{"id":441412,"date":"2026-01-29T19:02:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441412\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:02:06","slug":"eby-accuses-alberta-separatists-of-treason-for-meeting-with-u-s-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441412\/","title":{"rendered":"Eby accuses Alberta separatists of \u2018treason\u2019 for meeting with U.S. officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

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B.C. Premier David Eby addresses reporters on Wednesday after a first ministers meeting. Mr. Eby says it’s inappropriate to ‘ask for assistance to break up this country from a foreign power.’Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

British Columbia Premier David Eby says Alberta separatists who went to Washington in search of political support are engaged in treason and he will be raising the matter at Thursday\u2019s first ministers meeting in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

Mr. Eby was referencing a report<\/a> in the Financial Times, which said U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration held covert meetings with Alberta separatists.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeffrey Rath at the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting in November.Amber Bracken\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Jeff Rath, legal counsel of the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the FT the separatist group met with U.S. State Department officials in Washington in April and are seeking another meeting next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance of breaking up Canada, there\u2019s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is treason,\u201d Mr. Eby said. \u201cIt is completely inappropriate to seek to weaken Canada, to seek to go and ask for assistance to break up this country from a foreign power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Eby said Canadians need to speak with one voice on the issue. <\/p>\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent weighed in<\/a> on Alberta separatism last week, calling the Western province \u201ca natural partner for the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

A referendum on Alberta independence could happen later this year if a group of residents can collect the nearly 178,000 signatures required to force a vote on the issue. That group, Stay Free Alberta, has until early May to gather support for the vote.<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith did not stop to speak with reporters Thursday on her way into the meeting.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rath told The Globe and Mail in an interview last week that he and his colleagues have twice met with U.S. State Department officials and they\u2019re planning a February meeting with the U.S. Treasury.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rath has broadly advertised<\/a> his contact with the State Department, saying their meetings with U.S. officials have not discussed statehood. He has declined to share who he has specifically met, arguing he\u2019s not obligated to share those details as a private citizen.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Mr. Rath has said he and his colleagues are seeking a $500-billion line of credit from the U.S. government. The U.S. Treasury told the FT that no commitments have been made.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department confirmed the meetings to The Globe and sent a statement, which was attributed to a senior official who was not named. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Department regularly meets with civil society types. As is typical in routine meetings such as these, no commitments were made,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who told reporters Wednesday that it would be a disaster for Canada if the sovereigntist Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois is elected in Quebec\u2019s scheduled fall election, appealed for Canadian unity on Thursday morning. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we have a referendum going on out in Alberta. The separatists in Quebec say they\u2019re gonna call a referendum if they get elected. Like, folks, we need to stick together. It\u2019s Team Canada. It\u2019s nothing else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe on Thursday called for a measured response when asked about U.S. officials meeting with Alberta separatists.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

When asked about the United States engaging with Alberta\u2019s separatist movement, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Canadians should be measured in their response.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to just take a breath when those comments are made,\u201d he said, adding that the U.S. is Canada\u2019s largest trading partner. \u201cHaving a war of words back and forth is not going to put us in a better bargaining position by any stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said she\u2019s confident most Albertans want to remain in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re talking about a minority of people who are agitating and I am very optimistic that the majority of Albertans will demonstrate their love for this country and their desire to be a part of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Once the premiers were seated for Thursday\u2019s meeting, Mr. Carney delivered opening remarks to the group before the session was closed to the media.<\/p>\n

He said they will be discussing efforts to expand Canadian trade with the United States and other international partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we\u2019ll discuss how we can co-ordinate all of those efforts on trade and inbound investment to maximize their impact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said they will work on reducing internal trade barriers within Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cA number of you have already made significant progress,\u201d he said, singling out Mr. Ford and Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that more can be done. To realize our full potential, we need to break down the remaining costly and longstanding barriers once and for all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney said they will also be discussing efforts to move ahead on major new infrastructure projects \u201cfrom every region of the country.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: B.C. Premier David Eby addresses reporters on Wednesday after a first ministers meeting.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,714,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-441412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}