Alberta Government Engaging in Obstructionism Against Independence Vote？ w⧸ Jeff Rath
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling on a citizen-led petition to have a constitutional question placed on a referendum ballot in Alberta, and the government's attempt to block it. We also hear from Ava Chipiak and Ava's husband, former Supreme Court Justice David Chipiak, who argue that the question should be allowed on the ballot.
Transcript
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Gordon McClure, the Chief Electoral Officer of Alberta, referred Mitch Sylvester's question
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specifically, do you agree that Alberta should become a sovereign country and cease to be a
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province of Canada, to the court to determine whether that question is unconstitutional
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and whether it offends various provisions of the Charter and Section 35.1 of the Constitution
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Act, right? It's a pretty silly application. You know, we're talking about getting signatures on
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a petition. How does that threaten anybody's rights? How does that offend the treaty right?
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You know, getting signatures on a petition, because that's all we're talking about doing,
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right? So the whole application is silly, but, you know, obviously they're trying to delay.
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They put forward to the courts, oh my goodness, you know, well, the electoral officer takes no
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position with regard to this application because he's objective and unbiased. We think there should
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be two amicus curiae appointed. We've selected a lawyer from the Reynolds Murph firm and a university
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professor from the University of Alberta, and we should have a two-week period of advertising
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so that we can have interveners from all over the province join into this dogfight over nothing,
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right? So that's what they're trying to do is they're just basically trying to tie us up in red
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tape and, you know, and prevent us from moving forward. I was actually pleased to see that
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Premier Smith and Mickey Amory came out today and announced that they think that the electoral
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officer should withdraw his question to the court because it's anti-democratic and flies in the face
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of the intention of the legislature to allow Albertans to have a say on issues like this.
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But again, for us, I like that. You know, I mean, I'm a litigator, so it's like, oh, don't throw
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me in that prior patch. Oh, I hate being in a courtroom. You know, like, oh, don't make me
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argue constitutional law. I'm really no good at it after 35 years and winning cases all the way to
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the Supreme Court and back. Don't send me to a courtroom, right? So, you know, so we, you know,
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we find that aspect of it kind of amusing. But, you know, think about how dumb that is, right? Like,
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oh, well, does asking a question or asking your fellow citizens to sign a petition to have a
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question on a referendum ballot offend the constitutionally protected rights of another
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citizen? How the hell could that offend anybody else's constitutionally protected rights? How
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does that offend a treaty right? It sounds like something a leftist would say, like Lukasik.
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Yeah, I mean, it has nothing to do with treaty rights. I mean, we don't even, treaty rights aren't
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even engaged until, you know, we actually get all of the signatures that we need. We have a referendum
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and the majority of citizens vote yes. And the government of Alberta decides to do something
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about it. Because after the equalization referendum, we saw how good the government of Alberta is at
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ignoring the clear wishes of the majority of its citizens in and around, you know, a matter like
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equalization. They've done nothing about it. So, you know, it wouldn't be until the government of
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Alberta decided to start negotiating with Canada over independence. And then in the context of that,
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Alberta decided to ignore Aboriginal people and say, screw you. We don't need to consult with you.
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We don't need to talk to you. We're going to treat you like, you know, we're going to treat you like
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it's 1990 all over again and not talk to you anymore. Just like we did before Jeff Rass started
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beating us up and winning all those cases against us in court. You know, we'll just roll the clock back
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50 years and that's what we're going to do. I mean, at that point, people could say, yeah, that's
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unconstitutional and there should be a remedy. But to tell people that simply, you know, wanting to get
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signatures on a petition to ask a question offends the Constitution. I mean, the very fact that
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they're doing this offends our constitutional rights to freedom of expression, democratic rights,
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freedom of assembly, and so on. So our democratic right to have a citizen-led petition just happens
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to be on a question that may interact with the Constitution once it's fully fleshed out.
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But if you look at the act and if you look at the form, right, that you fill out, is this a
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constitutional question or a non-constitutional question, right? Clearly, this is a constitutional
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question, right? And we're moving forward accordingly. But how can asking a constitutional
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question be unconstitutional? You know, I'm still trying to get my head around it. I mean,
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Ava Chipiak and I have been working on it all afternoon. And we've actually, to be quite honest,
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we've been having a lot of fun with it because we actually think that it's a pretty silly position
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for them to put forward. And I really appreciate, actually, the opportunity that they've now given
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us to be able to talk about this for the next month, you know, as to why it is that we need
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to be independent so that we can have a constitution that will prevent left-wing bureaucrats like
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Gordon McClure, you know, playing these silly games, you know, in a manner that
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completely disrespects the democratic rights of citizens of Alberta.