PJ The Belt - November 21, 2025


Alberta Independence Just WON a MASSIVE Battle in Court!

Topics
court battle for independence referendum
Mentioned
Hannah Lapine Elections Alberta Mitch Sylvester Gordon McClure Colin Feesby Jefferson Anderson
＂WE WONT PROTECT THEM ANYMORE＂ Canada Risks NORAD Removal JD Vance Just RIPPED Mark Carney a New One!

Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

147.18

Word count

1,205

Sentence count

102


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A proposed referendum question on whether Alberta should leave Canada is now before the Supreme Court of Canada, and a judge is tasked with determining whether the question violates the Constitution. The Alberta Prosperity Project wants to ask whether they want to become a sovereign nation, and Alberta's Chief Electoral Officer says no.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 And from our perspective, you know, this was an unnecessary delay in allowing to Albertans to have a discussion about this very important issue.
00:00:08.640 That delay is in the form of a hearing underway in the court of King's Bench this week to determine if his client's proposed referendum question violates the Constitution.
00:00:17.520 The Alberta independence movement just hit a major court problem.
00:00:21.900 But here's the plot twist that nobody saw coming.
00:00:24.800 This problem is actually waking people up.
00:00:28.780 For the first time in years, Albertans are seeing exactly how far the establishment will go to keep them from having a simple vote.
00:00:38.340 And instead of scaring people off, it's actually firing them up.
00:00:43.320 When the Alberta Prosperity Project walked into that courtroom yesterday, they didn't just show up.
00:00:50.200 They planted a flag.
00:00:51.840 They made it nearly impossible at this point for anyone to ignore the fact that hundreds of thousands of Albertans want a real say in their future.
00:01:03.060 And the moment the left tried to shut that down, it backfired badly.
00:01:07.820 Suddenly, people who've never attended a rally or a town hall, never thought about independence, they're all now paying attention.
00:01:17.200 They're asking questions.
00:01:19.040 They're getting involved.
00:01:20.960 And that's the first win right there.
00:01:24.600 This court thing didn't weaken the movement.
00:01:28.100 It actually expanded it.
00:01:29.840 A proposed referendum question on whether Alberta should leave Canada is now before the court.
00:01:35.340 The judge tasked with determining whether the question violates the Constitution.
00:01:39.400 Amanda Anderson reports.
00:01:40.640 We have a courtroom filled with over 20 lawyers, and everybody is arguing over what the meaning of the word proposal means and what the word contravene means.
00:01:51.700 He represents Mitch Sylvester with the Alberta Prosperity Project, who in July put forward the question,
00:01:57.000 do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?
00:02:01.980 There are several interveners arguing the issue, including Council for Elections Alberta.
00:02:06.080 It was the chief electoral officer who referred the question to the courts.
00:02:10.440 According to Alberta's Citizen Initiative Act, proposed referendum questions must respect sections 1 through 35.1 of the Constitution Act.
00:02:18.580 Rath has yet to argue his client side.
00:02:20.940 Forever Canadian, a group that formed an opposition, says it's collected more than 450,000 signatures on the question of whether Alberta should stay in Canada.
00:02:29.120 That citizen-led petition is in the process of being verified by Elections Alberta.
00:02:33.300 And here's another positive angle in all of this.
00:02:36.080 The left has accidentally admitted through their own actions that Alberta could leave.
00:02:42.780 In fact, think about it.
00:02:44.940 If independence was so impossible, like they always say, why are they fighting so hard to stop a mere vote?
00:02:54.520 Why are lawyers, politicians, activists on the left throwing everything they can and everything they have at blocking a simple referendum?
00:03:03.920 Because deep down they know Alberta has leverage, economic, constitutional, and a lot of popular support for independence at this time.
00:03:14.220 The CBC story that I read the other day even reveals that these questions might all end up in court, which means that they're legitimate questions and what they're trying to do is stall.
00:03:25.480 When a question is legitimate, the vote is inevitable.
00:03:29.880 That's the real fear in Ottawa at this time.
00:03:32.720 And you can feel the panic.
00:03:34.360 The more they try to shut Albertans up, the more they're proving the movement's point.
