PJ The Belt - May 14, 2026


Liberal Judge Just BLOCKED Alberta Independence..

Topics
alberta independence referendum blocked alberta independence movement blocked
Mentioned
Trudeau Danielle Smith Dennis Modry Jeff Rath Jeff Rapp Jason Kenney Mark Carney
Canada ERUPTS as ＂New＂ Truck Drivers TAKE OVER Highways Alberta Just OUTPLAYED Carney - Calling Referendum Anyway!

Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

153.46

Word count

1,365

Sentence count

69

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Unelected, Trudeau-appointed judge blocks Alberta from holding a referendum on independence from Canada. Nearly 300,000 people signed a petition in the middle of winter in order to have their voices heard, and now a judge is coming in and saying they don't have a say.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
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 now you have this unelected, Trudeau-appointed judge coming in and saying you don't get to even have a say.
00:00:08.820 And I think after today, this movement is about to get a whole lot bigger.
00:00:15.680 Okay, so there's a lot going on in Alberta today, and it finally happened.
00:00:21.700 I mean, many of you said it, that it probably would happen that way.
00:00:25.400 I was trying to stay optimistic, not because I believe in our government, but because I believe in Albertans and the fight that is inside each and every Albertan's heart and how hard the volunteers behind the Alberta independence movement were working.
00:00:38.460 But it finally did happen. Foreseen by many people, a liberal judge just blocked the Alberta independence vote.
00:00:46.520 And I want you to think about how insane this looks to hundreds of thousands of Albertans right now.
00:00:51.460 They were told, get your signatures, follow the process, play by the rules, use the democratic system.
00:00:59.820 And then the moment they actually did it, the moment nearly 302,000 people put their name down in the middle of Alberta winter with some days having temperatures below minus 30 degrees, very cold, bitterly cold nights.
00:01:16.300 And over 300,000 people signed their name to get an independence referendum to have their voices heard.
00:01:23.960 After that, the entire thing gets shut down by an unelected, unelected judge.
00:01:31.240 That's the story in Alberta today.
00:01:33.660 And whether you support independence or not, whether you're on the side of independence or not, you have to understand why this is about to pour gasoline on this movement.
00:01:44.580 You have to understand that this is not about to quell, pacify, let alone destroy or stop the Alberta independence movement.
00:01:53.900 Quite the opposite.
00:01:55.820 You just reminded many people why we're supposed to have a referendum on independence to begin with.
00:02:02.480 And you also just showed people in the middle who were hesitant, whether they supported Alberta independence or not, whether they wanted to separate from Canada or not, what Canada has become.
00:02:12.800 Because Albertans are looking at this and saying, wait a second. Quebec was allowed, Quebec was allowed to have two referendums. The government didn't block them from having them. They had two referendums.
00:02:26.900 they were allowed to ask the question from their citizens they were allowed to debate it they were
00:02:32.520 allowed to vote on it but when albertans try to even get to the voting stage the court steps in
00:02:38.720 that is the political dynamite here now to be clear the court's official reasoning is that
00:02:44.840 first nations aboriginals natives should have been consulted before the petition process moved
00:02:50.860 forward because separation could apparently impact treaty rights i don't know how that happens but
00:02:57.280 that's their argument but the political reality is what matters now because the average person
00:03:03.540 watching this is not going to see some nuanced legal debate they're going to see a system that
00:03:09.460 always seems to find a way to stop alberta the moment alberta starts gaining momentum that's
00:03:15.880 what people are going to feel and feelings and understanding this reality that's what drives
00:03:21.940 politics because the petition didn't fail due to lack of support it didn't collapse it didn't die
00:03:29.240 out because people weren't interested no people showed up they signed they organized they built
00:03:36.020 real momentum and the second it started looking real boom roadblock and i mean there's been road
00:03:44.060 block after roadblock there's been issues from the very beginning but this one is the most serious
00:03:50.060 one yet but we we all can see the pattern here first they said ah nobody wants it nobody wants
00:03:56.720 a referendum then it was ah it's just a small french minority there's not that many people who
