Could this Alberta First Nation block the separatist referendum? Here's what you need to know

Last week, the organizers behind the Alberta separatist petition said they had collected the 177,732 signatures they needed to force a referendum.

While that means that Albertans will likely vote in October on whether they want to remain in Canada, there are a few legal hurdles that could still keep a referendum from happening.

Now that the group behind the separatist petition — called Stay Free Alberta — has said it has the signatures, they will have to go through a verification process with the province’s electoral office.

Stay Free has until May 2 to collect all the signatures it can. Once it submits its petition, Elections Alberta will begin to verify those signatures according to Bill 14, which legislates citizen-led initiatives.

Should Elections Alberta verify the signatures, the province’s United Conservative Party government has said it would add the petition’s question (“Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?) to an Oct. 19 referendum.

If a majority vote “yes,” it would trigger negotiations between Alberta and the Crown to determine the terms of that separation which, according to some legal experts, could take years to finalize.

Perhaps the biggest roadblock to Stay Free’s petition is an injunction against the effort filed by the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation.

The Sturgeon Lake Cree, whose lands are located near Grande Prairie, Alta., has filed a statement of claim against the Crown, the federal attorney general (currently Sean Fraser), and Alberta’s chief electoral officer, (currently Gordon McClure). On Tuesday, a Court of King’s Bench judge will start hearing from both parties, with hearings in Edmonton expected to last through the week.

In the claim, Sturgeon Lake calls on the Court of King’s Bench to effectively halt the Stay Free petition. It also calls on the province to repeal parts of Bill 14, which lowered the threshold for citizen-led petitions to call referendums, and demands $250,000 in payments to cover Sturgeon Lake’s legal and other costs, according to a statement of claim shared with the National Post.

The community says it was not properly consulted before the separatist petition was tabled, and claims that the push for an independent Alberta, in general, is a violation of its Treaty 8 rights.

Sturgeon Lake and other First Nations signed Treaty 8 in 1899, finalizing an agreement between Indigenous peoples and the Crown that covered more than 800,000 square kilometres of land. Should Alberta claim sovereignty over that land and the laws that govern it, Sturgeon Lake argues it would violate its long-standing treaty with the country.

“Alberta was not even a province when these treaties were signed,” Sturgeon Lake Chief Sheldon Sunshine said in an interview. “So, to have the government accommodate a small fringe group of people to change the law … that’s really where we take exception.”

In its statement of claim, Sturgeon Lake said the Alberta government, in passing Bill 14, “knowingly and recklessly” contradicted the community’s right to consent to the province’s separation. Sturgeon Lake “never made treaty with Alberta, nor did they consent to Canada’s creation of Alberta in 1905 through legislation,” the claim says.

Given that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has promised to add the independence question to the referendum if Stay Free collects the required signatures, a vote is still likely in October. Even if the Sturgeon Lake injunction is successful, some observers have noted that Smith could simply opt to add the referendum question to the October ballot on behalf of the provincial government.

Stay Free Alberta, for its part, has maintained that it would create an independent nation that is more respectful to Indigenous rights than Canada was, and would give First Nations a seat at the table in any negotiations.

Chief Sunshine believes it is unlikely that the judge will halt the petition, but said he expects more First Nations to challenge Alberta separatists in court.

• Alberta separatists say they have the 177,732 signatures they need to force independence referendum
• Separation speed bump: Negotiating with First Nations

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