The Critical Compass Podcast - June 06, 2026


Will Independence Negotiations Take 10 Years? | Keith Wilson


Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

164.07266

Word count

1,135

Sentence count

25


Summary

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

In this episode, we discuss the Alberta government's attempt to take over the affairs of the federal government, and the challenges they are facing in order to do so. We also discuss the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the Clarity Act, and why Alberta should not be required to submit the question in advance to Ottawa for approval.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 what's interesting about this situation is a lot of cases I have and litigation
00:00:07.200 files and when you're trying to develop a complex a settlement to a very complex
00:00:11.460 problem there's so many things that are not known you don't know you're trying
00:00:15.960 to build things into a settlement agreement how to figure out how the
00:00:18.120 parties to work together and resume their business relation whatever whereas
00:00:22.020 in this instance there's only a few things the federal government does that
00:00:24.900 we need to take over we need to run a passport office right we need to put
00:00:29.820 some kind of military in place um we need to develop monetary policy uh we need to ratify
00:00:36.980 the various aviation accords everything that we need to do to take over from the federal government
00:00:42.760 is being done today and is knowable you guys all know where you go to the passport office you need
00:00:48.780 to get a rush passport so all of the variables and then the other things the things we need to
00:00:54.400 pay them for the five national parks the four military bases we can you know the when the
00:01:00.800 negotiations begin or prior to that a term sheet can be prepared that says to ottawa here's our
00:01:06.520 alberta's proposed terms here's what we'll pay you for the national parks here's what we'll pay
00:01:11.040 you for the army bases we're not antique collectors so take your equipment out first please um and
00:01:16.820 and here's how much you owe us for the pensions uh and and a term sheet can be prepared um
00:01:24.200 I know this sounds ambitious, but either we're going to have good faith negotiations or we're not.
00:01:29.440 And that's the requirement, is that they enter into good faith negotiations.
00:01:33.480 To answer Dr. Cooper's question, the Supreme Court of Canada decision on Quebec succession was 1998.
00:01:43.460 The Clarity Act was in the year 2000.
00:01:46.280 The federal government did not like a lot of things the court said, so they put additional restrictions in through statute.
00:01:54.200 So, for example, the federal government or the Supreme Court of Canada did not say, did not say that for a question to be valid, it has to be approved by the House of Commons.
00:02:03.540 They said nothing about that at all.
00:02:05.400 They just said it has to be a clear question.
00:02:08.260 And so as soon as the Clarity Act was brought in, just so you know the legal hierarchy, if there's a conflict between the Supreme Court of Canada decision and the Clarity Act, the Supreme Court of Canada decision trumps.
00:02:17.820 when the charity act was introduced in 2000 the quebec legislature passed a resolution i think it's
00:02:23.460 bill 99 said you can't do this we're not listening to you we're following the supreme court of canada
00:02:30.860 decision quebecers will decide our future you won't what you're saying is not legal and in fact
00:02:37.520 i just saw a clip where um someone either some quebec politician stood up today and restated that
00:02:45.680 That's where that last week, you would have saw the clip about the 51%. So that's where all that
00:02:50.300 comes from. So the Clarity Act is a legal construct by the federal government that in many respects is
00:02:56.460 unconstitutional because it's inconsistent with the Supreme Court of Canada decision,
00:03:00.180 and it's attempt by Ottawa to get greater control. So it's my view that the Alberta government is
00:03:07.940 not required to submit the question in advance to Ottawa for approval. If they did and Ottawa
00:03:14.440 said no, to me that would be bad faith negotiating by the federal government. They're under positive
00:03:19.700 legal duty to engage in good faith negotiations. So it seems to me that a proper step that is that
00:03:25.420 Alberta at the appropriate time after the clear question, clear vote, should present the term
00:03:30.660 sheet, tell Ottawa, come here, meet with us in two weeks or three weeks. Let's negotiate this out.
00:03:38.840 Of course, Ottawa won't come and they'll bring legal challenges and they'll do all kinds of
00:03:42.980 other things give them a reasonable amount of time again make the offer and then at some point
00:03:47.740 you give them a deadline and you say if you don't approve you know either accept our proposed terms
00:03:53.560 or counter offer us and let's reach an agreement failure of which failure of which in 30 days
00:04:00.180 we the government of Alberta the people of Alberta will be exercising our right of self-determination
00:04:06.040 and announcing a unilateral declaration of independence and then we'll be looking for
00:04:10.580 international recognition. When the Supreme Court of Canada made its decision, they did not
00:04:15.300 anticipate a Donald Trump. They did not anticipate that the Canadian government would decide to align
00:04:21.860 itself with China and the Communist Party of China. They did not anticipate, I think, the
00:04:27.580 geopolitical dynamics that we have today. We know that Prime Minister Carney in September of 2025
00:04:34.600 took the bizarre step. I mean, I couldn't even breathe for like two minutes. My mouth was just
00:04:40.240 wide open was when he refreshed the international doctrine of unilateral recognition by another
00:04:46.520 nation state when he recognized the state of Palestine they don't even have to define border
00:04:50.900 so he's really cleared the way for the Trump administration at the right time to recognize
00:04:55.880 my understanding is there's at least 20 countries that are prepared to recognize Alberta as a nation
00:05:03.800 state to recognize the right of self-determination of a free people to freeing itself from colonial
00:05:10.840 oppression which is essentially what we have in ottawa in my view and what's so remarkable about
00:05:16.520 our facts you know it's not like we we um our economy's tied to four different countries and
00:05:24.120 it's 25 25 90 of our trade goes to the united states and it's just not any country they're
00:05:32.040 not just struggling along it's the largest economy in the world like did we get a lottery ticket or
00:05:39.680 what so they're going to recognize us the most important thing you know if we had trade disrupted
00:05:47.500 to the united states scenario a and trade disrupted with ottawa which one's going to hurt us more
00:05:52.920 so like you know and premier kenny was like what was he trying to say today uh that was the first
00:05:59.800 time i heard that one because they own tmx they'll turn off the pipe and i'm like well we'll beat you
00:06:05.140 to it there won't be oil and gas going into it and um and that's why i brought up what law he did
00:06:11.900 whatever so um this is on its face complex but i really think at the end of the day it need not be
00:06:18.520 we've got the cards we've got the third largest reserve of oil we've got the relationship with
00:06:23.780 the largest economy in the world
00:06:25.080 Thank you.