Efforts to promote the separation of Alberta from Canada are a far cry from OK, the Blood Tribe says. The First Nation re-upped its stance against a petition asking, “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?” Elections Alberta lists the proponent as the Alberta Prosperity Project. Following a rickety start that took it through court and saw the provincial government tweak the law to allow it to the other side, the petition is moving forward. Organizers began collecting signatures early last week. By week’s end, the Blood Tribe’s chief and council issued a statement. The First Nation was an intervenor in the initial court process, and the chief and council said on Thursday their position hasn’t changed. “If enough signatures are collected, Alberta will be legally required to hold a province-wide referendum on independence,” the statement read in part. “The Blood Tribe stands with other Treaty Nations in firm opposition to this petition and all the efforts to undermine and erode the foundations of our Treaty relationship.” “Alberta cannot even ask a separation question without our consent,” it continued. “The Blood Tribe has made its position known to the Alberta Government and is actively exploring all available legal avenues to protect and uphold our Treaty and Aboriginal Rights, our Treaty relationship and our traditional territory.” Blood Tribe chief and council said, “Our Treaties are sacred and our consent matters.” They said, “Our rights are not negotiable.” Chasing Forever Canadian The Alberta Independence petition is now following on the heels of the successful Forever Canadian petition, which asked the opposite question: “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” Forever Canadian, initiated by former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister and deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, collected more than 450,000 signatures. It needed 300,000 to succeed. “Half a million Albertans have spoken out: We don’t want anything to do with separatism,” Lukaszuk said at the time. Separatist petition organizers have said their aim is to collect as many signatures as Forever Canadian or more. They have until May 2. They started this past Tuesday with a town hall in Water Valley. The Alberta Prosperity Project’s Jeffrey Rath was the first to put pen to paper. “I think it’s a great moment … that we are now live, gathering signatures to rescue Alberta from the clutches of people in Ottawa,” Rath said this past Tuesday. More town halls are planned. Premier on law changes In a year-end sit-down interview with CTV News last month, Premier Danielle Smith addressed changing the law and clearing a path for the separatist petition to proceed. Smith said, “Citizen-initiated referenda are meant to be permissive—they’re not meant to have gatekeepers.” “It’s the job of government when the will of the people is expressed through a referendum and it’s passed … to make sure it’s implemented in a constitutional way,” she said. “What we were unhappy with was seeing there were barriers being put up to citizens being able to express that, and so now those barriers are removed, and I guess we’ll see whether they’re able to get the same number of signatures.” On whether we could see both questions put to referendum, Smith said, “potentially.”
