Juno News - Docs show Carney preparing for Alberta separation legal showdown

00:00:00.000 the president of a canadian ngo chanted quote death to america and other pro-islamic republic

00:00:12.060 in iran slogans heavily redacted documents show that ottawa is preparing legal arguments in case

00:00:19.040 albertans successfully vote in a referendum to separate from confederation a gazan canadian

00:00:25.100 organization is attempting to organize cross-country protests demanding that the canadian government

00:00:31.060 brings their family members from gaza into canada hello canada it's friday june 27th and this is the

00:00:37.940 true north daily brief i'm cosmon gerja and i'm clayton demaine we've got you covered with all

00:00:43.840 the news you need to know let's discuss the top stories of the day and the true north exclusives

00:00:49.060 you won't hear anywhere else a video going viral on canadian social media shows firas al-najim

00:01:00.160 chanting common islamic republic phrases in persian glorifying supreme leader ali kamene and chanting

00:01:08.420 death to america in front of the u.s consulate in toronto al-najim is the founder and head of the 0.89

00:01:15.700 canadian defenders for human rights organization an ngo that has taken pro-islamic republic stances

00:01:22.860 publicly such as lobbying the canadian government during a committee hearing to remove the terrorist

00:01:28.380 designation from the iran-backed hezbollah group in lebanon last month his organization called on the

00:01:36.340 canadian military to quote send troops and arms to the palestinian resistance in occupied palestine

00:01:43.040 gaza and pleaded with prime minister mark carney to quote call on david mcginty defense minister to

00:01:49.720 assist the liberation process al-najim spoke earlier this month with press tv an iranian state broadcaster

00:01:57.880 where he shared his views on the iran-israel conflict on the iran-israel confrontation warning

00:02:05.600 that any u.s military actions against iran would be a quote foolish move canada is already grappling

00:02:12.900 with concerns about potential iranian sleeper cells and regime officials hiding in canada who could

00:02:19.660 potentially target iranian dissidents according to former justice minister erwin kotler with growing

00:02:26.500 anti-israel sentiments in canada the islamic republic regime has seen increased support on canadian

00:02:32.880 streets carney spoke with cnn's christine amanpour where he said quote the position of iran has been

00:02:40.600 substantially degraded with regard to their nuclear capabilities and that iranian response that the

00:02:47.480 iranian response was quote consistent with leading up to a de-escalation clayton it's been quite some

00:02:54.420 time now where we've seen at least the palestine protest happening it's been over a year in fact

00:03:02.580 and now they seem to blend with these protests in support of the iranian islamic republic so what

00:03:13.260 precedent has been set from individual people or groups in canada when it comes to shouting things

00:03:20.840 like death to america on canadian streets and is there any accountability for these individuals

00:03:30.340 when they call for a destruction of our neighbor yeah so our listeners might recall during a protest

00:03:37.760 in vancouver uh just a day after the first marking of the hamas-led october 7th massacre in israel

00:03:45.700 an organization true north has been writing about for months prior sammy doon recorded themselves

00:03:52.460 burning the canadian flag and chanting burn burn canada burn burn america in israel although jewish 0.76

00:03:59.600 advocacy groups have been calling out this group for years as it's openly celebrated terrorist groups

00:04:05.440 and continuously posting homages to avowed terrorists and bragging about using popular front

00:04:13.080 for the liberation of palestine material the flag burning was the moment a canadian politicians

00:04:19.140 had enough so uh by the way the group has been operating in canada as a charity receiving tax

00:04:25.980 exempt status from the canadian revenue agency the whole time it's been promoting terrorism and

00:04:31.920 spreading anti-west messages conservative leader pierre polyev called on that group to be listed as a

00:04:37.180 terrorist entity and public safety canada later agreed that it was operating as a front for the pflp

00:04:43.900 a marxist leninist terrorist group they're also suing um the canadian government pierre polyev and uh

00:04:52.240 trudeau but we won't get into that true uh but true north has written about this guy firas al-najim

00:04:58.780 before interestingly enough the guy tried to host a remembrance day type vigil

00:05:04.600 in november honoring the death of hamas leader yaya sinwar and for our listeners if you don't know

00:05:13.000 hamas's charter states that their goal is to quote vanquish their enemy the jews many jewish advocates

00:05:20.600 highlight that honoring sinwar would be like hosting a vigil service to honor the martyrdom

00:05:26.060 of adolf hitler while insulting the sacred day of remembrance that western countries like canada and

