Juno News - Alberta wants OUT？ Constitutional lawyer explains REFERENDUM changes and path to independence

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show. We had a very optimistic episode

00:00:06.400 for you yesterday. I went through and pointed out why I was hopeful about the election results,

00:00:11.520 why I'm still hopeful for the country and for Canada. Then yesterday afternoon, an absolute

00:00:17.220 bombshell was dropped out of Alberta. It seems like some people in Alberta just don't want to

00:00:23.720 wait. They don't have the same hope and optimism for the country that I myself hold. So we are

00:00:28.220 going to explain it all. I'm going to ask everybody to just quickly like the video. It really helps us

00:00:33.220 with the algorithm. We want to be able to be presented to more Canadians. We want more to

00:00:37.360 Canadians to discover Juno News in our quest to replace the CBC. So help us out by liking this

00:00:43.760 video. Okay. I am pleased to be joined today for this episode by Keith Wilson. Keith is a

00:00:50.280 constitutional lawyer based in St. Albert, Alberta. He gained national attention for representing the

00:00:54.940 Freedom Convoy back when the Public Orders Emergency Commission were reviewing it in 2022. So Keith,

00:01:01.500 thank you for joining us today. Thank you. Okay. So let's just get to the news. It started when

00:01:07.560 Danielle Smith, Premier of Alberta, came out the morning after the election and basically just called

00:01:12.960 for a reset in the relationship between the Feds and Alberta and the provinces. So let me read

00:01:19.300 from her ex post here. Okay. So this came out bright and early on Tuesday morning after the election.

00:01:25.860 Premier Smith writes this. She says, I want to congratulate Prime Minister Mark Carney and his

00:01:29.680 minority government election victory last night. I also want to sincerely thank Pierre Polyev for his

00:01:34.760 powerful and principled advocacy. She goes on to thank Polyev for his work and his vision. She goes on,

00:01:41.300 she says, as Premier, I invite the Prime Minister to immediately commence working with our government to

00:01:47.020 reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta with meaningful action rather than hollow rhetoric.

00:01:53.000 A large majority of Albertans are deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our

00:01:58.480 provincial economy, almost unabated for the past 10 years, has been returned to government. As Premier,

00:02:04.320 I will not permit the status quo to continue. Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be

00:02:10.140 strong, prosperous and united. But we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our

00:02:15.520 resources landlocked by Ottawa. In the weeks and months ahead, Albertans will have an opportunity

00:02:20.440 to discuss our province's future, assess various options for strengthening and protecting our province

00:02:26.160 against future hostile acts from Ottawa, and to ultimately choose a path forward. As Premier,

00:02:31.980 I will facilitate and lead this discussion and process with the sincere hope of securing a prosperous

00:02:38.460 future for our province within a united Canada that respects our province's constitutional rights,

00:02:43.440 facilitates rather than blocks the development and export of our abundant resources and treats us as a valued

00:02:49.700 and respected partner within Confederation. Our government will be holding a special caucus meeting this

00:02:55.140 Friday to discuss this matter further. I will have more to say after that meeting is concluded. Wow, what a strong

00:03:02.740 message from Premier Smith, really just laying it all out, saying we are not going to tolerate being pushed

00:03:08.560 around the way that we were under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. So Keith, what did you make, we'll get to the

00:03:15.040 referendum news and the changes in a minute, but what did you make of Premier Smith's strong comments there?

00:03:20.320 Well, I think she's echoing the sentiment that she's hearing on the ground as she travels the province

00:03:27.520 as and meets with Albertans and meets with business leaders and community leaders, that the frustration

00:03:36.400 level here is at an all time high. Because it's not just that the federal government has engaged in,

00:03:43.040 you know, incompetent decision making the liberal government, they've definitely got five stars for

00:03:49.680 that. But it's deliberate policy, deliberate policy that harms Alberta's economy. It's spectacular. And

00:03:59.680 she sees it, she's an incredibly capable and intelligent leader. She's a data person, if you've spoken with

00:04:08.640 her, she studies numbers, and she sees it, and she hears it from, from the voters of Alberta, and she's

00:04:17.120 echoing their concerns. Well, I think certainly many people in Alberta woke up on Tuesday morning

00:04:22.240 feeling very disappointed about the decision that was made, mostly from people in central Canada.