00:04:01.520 are gonna sign the petition they're probably not even going to get the signatures then the
00:04:05.840 signature started pouring in we were seeing hundreds and thousands of people lining up in
00:04:10.960 frigid Alberta temperatures over the winter because, of course, our side had to collect
00:04:16.280 signatures over the wintertime. Alberta winter. I'm going to make emphasis on that part. It's not
00:04:22.800 winter somewhere like winter in Florida, winter in South Carolina. This is winter in Alberta,
00:04:29.620 where minus 30 and minus 40 is a regular occurrence. And we have to collect signatures
00:04:35.440 then. And we have long lines. You can see the videos. You can see the people. You can see the
00:04:40.420 enthusiasm and the excitement about Albertans thinking that they're finally going to have
00:04:45.560 their voices heard. And now you have this unelected, Trudeau-appointed judge coming in
00:04:51.680 and saying you don't get to even have a say. You think that's going to end? You think that's
00:04:57.580 going to put a stop to people's motivation to have their voices heard? You think that's going
00:05:05.240 to stop 7,000 volunteers who collected signatures in the middle of winter, that's only going to
00:05:11.720 galvanize their efforts. They're going to be even more motivated and emboldened to get out there
00:05:17.880 and make that referendum a reality. And that's why this is such a massive moment. Because again,
00:05:23.400 this won't kill the movement. It'll make those in the middle realize why they need to support
00:05:28.520 independence. That's the part people in Ottawa do not understand. Hardcore sovereignties were
00:05:33.480 already committed. The real danger for the establishment is the normal Albertan sitting
00:05:38.720 in the middle. The person who wasn't sure about independence. But they look at this situation and
00:05:44.580 they realize, okay, my voice doesn't matter in this country. That's how the movement is going
00:05:50.500 to grow. Not necessarily through victories only, but also through situations like this one. When
00:05:57.620 And the government shows us true colors by blocking the will of the people.
00:06:02.640 And now the ball is in the Premier's court.
00:06:05.180 How far are you willing to go?
00:06:08.540 Are you willing to say, we want these things or else?
00:06:12.520 At what stage would you, for example, invoke the Clarity Act, as clarified by the Supreme Court?
00:06:20.720 For example, calling a referendum on the Clarity Act question of secession.
00:06:25.620 Do you have an or else in mind?
00:06:28.200 What is it and what would make you use it?
00:06:30.460 And if not, how are you serious?
00:06:33.040 And I'll start off with Danielle Smith on that one.
00:06:37.480 The or else is Dennis Modry and the Alberta Prosperity Project.
00:06:42.820 This is the moment that defines her government.
00:06:45.800 Because over half of UCP members support Alberta independence.
00:06:51.540 And she knows that.
00:06:52.340 She remembers what happened at the UCP AGM at her party's convention last year when Jeffrey Rath stood up and thousands of Albertans were clapping and cheering for an independent Alberta.
00:07:05.600 Hello, my name is Jeffrey Rapp. I'm from Buenos Aires.
00:07:13.320 I thank you. I thank you for everybody in this room.
00:07:18.740 After that so-called MOU was signed yesterday, the ink wasn't dry on the paper,
00:07:24.780 and Mark Carney went out and gleefully announced a 600% increase to the industrial carbon tax in Alberta.
00:07:35.600 my question for the room is how many of all of us favor a free and independent alberta
00:07:46.400 that's the reality of her political base these are the people who put her into power 0.97
00:07:52.240 these are the people who filled the rooms so now she has a choice does she honor the clear desire
00:07:59.120 of a massive chunk of her base or does she distance herself from the movement to appease
00:08:05.040 Ottawa, the courts, and the establishment. Because if she turns her back on this issue completely,
00:08:10.280 I bet this will likely cost her her job. She will probably suffer the same fate of her predecessor, 1.00
00:08:17.380 Jason Kenney, and get booted. But the point that I'm trying to make today is that Albertans are
00:08:22.060 watching a movement with hundreds of thousands of signatures get blocked before the people even
00:08:27.060 get a chance to vote. And whether the court intended it or not, that image is going to stick
00:08:33.280 in people's heads. Because once people start believing the system will never allow them to
00:08:38.500 democratically express their frustration, that doesn't make anger go away. That doesn't make
00:08:44.880 frustrations go away. It only makes them grow. And I think after today, this movement is about
00:08:51.120 to get a whole lot bigger.
00:08:53.120 You'll watch.