00:05:32.900 um and the uk hold for their veterans um this raises questions if saying death to america or the like

00:05:40.220 constitute constitutes incitement of violence and if it's not convictable i think canadians know

00:05:47.760 what people like this mean when they use phrases that are popularized by terrorist groups and their

00:05:53.380 leaders in canada heavily redacted documents show that ottawa is seeking constitutional advice

00:06:01.720 on alberta's independence from a top crown lawyer who successfully argued in the supreme court that

00:06:08.280 quebec had no unilateral right to leave canada after the narrow 1995 separation vote in response to a

00:06:16.200 freedom of information and privacy act request by true north the department of justice released legal

00:06:23.160 correspondence on alberta's proposed independence referendum in response to a freedom of information

00:06:28.840 and privacy act request by true north the department of justice released legal correspondence on alberta's

00:06:34.600 proposed independence referendum citing solicitor client privilege a vast majority of the documents

00:06:40.280 contents were blacked out except for the names of those consulted correspondence dated from may 15th to

00:06:46.440 may 23rd contains emails between the department of justice's senior general council on constitutional law

00:06:54.520 warren j newman senior general council on indigenous rights and relations uzma isanula and crown indigenous

00:07:02.200 relations senior director john topping despite the liberal government downplaying the magnitude of the

00:07:08.600 alberta independence movement the documents indicate that ottawa may be making contingency plans

00:07:14.840 to constitutionally challenge a successful referendum possibly at the supreme court level by employing

00:07:21.880 arguments of indigenous rights newman acted as co-counsel for the attorney general of canada in 1998

00:07:29.160 when the liberal government under jean christian shut down quebec secessionist arguments in the supreme

00:07:35.960 court of canada the court had agreed with the crown's arguments in its reference re-secession of quebec

00:07:43.320 judgment the court ruled that quebec could not legally secede from canada on its own because the

00:07:49.720 canadian constitution does not allow it and that secession could only happen through negotiations

00:07:56.040 involving all provinces and the federal government so cosmon after the last election we've seen a lot

00:08:02.520 of a resurgence of this sentiment of alberta separatism now that might not be enough to actually have a

00:08:10.200 successful referendum but if there was a successful referendum what are some of the legal arguments that

00:08:16.440 are likely to be at play yeah clayton while i'm not a constitutional legal expert who knows the ins and

00:08:24.520 outs of secessionist movement history within canada it's evident from these documents these emails that

00:08:33.800 the federal government is sort of preparing a response to what could be a successful referendum and

00:08:44.120 it seems to be a two-pronged response on the one hand they're consulting somebody who was the co-counsel

00:08:51.240 on the 1998 reference case for the uh quebec referendum that was super close it was a razor-thin

00:09:00.520 margin i think it was like almost 50.5 percent to 49.4 percent uh against vote uh voting for a separation

00:09:12.120 of quebec but they're consulting the co-counsel from that case and at the same time they're looping in

00:09:20.200 people and council from within the indigenous affairs department so that to me says they want to look at

00:09:29.720 this based on the historical precedent but then also raise some of the arguments that are currently at

00:09:38.680 play within alberta itself from first nations there who are essentially telling the provincial government

00:09:46.120 that they would they were going to refuse acknowledging any referendum that votes for

00:09:52.920 alberta to separate from confederation whether that actually is a credible argument legally speaking

00:10:00.760 because we've had legal experts say that it doesn't matter first nations do not have

00:10:06.920 the right to veto if a majority votes to separate from confederation in a province but they would have

00:10:15.080 the option after that separation to either remain within the province or the new country that forms or

00:10:23.080 remain within canada uh with regard to their existing agreements so yeah there's a lot of history here

00:10:32.520 and like i said i'm not an expert the some most of this stuff happened when i was just a tiny kid but

00:10:39.160 uh a lot of things are at play there was that 1998 reference and one of the things about the quebec

00:10:45.320 separation referendum from 1995 was the problem that the language itself of the referendum wasn't super

00:10:54.280 clear and that prompted the government the federal government under harper to introduce uh the clarity act

00:11:02.200 which mandated uh pre-approval of the clarity of a referendum question and also some more clarity on

00:11:11.320 what a majority threshold actually is to pass a referendum of that nature

00:11:21.480 self-identified gazan canadians are organizing countrywide encampment style protests outside

00:11:27.880 immigration offices and parliament hill they are demanding that ottawa accept family members of

