The Critical Compass Podcast - November 07, 2025


Bruce Pardy： The Alberta Government Has HAMSTRUNG Itself in Independence Negotiations

I Am Alberta ｜ A Cinematic Look at the October 25th Independence Rally Bruce Pardy on the Myth of Eternal Treaties & Why Alberta Independence Needs a Blank Slate

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

143.62

Word count

826

Sentence count

52

People

Also mentioned:
James

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode, we talk about the possibility of an independent Alberta and how that might affect the status of Aboriginal rights in the province. We also talk about why a referendum on independence would be a bad idea, and what it could mean for the future of the country.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 The government of Alberta could hold an independence referendum on its own without
00:00:07.980 any of this Citizen Initiative Act anytime it wanted. So it's great to have this Citizen
00:00:14.700 Initiative Act there, but on the other hand, it's also a distraction. It makes it look as though
00:00:19.640 this is a necessary process to get into a referendum, and that is not so. The government
00:00:25.260 could do this on its own anytime. It just seems to be that it does not want ownership of that
00:00:31.680 process. It wants the citizens to do it so it doesn't have to own it. So if and when the
00:00:37.860 government of Alberta decides to hold an independence referendum, there is a section
00:00:44.060 in the Referendum Act, which is also going to be a barrier. It's not the same one. It doesn't have
00:00:48.540 the same wording, but I'll read that one to you. It's not as broad, but it is also a problem.
00:00:53.360 Section 8.11, subsection 3. Nothing in a referendum held under this Act is to be construed as
00:01:10.140 abrogating or derogating from the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of
00:01:18.220 Canada that are recognized and affirmed that are recognized and affirmed by Section 35 of the
00:01:23.880 Constitution Act 1982. Now, what does that mean? That sounds like it means the government of Alberta
00:01:31.720 holds a referendum on anything, including independence. No result of that referendum
00:01:38.340 can change the status of Aboriginal rights in Alberta. The Alberta government has had the Alberta
00:01:46.780 legislature include that section in the Act. If that section was not in there, then as far as I'm
00:01:55.160 concerned, you know, an independent Alberta could do whatever it wanted. Like in an independent Alberta,
00:02:01.500 I'm hoping that there will be no Crown. No Crown. And therefore, not necessarily any deals that the
00:02:11.440 Crown made. You could start with a blank slate if that's what the country wanted. This proposition that, oh, well,
00:02:19.980 you can be a dependent, but you can't break away from these obligations created by the British Crown.
00:02:26.300 Nonsense. Absolute nonsense.
00:02:29.040 So I've bounced these ideas around with a couple different people. The way that I've heard it described is that
00:02:36.940 if going down this path and you have to address these treaties, either they're going to be upheld
00:02:42.360 by the federal government, they're going to be renegotiated by the Alberta, like by an Alberta
00:02:51.280 government as it becomes, as independence has moved forward. Or if they just wanted to keep doing their
00:02:57.420 thing, they would just put a fence around the reservations and that would be a pseudo state inside of Alberta,
00:03:03.140 which is not ideal, but that seems like how it is if nothing moves forward, if no conversations move
00:03:11.600 forward on the, on the treaty side of things. Well, so the Supreme Court of Canada in this
00:03:17.340 1988 reference case that everybody is referring to and appropriately says that in these negotiations
00:03:25.140 that would follow a successful referendum, the interests of various groups, including Aboriginal
00:03:33.360 groups, should in these negotiations be taken, this is the language that they use, should be taken
00:03:40.800 into account. Now, that's very important language. To be taken into account does not mean
00:03:49.280 that their continuation that their continuation is guaranteed. To be taken into account means you
00:03:54.480 turn your mind to them. You put them on the table and the two parties decide what's going to happen.
00:04:01.120 So they are very much in flux like everything else. Everything else is in flux. The Supreme Court says
00:04:06.760 a successful independent referendum is a repudiation of the existing constitutional order.
00:04:14.860 That's what we're after. We're after a repudiation of the existing constitutional order. Aboriginal rights 1.00
00:04:22.640 are part of the existing constitutional order. And for my money, and I'm not the only one,
00:04:29.260 an independent Alberta should start with a blank slate. And a blank slate means no charter,
00:04:35.580 no Aboriginal rights, no Canadian constitution. You start from afresh and decide how the country's 0.99
00:04:41.820 going to work. And so I do not accept these arguments that, oh, well, you know, we can be
00:04:48.020 independent, but these things must are required to continue. They are not required to continue.
00:04:54.320 That's a choice. I mean, James, when you say that the federal government might uphold the treaties,
00:04:59.840 well, you know, what does that have to do with it? The federal government can uphold them. The federal
00:05:04.200 government, the Canadian government is still subject to those obligations because that situation does not
00:05:11.180 change for them. What's happening in Alberta is a complete change. Alberta is no longer part of
00:05:17.140 confederation. And the Canadian constitution will not apply except for this section of this Alberta
00:05:24.760 statute. The Alberta statute is tying the hands of the Alberta government in negotiating, or will do if
00:05:34.180 we get to that stage, will tie the hands of the Alberta government according to its own laws.
00:05:39.200 I have to emphasize this. This is a self-inflicted restriction.