Tag

treaty rights

2 articles

AccountabilityMay 27, 20268 min read
When Quebec Tried to Leave Canada, the Crees Voted First. The Alberta Equivalent Is Already Underway.
In the lead-up to the October 30, 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum, the Grand Council of the Crees of Eeyou Istchee (northern Quebec) and the Inuit of Nunavik (the Arctic-coast region of Quebec) each held their own referendums on whether they would consent to be included in a sovereign Quebec. Both produced overwhelming "No" results — the Crees at 96.3% with 77% turnout, the Inuit at approximately 96%. Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come published the legal paper "Sovereign Injustice" arguing that Indigenous self-determination under international law gave the Crees the right to remain in Canada regardless of the broader Quebec vote. The 1995 sovereignty referendum failed narrowly (No 50.58%, Yes 49.42%); the Supreme Court of Canada's 1998 Reference re Secession of Quebec subsequently established that any future provincial secession would require negotiation with multiple stakeholders including Indigenous nations. In 2025-2026, as a citizen petition pushes the Alberta government toward a referendum on provincial independence, the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, the Blackfoot Confederacy (Treaty 7), and Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta have all publicly opposed the independence movement on identical legal grounds: treaties signed with the Crown predate the existence of the province of Alberta itself (1905), and the province has no jurisdiction to alter those agreements. Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation has filed for a court injunction to block the referendum question; Treaty 6 chiefs raised the matter with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in May 2026. The legal architecture is now stronger than it was in 1995 — the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act became federal law in 2021. The political dynamic is the same: a provincial separatist government dismissing treaty-nation opposition. This article walks both cases in detail, the legal precedents that link them, and what an Indigenous-treaty pathway out of a provincial referendum actually looks like.
AccountabilityMay 13, 20267 min read
Alberta’s Citizen-Led Independence Petition Has Cleared the Signature Threshold. Here Is How the Process Compares to Quebec’s Two Sovereignty Referendums.
On May 2, 2026, signature collection closed on a citizen-initiative petition under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act asking whether the province should leave Canada. The petition’s organizer, Mitch Sylvestre of the Alberta Prosperity Project / Stay Free Alberta, reported approximately 302,000 signatures submitted to Elections Alberta. The threshold required to trigger a referendum was 177,732 signatures, or 10% of the 2023 provincial-vote count. Verification by the Chief Electoral Officer is currently on hold pending an Alberta Court of King’s Bench review of a treaty-rights challenge brought by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the Piikani Nation, the Siksika Nation, and the Blood Tribe. The two Quebec sovereignty referendums (1980 and 1995) were initiated by sitting Parti Québécois governments — René Lévesque’s and Jacques Parizeau’s respectively — not by citizen petitions. Alberta’s petition would, if certified, oblige the legislature to either pass legislation responsive to the question or hold a binding referendum.

When Quebec Tried to Leave Canada, the Crees Voted First. The Alberta Equivalent Is Already Underway.

In the lead-up to the October 30, 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum, the Grand Council of the Crees of Eeyou Istchee (northern Quebec) and the Inuit of Nunavik (the Arctic-coast region of Quebec) each held their own referendums on whether they would consent to be included in a sovereign Quebec. Both produced overwhelming "No" results — the Crees at 96.3% with 77% turnout, the Inuit at approximately 96%. Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come published the legal paper "Sovereign Injustice" arguing that Indigenous self-determination under international law gave the Crees the right to remain in Canada regardless of the broader Quebec vote. The 1995 sovereignty referendum failed narrowly (No 50.58%, Yes 49.42%); the Supreme Court of Canada's 1998 Reference re Secession of Quebec subsequently established that any future provincial secession would require negotiation with multiple stakeholders including Indigenous nations. In 2025-2026, as a citizen petition pushes the Alberta government toward a referendum on provincial independence, the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, the Blackfoot Confederacy (Treaty 7), and Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta have all publicly opposed the independence movement on identical legal grounds: treaties signed with the Crown predate the existence of the province of Alberta itself (1905), and the province has no jurisdiction to alter those agreements. Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation has filed for a court injunction to block the referendum question; Treaty 6 chiefs raised the matter with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in May 2026. The legal architecture is now stronger than it was in 1995 — the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act became federal law in 2021. The political dynamic is the same: a provincial separatist government dismissing treaty-nation opposition. This article walks both cases in detail, the legal precedents that link them, and what an Indigenous-treaty pathway out of a provincial referendum actually looks like.

Alberta’s Citizen-Led Independence Petition Has Cleared the Signature Threshold. Here Is How the Process Compares to Quebec’s Two Sovereignty Referendums.

On May 2, 2026, signature collection closed on a citizen-initiative petition under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act asking whether the province should leave Canada. The petition’s organizer, Mitch Sylvestre of the Alberta Prosperity Project / Stay Free Alberta, reported approximately 302,000 signatures submitted to Elections Alberta. The threshold required to trigger a referendum was 177,732 signatures, or 10% of the 2023 provincial-vote count. Verification by the Chief Electoral Officer is currently on hold pending an Alberta Court of King’s Bench review of a treaty-rights challenge brought by the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, the Piikani Nation, the Siksika Nation, and the Blood Tribe. The two Quebec sovereignty referendums (1980 and 1995) were initiated by sitting Parti Québécois governments — René Lévesque’s and Jacques Parizeau’s respectively — not by citizen petitions. Alberta’s petition would, if certified, oblige the legislature to either pass legislation responsive to the question or hold a binding referendum.