{"id":53222,"date":"2025-08-08T00:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T00:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/53222\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T00:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T00:08:13","slug":"separatist-group-applies-to-have-review-of-alberta-referendum-question-quashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/53222\/","title":{"rendered":"Separatist group applies to have review of Alberta referendum question quashed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A court proceeding on a proposed Alberta separatism<\/a> referendum question is underway, with a judge hearing arguments to quash the review.<\/p>\n

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Alberta\u2019s chief electoral officer, Gordon McClure, referred the proposed question to the Edmonton court last week<\/a>, asking a judge to determine whether it violates the Constitution, including treaty rights.<\/p>\n

The question asks Albertans: \u201cDo you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta referendum amendments unlikely to stop separation vote\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Court of King\u2019s Bench Justice Colin Feasby is first hearing an application from the Alberta Prosperity Project, the group that proposed the question, for the court to strike the referral.<\/p>\n

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A lawyer for the group, Jeffrey Rath, argues that judicial scrutiny is premature, as there\u2019s no guarantee it will get enough signatures to put the question on a ballot or that a referendum would even pass.<\/p>\n

The judge says he likely won\u2019t make a decision on the application today.<\/p>\n

Rath also argues that the act of asking a question doesn\u2019t violate the Constitution, which would only come into play if the referendum passed and negotiations began on Alberta separating from Canada.<\/p>\n

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A lawyer for McClure said the chief electoral officer wasn\u2019t taking a position on the application.<\/p>\n

Premier Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery have criticized the referral to the court, saying the question should be approved and only face a judicial review if it receives a majority vote.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndigenous chiefs accuse Premier Danielle Smith of stoking Alberta separatism talk\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Multiple groups, including the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta, have said they\u2019re hoping to make submissions in opposition to the proposed question.<\/p>\n

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A letter sent this week to the judge by a government lawyer says Amery intends to make submissions as well. It repeats that Amery believes the question should be approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister\u2019s position is that the proposal is not unconstitutional, and therefore should be approved and permitted to proceed,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is settled law that the government of any province of Canada is entitled to consult its population by referendum on any issue, and that the result on a referendum on the secession of a province, if sufficiently clear, is to be taken as an expression of democratic will.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the question is approved, the Alberta Prosperity Project would need to collect 177,000 signatures in four months to get it put on a ballot.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta group proposes anti-separatism referendum: \u2018I\u2019m thankful to this country\u2019\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A competing referendum question was approved by McClure in June and asks if Alberta should declare an official policy that it will never separate from Canada.<\/p>\n

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Efforts to gather signatures for that proposal<\/a>, put forward by former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, started last week. He is also looking to make submissions against the competing question.<\/p>\n

Outside court Thursday, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam signed Lukaszuk\u2019s petition.<\/p>\n

It needs 300,000 signatures in 90 days in order to get on a ballot, as it was approved before new provincial rules with lower signature thresholds took effect.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPetition led by former deputy premier to keep Alberta within Canada begins\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A court proceeding on a proposed Alberta separatism referendum question is underway, with a judge hearing arguments to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[35933,35932,25158,49,48,46,44,714],"class_list":["post-53222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-prosperity-project","tag-alberta-separation","tag-alberta-separatism","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53222","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=53222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}