First Nations anti-separatists rally as court proceedings enter day 2

A rally was held near the Edmonton Law Courts on Wednesday as a judicial review into the legality of an Alberta separation referendum continued.

Ralliers took to Edmonton’s downtown core on Wednesday to support those seeking to pause a potential separation referendum.

A crowd gathered at Churchill Square to call for Albertans’ support of First Nations groups, a handful of whom are in court this week challenging the constitutionality of Alberta’s citizen-led petition process.

“I think the showing here today is a reminder that those agreements are sacred covenants,” Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation Chief Sheldon Sunshine said at the rally. “They’re First Nations, and they can’t be just passed around from government to government.”

Members of Treaty 6, 7 and 8 First Nations are looking for an interim order from a judge to at least briefly pause what could become a referendum on Alberta’s separation from Canada, arguing that a separatist petition violates federally protected treaty rights.

Stay Free Alberta, the group campaigning to trigger that referendum question, previously said it had already collected its required 178,000 signatures. The group has until May 2 to submit the petition to Elections Alberta, after which the question could be added to an October referendum ballot.

Wednesday’s judicial review debates whether First Nations concerns should be considered before or after a constitutional referendum question. It also considers the effect an independent Alberta would have on Indigenous treaty rights.

Stay Free Alberta representative Jeff Rath said he didn’t believe the court case would stall his group’s efforts.

“They’re suggesting that somehow or other, the court has the jurisdiction to rewrite the legislation … we’re not anticipating a negative ruling from the court, because it would be so far outside of what the realm of law is,” he said outside court on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the first day of court proceedings, Sunshine told media he anticipated the Alberta government to change laws in a way that would help separatists, even if a judge granted an injunction in First Nations groups’ favour.

Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s office previously told media the government recognizes and honours treaty rights, but that it wouldn’t comment further while the matter was before the courts.

“I was asked yesterday what Plan B is. There is no Plan B. We continue showing up, whether it’s in their courts or having demonstrations, and keep doing the work behind the scenes,” Sunshine explained Wednesday.

Multiple First Nations Chiefs were present at the downtown rally, drumming and singing amid speeches to the crowd.

“Those drums speak for us, our people. They speak for us, the rattles, the drums, the singers, the elders … Everything on this earth means something to us,” said attendee Connie Rain.

“It makes me sad to know that this is actually happening … They’re pushing and pushing and pushing, going against everything that Indigenous people stand for.”

Rath pushed back on the idea that separation would remove Indigenous treaty rights within the province.

“I wish the Chiefs would simply internalize the opportunity that this presents them to actually sit down at a negotiating table with Canada and Alberta in the context of negotiating independence,” he added.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I believed in my heart that this was going to set their rights back. I’m doing this because I believe that this is a way to address the ongoing violations of their rights by Ottawa.”

Stay Free Alberta proponents are set to speak before the court on Thursday.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg and The Canadian Press