Western Standard - March 16, 2026


CORY MORGAN： Fight the idea, not the vote

Mentioned
Nahid Nenshi
HANNAFORD： Beyond the bombs... why airstrikes may not topple Iranian junta Western Standard News Update ｜ Poll shows Canadians opposing involvement on Iran war ｜ 17 Mar 2026

Episode Stats


Length

4 minutes

Words per minute

205.19

Word count

859

Sentence count

29


Summary

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

The Clarity Act is being challenged in court by Indigenous leaders in Alberta, who want to block the process of holding a referendum on Alberta's independence from the Federation of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a province has the right to hold its own referendum on the question of whether or not to secede from the federation.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 let's talk about independence movements getting rolling and some of the hazards going on so this
00:00:13.440 is an independence movement continues to grow and organize across western canada the most
00:00:17.580 irresponsible and unprincipled thing opponents to the movement could possibly do is block the
00:00:22.460 legal mechanism of separation provided by the clarity act yeah that's exactly what they're
00:00:26.440 trying to do. Never while Quebec prepared to hold independence referenda were Quebecers told they
00:00:31.940 weren't allowed to have the vote. There are many opponents to Quebec's independence movement of
00:00:35.340 course but none of any prominence dared to tell them they didn't even have the right to hold a
00:00:39.380 referendum. In the case of Alberta though opponents to independence are telling Albertans you aren't
00:00:43.620 allowed to leave. In fact you aren't even allowed to hold the question. Is it any wonder the analogy
00:00:48.740 of an abused spouse is often used when describing Alberta's relationship with the federation? You're
00:00:53.900 not allowed to leave. Let's get right to the point. The secession of a province from the Federation
00:00:58.920 in Canada is perfectly legal. The Clarity Act lays out the pathway to get there. People can
00:01:04.280 certainly question whether or not Alberta be able to pass all the hurdles provided within the Act,
00:01:08.360 and it's going to be a tough job to make it through all those hoops and requirements.
00:01:11.780 To say a province hasn't the right to pursue the steps laid out in the Act, though, is an outright
00:01:15.580 lie, and it only heightens division and anger. Alberta NDP leader Nahed Nenshi has partnered
00:01:21.220 with Indigenous chiefs in Alberta to oppose the process of independence. His party has been
00:01:25.120 slipping in the polls and he needs to latch on to something to try and gain relevance.
00:01:29.140 And those chiefs are seeking a court injunction to block the democratic exercise
00:01:33.040 of gathering signatures to hold a democratic referendum on independence.
00:01:37.380 To block that provincial right would be a clear violation of the Clarity Act.
00:01:41.020 We should be confident that a judge will realize that and toss out the application from the chiefs,
00:01:45.320 but we've seen enough terrible rulings from judges already to know we can't rely on common sense
00:01:49.140 from the bench. It's interesting how opponents to independence decry the movement being as one
00:01:53.140 supported by a tiny minority, yet they're terrified at the prospect of putting it to a
00:01:57.180 general vote. I mean, wouldn't they want to put this to bed in a referendum so we can stop talking
00:02:00.860 about it? Look, polling is all over, but it indicates we're looking at around 30% of the
00:02:04.900 province is dedicated to pursuing Alberta's independence. That's a long way from a referendum
00:02:08.420 win, but momentum is on the side of the independence movement, and a lot can change over eight months.
00:02:13.640 When one in three Albertans have given up in the Federation, Federalists would be better served to
00:02:17.800 listen to their grievances rather than try to steal the democratic means of expression from
00:02:21.180 them. To cork the bottle and ban independence referendums would be corking the bottle not
00:02:25.120 just in Alberta but in Quebec. And while the vast majority of independent supporters would
00:02:29.180 never participate in or condone extreme acts, when we're looking at millions of people supporting
00:02:33.520 this, it's not inconceivable that an unhinged soul or two might be inspired to do something
00:02:37.900 dangerous. Those who might not remember, between 1963 and 1970, the FLQ conducted nearly 200
00:02:43.960 bombings and multiple kidnappings responsible the deaths of six to nine people during those years
00:02:49.600 there was no framework or mechanism for quebec to become independent and it created dangerous
00:02:53.340 extremists much of what ended the terrorism being committed in quebec was the presentation of a
00:02:58.560 democratic outlet for their independence movement in 1968 the party quebecois was formed rene
00:03:03.940 leveque was leading and started the process of turning the independence movement there
00:03:06.720 into a political one rather than a revolutionary violent one quebecers aren't violent by nature
00:03:11.620 and they embraced being able to form independence parties
00:03:14.000 and hold referendum on the issue.
00:03:15.680 Even when losing the referendum, the FLQ didn't reappear
00:03:18.700 because people knew there was still a path to independence
00:03:21.060 and they accepted that the province wasn't ready for it.
00:03:25.000 With one in three people in Alberta currently supporting
00:03:27.100 Alberta independence, one in Fort Quebec,
00:03:28.920 it's no insignificant number of people who are so dejected
00:03:31.600 with the federation they want to leave it.
00:03:33.500 Banning the possibility of holding a referendum
00:03:35.300 won't reduce independence support,
00:03:37.380 even if it makes Federalists feel a little better about themselves.
00:03:39.740 so right from the clarity act itself whereas the government of any province of canada is entitled
00:03:44.280 to consult its population by referendum on any issue and is entitled to formulate the wording
00:03:50.020 of its referendum question that's right out of the clarity act guys are opponents of independence
00:03:54.460 prepared to repeal that act there's only going to be one way to resolve the budding independent
00:03:58.320 movements in multiple provinces across the country now hold referendums get the question settled
00:04:03.560 peacefully and democratically fight against the concept guys not the means or things could
00:04:09.260 go badly for everybody.