00:04:27.600 I will say again, I was optimistic. I looked at around Toronto, looked at the 905, looked at some 0.99

00:04:32.000 of the, even the seats closer to Toronto. I'm talking about York Centre where Roman Baba was elected.

00:04:36.880 Melissa Lansman elected with 66% of the vote. That's more than Michelle Rempel was elected in 1.00

00:04:41.680 Calgary. So there is an appetite for change. There was a bit of a blue wave. It was just a very strange

00:04:45.920 election where the NDP vote completely collapsed. But I think that Premier Smith is really tapping

00:04:51.040 in on this. Now, later in the day, Daniel Smith went on CBC's Power and Politics. I want to play

00:04:56.880 a few of these clips for you here, Keith, because I just think it's so telling the way the CBC is

00:05:01.840 framing the issue, the way that they are openly just defending Mark Carney and his position,

00:05:06.480 pressing Daniel Smith as if they worked for the Prime Minister, as if it was their job

00:05:10.560 to say, this is what the, this is what Carney has said, this is what Prime Minister Carney says,

00:05:15.120 and believes, why aren't you getting on board with it? So first, we'll play this clip where they're

00:05:19.840 asking Premier Smith about her position on pipelines. And she is saying that Canada needs to respect

00:05:25.680 Alberta. We need pipelines. Let's play that clip. 1.00

00:05:27.760 ... lost ground as well. What people want is an aspirational government that is going to get

00:05:33.680 things done, that is going to open up new markets so that we're not overly reliant on the United States.

00:05:38.080 And so to think that the old liberal NDP alliance that crushes the aspirations of Alberta and Saskatchewan

00:05:44.160 is going to work on a go forward, I hope he is not of that view. I think that there's a different

00:05:49.920 pathway and I hope he takes it. But he has certainly signaled, Premier, that he says he's a pragmatist.

00:05:56.640 You know, he wants to find ways to move forward. He wants to still pursue a climate agenda,

00:06:02.480 but he says he's not completely beholden to hard and artificial caps, for example,

00:06:07.520 with the emissions cap, which I know is still in the consultation process. And I know you

00:06:11.200 fundamentally disagree with it. My understanding of the prime minister's view is that he believes in

00:06:15.920 it as a policy instrument, but not necessarily with the rigidity of the previous liberal leadership

00:06:22.560 team. A lot of talk about energy corridors. There seems to be alignment at the first minister's table.

00:06:28.240 Are you not in any way more optimistic that your natural resources can find easier paths

00:06:34.480 the markets and you can get better cooperation with the federal government than you've had in the

00:06:37.680 last nine years? Well, I always live in hope. But you saw that the Bloc Québécois' first move

00:06:43.520 as to say they'd partner with Mark Carney as long as he didn't build pipelines.

00:06:47.520 Just allow me to rant for a second here, Keith, because Mark Carney is a radical on the climate.

00:06:52.080 You could argue that he is more left wing and more concerned, you know, pushing this idea of a climate

00:06:58.080 crisis even than Justin Trudeau. But during the election, he decided to moderate his views and

00:07:05.040 run on more of a conservative platform to get rid of the carbon tax. And here you have the CBC

00:07:09.600 grilling Daniel Smith, being like, why don't you just believe him? He's moderate. He's not going

00:07:13.680 to be as bad as Justin Trudeau. And basically just pushing his talking voice is so absurd and ridiculous

00:07:18.240 to me that that is what the CBC does. Now, just to add context to what Premier Smith said,

00:07:23.680 I want to play this quick clip of Yves-Francois Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc Party.

00:07:28.160 And remember, he could potentially hold the balance of power here.

00:07:30.880 The Liberals only got elected in a minority. The NDP have basically been wiped out. I mean,

00:07:34.960 they do have enough seats combined to form a coalition, but so does the Bloc.

00:07:40.480 And here is what the Bloc is saying the day after the election. Please play that clip.