00:03:40.760 Albertans' future should be decided here in Alberta, not in Ottawa.
00:03:46.360 This court case isn't a setback.
00:03:49.420 It's a confirmation that Alberta's on the right track and the establishment knows it.
00:03:54.800 We just want to get on with gathering signatures and having a referendum on independence.
00:03:58.800 Several lawyers representing different First Nations were also granted last-minute intervener status and will have until the beginning of December to submit their positions.
00:04:07.140 Rath says a decision is expected before Christmas and doesn't expect the late submissions to impact that timeline.
00:04:12.700 It's not legally binding, you know, on the rest of the country.
00:04:16.320 It doesn't automatically affect separation.
00:04:18.360 It leads to the government of Alberta being able to seek those amendments with the rest of the partners in Confederation.
00:04:25.340 But it doesn't immediately cause anything to happen.
00:04:29.760 If the Alberta Prosperity Project's question is approved, the group would have four months to collect 177,000 signatures to get the question to ballot.
00:04:38.160 The hearing continues on Thursday.
00:04:40.140 The Alberta Prosperity Project will have to wait a little longer before it can start gathering signatures from supporters.
00:04:45.860 A judge has ruled a review of the separatist group's potential referendum.
00:04:50.540 Question can go ahead.
00:04:52.160 Hannah Lapine is in this morning.
00:04:53.640 Hannah, what's the latest?
00:04:55.060 Well, Jefferson, King's Bench Justice Colin Feesby ruled a constitutional review will benefit democracy and must happen first.
00:05:02.600 The Alberta Prosperity Project wants to ask Albertans whether they want to leave Canada and become a sovereign nation.
00:05:09.260 Alberta's chief electoral officer thought simply asking that question might violate Canada's constitution,
00:05:14.400 including treaty rights of First Nations.
00:05:17.240 Last month, Gordon McClure referred the question to a judge to make that assessment.
00:05:20.880 This whole hearing process seems to be asking the question, you know, is asking a question to amend the constitution in and of itself unconstitutional,
00:05:31.620 which is, to me, a pretty remarkable position.
00:05:34.000 A judicial review into a proposed Alberta referendum question on separation begins today.
00:05:38.940 A group called the Alberta Prosperity Project wants to ask the question,
00:05:43.060 do you agree the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?
00:05:49.160 In the summer, Alberta's chief electoral officer referred the question to the court to determine if it violates the constitution,
00:05:55.160 including treaty rights.
00:05:56.720 The premier and justice minister both criticizing that decision to refer the question to court.
00:06:00.700 If the proposed question is approved, the group will need to collect 177,000 signatures in four months to get it on a ballot.
00:06:09.180 And here's the most promising part of it all.
00:06:12.360 The court battle is creating the exact condition every independence movement dreams of.
00:06:17.920 Unity, passion and momentum, all at the exact same time.
00:06:22.860 People who used to disagree are now standing shoulder to shoulder saying, why are we not allowed to vote?
00:06:30.560 If the system is trying so hard to keep us from voting, there must be something worth voting for.
00:06:39.460 And that's the promising future right there.
00:06:42.720 This court thing isn't just about clarifying the rules.
00:06:46.960 It's about exposing who really supports democracy and who only supports it when it benefits them.
00:06:55.220 So even if the left thought that they were stalling the movement, what they've actually done is give it more fuel than ever.
00:07:04.980 And now the question isn't, will Albertans ever get a vote?
00:07:08.900 The question is, who's going to stop them?
00:07:11.400 Because as I've said before on this channel, independence begins when Albertans decide.
00:07:18.100 Thank you for watching.
00:07:19.960 If you support these videos, subscribe and click the bell icon so you never miss an update from PJ.
00:07:25.640 Special thanks to each and every channel member for your support and for making these reports possible.
00:07:30.700 I'll see you in the next episode.
00:07:32.460 Cheers.
00:07:41.400 Cheers.
00:07:58.740 Cheers.
00:08:01.700 Cheers.
00:08:02.160 Cheers.
00:08:04.440 Cheers.
00:08:04.740 Cheers.
00:08:05.020 Cheers.
00:08:05.660 Cheers.
00:08:05.940 Cheers.
00:08:06.360 Cheers.
00:08:06.920 Cheers.
00:08:07.280 Cheers.
00:08:07.380 Cheers.
00:08:07.660 Cheers.
00:08:07.900 Cheers.
00:08:08.260 Cheers.
00:08:08.420 Cheers.
00:08:09.400 Cheers.
00:08:10.220 Cheers.