00:11:33.400 palestinians already living in canada a group that calls itself the gazan canadians league are attempting

00:11:40.040 to organize nationwide sit-in protests outside the federal legislature and federally run immigration

00:11:46.520 refugees and citizenship canada buildings on july 15th 2025 a day before parliament is set to return

00:11:55.240 from a break in a post promoting the protest the group said quote stand with gazan canadians we have

00:12:02.200 exhausted every door now we ask you grassroots movements organizations and caring people to stand

00:12:09.640 with us we will stay until canada reunites our families and fulfills its promise while immigrants 0.99

00:12:16.360 and refugees are not guaranteed that their entire families can join them in canada there are formal

00:12:21.960 pathways and processes they can pursue to petition the government for family reunification the gazan canadian

00:12:30.200 group has over 3 500 followers on instagram and describes itself in another post as palestinians living in canada

00:12:37.800 who advocate for the reunification of their families in gaza the group argues that the visa program

00:12:44.520 announced by former prime minister justin trudeau to take in gazan refugees has been

00:12:50.200 racist discriminatory and an overly complex process the gazan canadians have exhausted all other avenues

00:12:58.600 for family reunification criticizing canada for its quote lack of real urgency and action on the matter

00:13:06.520 some of the group's posts including a post saying the delay is quote institutional racism were liked

00:13:13.240 by anti-israel groups such as palestinian youth movement toronto independent jewish voices toronto

00:13:19.720 york region bds and ijv uft and union groups such as labor for palestine winnipeg one post the gazan

00:13:28.920 canadian league says the process relies on vetting palestinians with documents which are not available due to

00:13:35.160 israeli bombing and destruction and that the process is delayed because canadian officials have quote

00:13:41.240 capitulated to racists both inside and outside of the government some of the arguments that they

00:13:48.920 make as we just mentioned is that the documents required to properly vet palestinian refugees to

00:13:55.480 come into canada were destroyed due to bombing and the war that's happening in that region

00:14:02.120 but when you look at you have ukrainian refugees who were streamlined at a much higher rate now that

00:14:08.920 country is also at war there are regions that are facing bombardment and active fighting and there were

00:14:17.880 a lot of ukrainian refugees but with gazans there were only about 500 who were allowed to come to canada

00:14:25.480 as refugees since october 7th despite the government the liberals originally planning a 5 000 person

00:14:33.640 quota so could you enlighten us on why does it take so much longer for gazan refugees to come to canada

00:14:41.960 and what's at play there yeah absolutely cosmon so true north has spoken to both jewish rights groups and

00:14:49.960 an immigration lawyer about the logistics behind accepting gas and refugees into canada in the past

00:14:56.440 including last year and they bring up the fact that the area is ruled by a terrorist organization

00:15:01.560 hamas who simply does not keep the same records one might expect an immigrant from ukraine to have 0.99

00:15:07.560 available to them they lack the infrastructure that's needed for proper background checks without

00:15:13.560 proper records or a trustworthy administrative body in the country true north's been told that their

00:15:20.280 simply is no accurate way to determine whether or not the people we would be accepting from the

00:15:25.480 region are supporters of terrorism or agents of the terrorist group hamas itself sergio caris the

00:15:33.000 immigration lawyer i referenced spoke to us and said many of the palestinians seeking refugee in canada

00:15:40.520 illegally crossed the border into places such as egypt and because of this they also lack those proper

00:15:46.440 documentation and identification needed to vet them both caris and jewish advocacy groups such as cija

00:15:54.520 have also pointed out recent polls in the region which show massive levels of support for the hamas led

00:16:00.760 october 7th attack which left 1200 israelis slaughtered and hundreds more kidnapped with some still being held

00:16:08.760 captive today and people from the region report high levels of anti-semitic opinions as well so both

00:16:15.160 critics of gaz and immigration point out that this would almost guarantee that the already rising

00:16:23.480 levels of anti-semitism in canada would skyrocket even further not to mention how difficult it is

00:16:29.960 historically in canada to deport terrorists once they're already here

00:16:38.040 that's it for today folks thanks for tuning in you can stay on top of new episodes

00:16:42.680 every weekday by subscribing to the daily brief on itunes and spotify also while you're at it

00:16:48.600 make sure to hit us with a five star rating and please leave a review

Juno News - June 27, 2025

Docs show Carney preparing for Alberta separation legal showdown

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