00:07:44.560 The fact that there's no future for oil and gas, at least in Quebec and probably everywhere,

00:07:52.080 and this has to be said and protected. I have a brand new weapon to do that. Mr. Bonin will be

00:07:59.440 extraordinary carrying that message. So no future for oil and gas in Canada. This is what the leader

00:08:05.680 of the Bloc is saying at this very contentious moment. And so I just go back to the interview

00:08:10.560 with Daniel Smith and David Cochran of the CBC. I'll play the second bit here, where again,

00:08:15.520 the CBC is kind of condescending to Daniel Smith saying, you know, why is Alberta acting this way?

00:08:22.800 And talk to me about the separatist sentiments and the Alberta sovereignty. Daniel Smith has

00:08:27.760 a strong response. Let's play that clip. There's a lot of suspicion that you might want to be a

00:08:32.400 little bit more like Quebec. And when people like Preston Manning were talking about a liberal win,

00:08:36.640 maybe, you know, exacerbating the idea of Alberta separatism. I just wonder what your thoughts are

00:08:43.920 on that. I mean, is this something you would forcefully push back against as the first minister

00:08:48.480 of Alberta, the notion that because the national election didn't go the way a lot of people in your

00:08:53.040 province wanted that it becomes a cause for separation? Well, I have always said that I support

00:08:58.960 Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada. And I think that that is is the viewpoint of many of the

00:09:03.920 of the premiers is that they want the constitution to be respected. They want to be able to have local

00:09:08.320 decision making. They want the environmental process to be at the provincial level. So I'm not

00:09:12.640 alone in that. We have a process in our province where you have citizen initiated referenda. If you

00:09:19.680 have a certain number of signatures on a petition, issues can be put forward. If there is an appetite

00:09:25.040 for for that kind of conversation, that that would be the avenue for it. But it's not something that

00:09:29.040 our government would be putting forward. I believe that we've got to try to be on Team Canada,

00:09:33.280 but my view has always been that Team Canada has to show that they're on Team Alberta, too.

00:09:38.320 So again, David Cochran's line of questioning is basically, well, you guys lost one election,

00:09:42.720 and now you're basically acting like Spobat of Confederation saying that you want to go

00:09:46.560 alone. It wasn't just one election, right? Premier Smith did a great job of outlining

00:09:50.640 how it's been a repeated pattern of disrespect towards Alberta. So I want you to comment on that

00:09:56.480 exchange that we just saw. Well, first of all, I mean, the CBC is the state broadcaster,

00:10:01.760 and they are funded by government. They know who funds them. Their glee on election night was

00:10:08.240 spectacular. Not even attempt at neutrality. So one has to discount anything you hear from the CBC

00:10:17.760 and be cautious that there's sort of a propaganda-type twisting going on. And I think that's what we saw in

00:10:24.080 the line of questioning. And I do agree with Premier Smith's position that she has to recognize her role

00:10:36.160 as a First Minister of Canada, in addition to being the Premier of Alberta, and always put effort into

00:10:43.760 making that relationship work. But, you know, we have a pattern of conduct from Ottawa with federal

00:10:52.320 policies that are intentionally designed to weaken our economy, deprive our kids of jobs, prosperity,

00:11:01.360 revenue for government services. And so many Albertans have come to that conclusion on their own,

00:11:09.360 and are highly motivated now to say enough's enough.

00:11:14.400 It's so interesting. And so I want to get to the changes in the referendum requirements. You can see

00:11:19.040 it was teased a little bit at the end of that interview on CBC. So news came out Tuesday afternoon

00:11:24.240 that Alberta had made changes to the referendum requirements and amendments to something called

00:11:29.760 the Citizens Initiative Act. So I'm going to read from this Western Standard article released last night

00:11:35.280 9 p.m. written by James Snell. He writes, the Alberta government has introduced Bill 54,

00:11:40.080 the Election Statutes Amendment Act on Tuesday, aiming to enhance the integrity and accessibility

00:11:44.880 of provincial elections, while emphasizing referendums several times in its announcement,

00:11:49.360 signaling pushback against the federal liberal government led by Prime Minister

00:11:52.960 Mark Carney. The proposed legislation tabled by Daniel Smith's United Conservative Party government

00:11:57.920 seeks to protect democratic processes, ensure fair and transparent elections, boost public confidence in

00:12:02.880 voting outcomes, according to a government release. The Western Standard asked Smith about the timing

