movement just hit a major legal wall this week. A federal judge has quashed a petition that could have triggered an Alberta independence referendum. The petition reportedly gathered more than 300,000 signatures, far above the roughly 177,000 required to trigger the referendum process. But the court ruled that the process should not have gone ahead because First Nations were not properly consulted. This is not just a fight over signatures. This is now a fight over treaty rights, Alberti's Alberta's future, indigenous consultation, direct democracy, and whether a province can even begin the separation process without addressing constitutional obligations first. So what happened? May the 13th, 2026, Justice Leonard quashed the Alberta separation petition. The ruling that was made was that Alberta had a duty to consult First Nations before allowing the petition process to move forward. The judge said that the petition should have never been issued. The key issue is not whether Alberta's separatists collected enough signatures, which they did. The key issue here is that Alberta could not launch the process unless they consulted First Nations. The judge found that Alberta's lack of consultation with First Nations violated treaties seven and eight, and therefore triggered a duty to consult indigenous communities. So the petition, the process, could not have even started without the consultation with First Nations. And that's right now, that whole thing has been quashed. I have a couple of news articles on the screen to support what we just said. Um the first one is is Judge quashes Alberta separation petition in favor of First Nations. The other one is from the Guardian the Court quashes a bit by Alberta Separatists for independent referendum. And the City News, uh, which quashes Alberta Separation Petition, Premier Smith says government will appeal. We'll talk about that a little bit in the next slide. The separation movement, as you can see from the Associated Press Alberta separatist groups, say it has enough signatures to trigger the referendum on leaving Canada. The petition was pushed by a group called State Free Alberta, part of a broader separatist movement, which argued that Alberta should separate from Canada and has the right to do so. The group collected close to 302,000 signatures, well above the required threshold. The supporters framed the petition as a democratic exercise and within their rights. People in Alberta, separatists in Alberta, argue that Alberta should be allowed to vote on the question of separation. Ottawa has ignored Alberta for too long. Federal regulations on energy and environmental policies have hurt the province. And frankly, they feel that Ottawa has alienated the West and now it's reached the breaking point. So they may believe they have the right to do it, and they do, but there is a process for it, and that process wasn't followed, and therefore the judge had had quashed it. Now, Daniel Smith, the premier of Alberta, has announced, and we're going to hear her comments in a few more slides. I got a video of her press conference, that they're going to appeal, and she did it right away. As soon as the judge rendered their verdict, she was right in front of the podium, basically making statements that she didn't think the judge was right and the province was going to go ahead and appeal this ruling. Here's an article from the Canadian press. Basically, Judge Quashed this Alberta separation petition in favor of First Nations. So, First Nations, they've been clear, they argued, in fact, they're the ones that brought this to court to get a ruling on it because they said that this action of separation from Canada is affect will affect treaty rights that they have that are embedded in the Constitution of Canada. And that they launched this legal challenge focused on whether Alberta could move toward the referendum without first consulting them, the First Nations. And the judge agreed and cited that Alberta's breached its duty and did not consult First Nations before moving forward with the process of the referendum. First Nation leaders celebrated the ruling and called it a victory for treaty rights and First Nations. And they were clear Alberta cannot treat separation as only a provincial political issue. It needs to include First Nations. With First Nations is a living agreement within the Constitution of Canada, and they are not going to stand by and allow a referendum to take place and basically trample all over their treaty rights. And they brought that before the court and they won the ruling that they uh that was handed down. Now we're going to hear from Premier Daniel Smith in a few minutes. There's an article on the screen right now from Global News. Daniel Smith rejects Alberta's judges' ruling against separation petition as anti-democratic, and that's what she basically said. That she jumped right into it. She rejected the ruling uh almost immediately. She called it incorrect in law, anti-democratic, and she stated that the province of Alberta will appeal the ruling and the decision and argued that she doesn't support separation, but she feels strongly that the process should go forward and shouldn't alienate the people that want to uh follow the process. And they got enough signatures, they got a threshold, and they should be heard, and they should be and there should be a referendum on that, and that's her position. Now she's caught between Iraq and a hard place because a lot of the separatists are basically they're her core voting group. Um they're conservative, most of them, if not all of them, and she can't alienate alienate them. And also the other thing is is that she also can't look like that she's trying to quash people from from speaking or uh disregarding them. So she's really in a position that she needs to uh follow what she believes is the democratic