{"id":596343,"date":"2026-04-11T05:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596343\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T05:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T05:15:12","slug":"judge-orders-temporary-pause-on-alberta-separation-referendum-petition-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596343\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge orders temporary pause on Alberta separation referendum petition process"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\tBy Jack Farrell<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted April 10, 2026 8:29 pm\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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An Alberta judge has put up a roadblock on a petition drive to force a vote on the province quitting Canada.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Justice Shaina Leonard, in a written decision issued Friday afternoon, says Alberta separatism<\/a> organizers can continue collecting signatures.<\/p>\n

But she says Elections Alberta<\/a> can\u2019t verify those names or otherwise refer the matter to Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s government until an overall decision is issued on the associated First Nations\u2019 court challenge.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for multiple First Nations are calling for Alberta\u2019s citizen-initiated referendum process and a separatist group\u2019s use of it to be halted, saying without due consultation it amounts to a treaty violation and is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

They were in court in Edmonton this week trying to get the petition drive stopped in the meantime.<\/p>\n

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Lawyers for the Alberta government argued against it by saying until the province acts on a referendum there is nothing it legally needs to consult on.<\/p>\n

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In her judgment, Leonard said there are serious issues at play and First Nations\u2019 interests would be harmed if she didn\u2019t issue a temporary pause before making a final decision in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe applicants have provided evidence of harm from lack of consultation and harm to treaty relationships,\u201d Leonard wrote in the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be clear, the court is not staying the collection of signatures; this decision has no impact whatsoever on the signature collection period or when that period expires (on May 2).<\/p>\n

\u201cRather, the court is staying the next steps in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

A group named Stay Free Alberta says it has already collected enough signatures to force a provincewide vote on leaving Canada, and Smith has promised if such a petition is verified, the issue will go on the ballot.<\/p>\n

Stay Free Alberta needs close to 178,000 names and it said last week that it already surpassed that total.<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s decision effectively stops Elections Alberta from taking steps to verify those names should Stay Free Alberta decide to submit them earlier, before the May 2 deadline.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jack Farrell The Canadian Press Posted April 10, 2026 8:29 pm 2 min read Descrease article font…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25158,49,48,111707,44,714,173408],"class_list":{"0":"post-596343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta-separatism","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-elections-alberta","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-stay-free-alberta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596343","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=596343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}