00:12:07.520 of the announcement the day after a federal election, whether she is considering a sovereignty

00:12:12.000 referendum. We were going to introduce the legislation, regardless of the outcome of the election,

00:12:17.280 she said, to hold an independent referendum in Alberta. Currently, the process can be initiated

00:12:23.600 through two primary mechanisms under existing legislation. A petition must collect signatures from

00:12:29.440 approximately 600,000 eligible voters, which is about 20% of Alberta's eligible voters based on the 2019

00:12:35.840 election turnout within a 90-day period. If passed, this new bill will cut the number needed in half down

00:12:43.760 to 10%. So at a press conference yesterday afternoon, Daniel Smith made this announcement. Let's play that clip.

00:12:50.560 We are expanding opportunities for Albertans to be involved in direct democracy by making changes to the

00:12:56.960 threshold needed for successful citizens initiatives. The signature collection time for citizens

00:13:02.400 initiatives will be extended from 90 days to 120 days. We are also improving the process by setting the threshold to be

00:13:10.080 10% of the number of eligible voters who participated in the last general election.

00:13:16.400 Wow. So, yes, she says it's unrelated to the fact that the election happened yesterday, but I mean, come on. This is a huge news

00:13:21.920 news that's coming out of Alberta that the premier is making it easier, making it an easier pathway for a referendum

00:13:27.360 on independence. Keith, can you talk to us about the law, the legality of this referendum initiative?

00:13:34.960 Sure. And I think it's really important to understand why we're even talking about the concept of referendum in this

00:13:41.840 discussion, which is Canada is a very unique country in the world in terms of democracies,

00:13:48.640 in that most countries do not have, and by most I mean just about all, do not have a mechanism where

00:13:58.960 legally a region of a country, a province or a state can hold a vote, a referendum, and decide they no longer

00:14:08.480 want to be part of that country. This is exceptionally rare in democracies to have in the constitutional

00:14:16.240 jurisprudence a mechanism for a province in Canada to hold a vote. And of course, it all emanates from the 1998

00:14:25.360 reference case regarding Quebec succession, when Quebec was going to hold a referendum.

00:14:30.960 So that's why we're talking about a referendum, is that Canada has this unique phenomenon at law

00:14:37.920 where a region, namely a province, can hold a referendum. So the question becomes, well, how does any province hold a referendum?

00:14:45.600 Well, interestingly, each provincial legislature gets to decide what referendum laws they're going

00:14:51.600 to have, if any. And Alberta has had a referendum law on the books for a very long time, and it basically

00:14:57.920 says that the cabinet, the provincial cabinet, can decide to hold a referendum on separation or independence.

00:15:05.520 But the Kenney government, under the UCP prior to Premier Smith, brought in legislation for citizen-initiated

00:15:14.960 referendum, where if the citizens assemble sufficient signatures on a petition, essentially, that will compel

00:15:25.600 the government to hold the referendum. So either the people can force the provincial government's hand

00:15:32.640 to compel a referendum on independence, or the cabinet itself can decide to call one.

00:15:38.720 The problem was that under the Citizen Initiative Act, they had two bars. If you wanted to get a

00:15:44.720 policy changed or legislation changed in a particular area, you had one bar, which was 10%. But if you

00:15:50.240 wanted a constitutional amendment, it was higher, it was 20%, had all these other hurdles that you had to

00:15:56.320 overcome. And the government and Premier Smith took the position that she announced yesterday, that there

00:16:02.000 should be one standard. If the citizens decide they want to compel government to act, there should be one

00:16:08.080 standard. So she brought the constitutional standard down to the other standard. The practical effect is that

00:16:14.720 prior to these amendments announced yesterday, in order to force the Alberta government to hold a

00:16:21.280 referendum on separation, we would have had to have, in 90 days, got 600,000 signatures. Now we have 120

00:16:31.840 days to get 177,000. So we've gone from 600,000 signatures down to 177 and the amount of time has gone

00:16:43.040 from 90 days to 120 days. So it's a much, it's a very viable target, I believe.