way. And she's gonna appeal, and she may lose the appeal, but at least she could stand there and say, Listen, I tried, and sorry, you're not gonna have your say and you're not gonna be able to vote and there will be no referendum. So she can't not just do nothing. Um she now needs to see this through since she's been positioning herself as that she doesn't want to get in the way of it, and everybody has the right to do it, and as long as they follow the process and they get enough signatures, so she she's just continuing on that path, and she doesn't want to deviate from that. Uh and I think she's right. She needs to uh she is the premier of the province, and she needs to follow the process and look to Quebec as the example because they've gone through it before and they may go through it again, and she needs to support everybody, not just one side. So let's hear from uh Premier Daniel Smith right now.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

We think that today's decision by the court will deny opportunity to well over 300,000 Albertans to have their petition verified by Elections Alberta. Uh, we think that this decision is incorrect in law and anti-democratic, and we will be uh appealing it as a result. Our cabinet and caucus will of course be meeting in the next couple of days to discuss the full context and uh make some decisions after we've had a chance to talk it through. I think that there may have been an an error in law made here because the the duty to consult has been interpreted normally when you're talking about a specific project, like a pipeline project, which is what we're doing right now in consulting on a West Coast pipeline route, is we've been engaging in a very detailed way with all of the leadership along that pathway. And at some future point when the project is uh submitted for consideration in June, then the formal consultation process begins. And so it's very clear on a project basis what that looks like and what the end result would be. This is uh not clear. And so that's why we think it may be incorrect in law and why we'll be appealing it.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So that's the comments from Daniel Smith regarding this whole verdict by that judge that handed down the ruling. But there's a little bit more to this whole story, uh, and it's this data breach took place. And there's an article here from The Guardian uh terrifying Alberta voters' data breach raises fears for Canada's electoral integrity. And another issue, or this is another issue that hangs over the separation separatist campaign, is makes it even more controversial and seems a little bit that it's not following the process or the rules. And apparently there was a group leader, a separatist leader that was linked to the data breach, illegally access sensitive voting information uh involving millions of Belbertans. That raised concerns about the election integrity, the referendum uh integrity, privacy, political targeting, and uh public trust in the referendum campaign. And now the RCMP and uh Alberta privacy commissioner is investigating this and will uh issue a report on what they found. But this just added to this whole thing that really didn't need to happen. And now that the judges made uh the ruling on the process, that just just makes it even more complicated and probably harder to even get the referendum going. I don't think Danielsmith's gonna win or the the province of Alberta is gonna win on appeal because it is etched in in the Constitution that they need to consult, and the treaty rights are guaranteed under the Constitution of Canada, and it's not it's not going to be successful on appeal. So my final comments and my takeaway on this whole thing, I got a couple of points that I want to make that I've written down. The petition may have enough signatures, but the problem is uh the court has said that it hasn't it doesn't have the legal foundation to move forward because we they didn't follow or the process was not followed correctly. The ruling is a major win for First Nations. But the the problem the biggest problem is or the biggest takeaway on this whole thing is that Alberta's future cannot be decided on signatures alone. So somebody running around with a petition, getting them to sign it, it it it it will it can't determine the future of an entire province. Treaty rights, constitutional law, indigenous consultation is now at the center of the debate, and you can't trample over those things when they've been agreed to. So the question for me right now is whether the ruling cools the separation movement or pours more gasoline over the fire and things start getting more quote unquote crazy, given that everything else that Alberta is going through and with the energy and the environment being on the table for Premier Daniel Smith to get these major projects going and to harness the energy and um out of Alberta and get it out to the global market. This is the last thing that I think Daniel Smith or the federal government or Canada needs at this time. So let me let me know your thoughts and comments on this issue. It's pretty controversial. I think we're gonna see it in Quebec. I did an episode on that whole thing. I think Alberta and Quebec, the province of Quebec, are gonna be two challenges for that uh Prime Minister Carney's gonna have to deal with because they're both talking about separation. Again, uh, at least Quebec is. And so let me know your thoughts and comments on this issue, and I will reply. Hey everyone, if you enjoy these uh news summaries that I put out every week and you find them informative, please be sure to subscribe and give me a thumbs up. It really helps the channel. You can also catch all my episodes on my podcast up here, and you can find my podcast and YouTube music. Thanks for watching. Be safe, and we'll see you on the next one.