00:16:50.000 Well, Keith, I wanted to point this out because this, this was an op-ed published in the Toronto

00:16:57.360 Star on Saturday, two days before the election, just absolutely made my blood boil. The headline

00:17:03.040 says, perhaps it's time Alberta does go it alone and say goodbye to Canada. This article is just

00:17:09.680 dripping with the smug leftist disdain that characterizes some in central Canada. I will say,

00:17:15.520 I don't think this is a common sentiment amongst people in Ontario. I think that again, as I pointed

00:17:21.120 out, there was a blue wave in Ontario. It just wasn't enough. And it didn't sweep in places like

00:17:26.240 Ottawa, where there was a red wave, right? We saw Pierre Polly lose his own seat. But in Toronto,

00:17:30.480 there were a lot of pickups, a lot of seats. This doesn't represent the views of people in Ontario,

00:17:35.760 but it does represent the views of people like, you know, partisan liberals, people who were doing

00:17:41.440 the whole elbows up thing. And I mean, I'll read a little bit of it. I don't want to subject you and

00:17:46.560 our audience to it because it's just so brutal, but it's written by David Olive, who is a columnist

00:17:51.440 at the Toronto Star. So it's not like a guest op-ed written to be provocative. This is someone who works

00:17:55.440 for the Toronto Star, who gets paid, who writes in this paper day in and day out. He writes,

00:17:59.840 Alberta is giving me a headache. The province stands alone in its incurable sense of grievance

00:18:04.640 with the rest of the Federation. Not even a $34 billion expansion of Trans Mountain pipeline built

00:18:09.600 by Ottawa to get Alberta oil to non-US markets for the first time has reduced Alberta's bellyaching.

00:18:15.360 So he basically just says, oh, he goes on, he says, Alberta doesn't do gratitude. It does

00:18:19.920 righteous indignation ad nauseam. So he wants Albertans to thank Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and

00:18:26.160 Prime Minister Cardi for, you know, the government bailing out a pipeline that they never wanted that

00:18:32.160 to happen in the first place, that Albertans should be gratitude. So, I mean, this is kind of

00:18:36.640 the sentiment, which I don't blame Albertans for seeing this and saying, yeah, I don't want any of

00:18:40.560 that. I would only caution it to say, this is not representative of most people in Ontario. What

00:18:45.520 did you make of that op-ed? Well, first of all, I mean, I just knocked the easy one off. What was the,

00:18:52.080 until the Liberal policies were brought in, what was the Trans Mountain pipeline going to cost the

00:18:56.640 taxpayer? Zero dollars. Right. Zero dollars. The company was going to build it and starting to go

00:19:04.640 through all the processes. I actually had cases where I represented landowners along the route.

00:19:09.840 And they, the federal government put so many regulatory obstacles in front of them that they

00:19:16.000 said this is no longer a viable project and they walked. And so the government had to step in and take

00:19:21.920 over and mismanaged it in the extreme. And that's why the cost ballooned to 34 billion. It should

00:19:28.160 have cost the taxpayers nothing. That's what was going to happen until the federal liberals screwed

00:19:33.760 it up. But one of the thing, even in the more moderate folks that I've encountered from central and

00:19:42.800 eastern Canada, their lack of understanding of the basic roles and responsibilities of governments and

00:19:49.600 who doesn't pays for what is remarkable. People come after me on Twitter and say,

00:19:53.760 well, how are you going to pay for your healthcare then? Well, we already pay for our healthcare and

00:19:57.920 we net pay at least $20 billion a year to Ottawa that we don't get back. So we'll actually have $20

00:20:03.760 billion laying around in our pocket to maybe spend a little more on healthcare. Thank you very much.

00:20:10.560 People think that the crown land in Alberta means federal crown. It doesn't. The only federal land in

00:20:17.120 Alberta is four national parks, four military bases, and a number of Indian First Nations reserves

00:20:27.120 under the treaties. And when you combine that all together, the First Nations reserves only 1.31% of the

00:20:34.000 land base. And then the federal component is 20. Some people think that the federal government owns

00:20:40.000 the oil and gas here, all owned by the province, the water. The only thing the federal government

00:20:45.200 really has a responsibility for in Alberta is like running a passport office and they can't even do that.

00:20:51.360 So it's remarkable to me, the lack of understanding like Nova Scotia has, and I'm not sure on the exact

00:20:59.040 numbers, but I believe it's around $12 billion is their budget. Almost $4 billion of that comes

00:21:05.680 from Alberta. What's going to happen to Nova Scotia when we leave, right? And if we leave.

00:21:11.120 And Ontario is now going to have to pay that money. And the fellow from the Toronto Star won't be so

00:21:18.480 smug at that point. The reality is that Alberta is a tremendous asset to Canada. We fund so much of

00:21:26.560 Canada's activities. We ask so little, and instead we've just been harassed and economically abused. And

00:21:37.200 Carney, who I've been studying for years, is a melding of Gabo and Trudeau on super drive. Like this guy's

00:21:48.720 climate extremism is troubling. And then he's also, if you research his wife, she's a very extreme

00:22:02.560 climate activist as well. So when he gets home, you know, from the cabinet meeting, he's going to be,

00:22:08.800 you know, what did you do to stop the planet from burning up by increasing its average temperature by

00:22:14.240 1.5 degrees Celsius average. So, you know, there's, I have no optimism that Carney's going to

00:22:24.400 change course. He talked about making Canada an energy superpower. And I don't know if you picked

00:22:31.360 up on this, because I sure did. Near the end of the election, somewhere at some scrum, he was pushed on

00:22:37.280 it. And he qualified it by saying, oh, what I meant was a renewable energy superpower. Well, what we've

00:22:46.240 experienced in Alberta, because I track the hourly electricity generation, when we need electricity the

00:22:53.280 most, when it's minus 40 degrees here, there's no solar generation, and there's no wind, they can't run

00:22:59.840 the windmills, they'll break, the hydraulics are frozen, when it gets that cold. The other peaks are in the

00:23:06.400 summer, when it's extremely hot. Well, the wind typically doesn't go, and solar panels don't

00:23:11.440 perform well in high heat. So this idea, and then they have this thing of line loss that they don't

00:23:17.440 understand. When you, as soon as you put electricity down a transmission line, at each mile it goes,

00:23:22.800 or kilometer it goes, there's less of it. Line loss, if you stop and stand under one, you hear buzzing,

00:23:28.080 that's electricity dissipating. So this idea that we're going to be a renewable energy superpower and export

00:23:34.320 this is pure fantasy. It's delusional. That's what it is. It's all delusional.

00:23:40.880 Mark Carney is incredibly radical person, and yet people like David Cochran and the CBC, it's like

00:23:46.160 their job is to defend him and to pretend that he's a moderate person, pretend that he's down the middle

00:23:51.440 of the road and that he will protect all. I can understand the frustration in thinking that if Mark

00:23:55.840 Carney got a majority government or a minority propped up by the block with that no pipelines,

00:24:01.520 no oil and gas mentality, that that is just completely at odds with Alberta. Premier Smith

00:24:07.440 doesn't strike me as a separatist in any way. I think she's tried to make it very clear that she

00:24:12.320 wants Alberta to have more sovereignty, more independence, more respect, but not leading an

00:24:18.080 actual separatist movement. Although it just seems like reading the comments, reading the sentiment from

00:24:22.400 people, even Juneau News followers reading the comments on our work, that there is a large appetite,

00:24:28.240 a large amount of anger against the Laurentian elites, the establishment, the liberals and people

00:24:34.080 like Mark Carney. So Keith, I'm wondering if you can maybe help us see what's going to happen next.

00:24:39.200 I don't want you to make a prediction, but what do you see happening in days and weeks?

00:24:44.320 What's going to happen from a legal perspective? And do you think this movement is going to take off

00:24:48.160 from here? So, you know, first of all, I'm fortunate to have known Premier Smith prior to her being

00:24:56.080 Premier. I first met her and worked with her 20-some years ago, maybe 27 years ago when she was the

00:25:02.720 executive director of a property rights institute in Alberta. And I've gotten to know her and fundamentally,

00:25:09.520 she believes in democracy and she believes in grassroots democracy in the sense that the people

00:25:15.440 should decide that she's the leader of the people, but the people should set the direction. So I think

00:25:22.640 that's what you're seeing here with increasing the tools that citizens have to give direction to their 0.91

00:25:29.600 government. In terms of next steps, the legislation sets out a very rigid informal process for citizen

00:25:38.880 initiated petition. And it's not just any piece of paper. It's not just any website. There will be no

00:25:45.200 digital. It's going to have to be actual forms that are obtained from our chief electoral office

00:25:52.800 and sanctioned and approved with a clear question. And specific forms will be issued in an

00:25:58.960 organization. Organizations will then go out and try and secure the signature, the address and the phone

00:26:05.040 number and the name of the individual and get the sufficient number. I think that process is going to

00:26:10.560 start fairly soon. And I'm optimistic that that number will be achieved. And then what will happen

00:26:18.160 is if we do surpass the 177,000 mark, then the government will be obligated to schedule and hold a

00:26:28.320 referendum. We do have municipal elections previously scheduled that are going to occur in October of this

00:26:35.280 year as to whether the timing would line up to hold the provincial referendum on separation at that time.

00:26:41.760 I don't know too early to tell. And then on top. So, so that would then.

00:26:46.480 Wow. That's, that's coming up fast. And, and so would it just be a simple majority, like 50 plus one or.

00:26:53.280 Yeah. So how that works. Candace is under the Supreme Court of Canada ruling codified in the Federal 0.93

00:27:00.400 Clarity Act is that the referendum. So let's just say for argument's sake that things do move that

00:27:07.920 quickly. And there is a provincial referendum on separation in Alberta in October in conjunction

00:27:13.440 with our municipal elections province wide. What would then happen is if that, if that

00:27:19.200 passed in the affirmative with a clear majority of Albertans on a clear question,

00:27:26.720 then it triggers a positive legal duty on the federal government, the provincial governments,

00:27:32.800 and First Nations to enter into negotiations with Alberta as to the terms of Alberta leaving

00:27:39.440 Confederation. No one can sit it out. No one has a veto. They can't just say, well, I'm not coming.

00:27:47.200 The First Nations can't say no way. We're not interested. They have to participate. That's

00:27:52.320 what the law is in Canada, as confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada. And the details will be

00:27:59.120 worked on. It may be for the First Nations that they decide they want to keep their lands federal,

00:28:05.040 and there'll be these little enclaves and continue to be ruled and administered by Ottawa. But that 0.60

00:28:09.920 hasn't worked out so well for them either for many of them. They may want to be, and Alberta could step

00:28:16.320 into the shoes in the treaties and honour them, or they may want to negotiate a whole new relationship.

00:28:21.440 That would all be on the table. And part of that agreement would include each province agreeing to

00:28:27.440 amend, to issue, pass a resolution in their legislature confirming the terms of separation

00:28:34.320 and succession, which would then meet the requirements for amending the constitution. That is a step.

00:28:39.280 And, but then we've got the wild card. Donald J. Trump, real estate mogul, likes to acquire things.

00:28:49.680 We, you know, Alberta has the third largest reserves of oil and gas. We have all,

00:28:54.240 most of our cattle that's produced all goes to the United States. A lot of agricultural products go to

00:28:59.840 the United States. We have a north-south trade, not an east-west trade, in terms of our economy.

00:29:05.360 Um, he could be stepping in at various times as he tends to, and he may make some kind of offer that

00:29:13.440 will completely, um, change the dynamic of the, of the, of the sentiment in Alberta,

00:29:20.240 as well as the negotiations with the rest of Canada. Wow. Unbelievable. What an interesting time

00:29:27.120 for our country, for Alberta, for the future of Canada. Keith, really appreciate your time. We're

00:29:32.160 going to have to have you on frequently to help us, uh, understand and have updates on this as it

00:29:36.480 goes. Appreciate your time today. Thank you very much. Right. That's Keith Wilson,

00:29:40.640 a constitutional lawyer based in Alberta. Folks, this is all the time we have for today. Thank you

00:29:44.880 so much for tuning in. We'll be back again tomorrow with all the news. I'm Candace Malcolm. This is the

00:29:48.240 Candace Malcolm show. Thank you and God bless. You're watching Juneau News, Canada's fastest

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Juno News - April 30, 2025

Alberta wants OUT？ Constitutional lawyer explains REFERENDUM changes and path to independence

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