Western Standard - Impossible indigenous consultation requirements will tear Canada to shreds

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.560 welcome to the cory morgan show we got yet another packed one boy stuff is just going on these days

00:00:36.360 uh plenty to choose from on news items to cover and things to ramble about a little while as well

00:00:42.120 i'm going to have dennis kalma on the show as a guest he's one of the principals of a new group

00:00:48.920 with called alberta transition council it's it's with keith wilson and it's another organization

00:00:56.200 moving promoting and and uh getting the uh independence message forward and out there

00:01:01.560 which is good because it's uh the alberta prosperity projects vanished i don't know

00:01:05.480 what happened to them they haven't updated their site in four months there's a campaign going and

00:01:09.880 there's a referendum on the way and they've gone to ground maybe uh mr camel will be able to tell

00:01:14.760 us a little about that as well so first though let's get on with some of what's happening out

00:01:21.720 here and what's got me going we've got also yes it's the fifth anniversary of the claim that 215

00:01:28.560 children were buried at the Kamloops residential school site and in five whole years nobody's

00:01:33.920 managed to get a shovel out and confirm or deny whether anything's underground but let's all

00:01:38.160 observe the the biggest hoax in Canadian history and I'll keep calling it that until somebody gets

00:01:42.800 a shovel up and actually says what's going on there but uh going further with that it turns

00:01:50.800 out my teleprompter has got last week's monologue in it. So I'm going to read this from my laptop

00:01:55.620 and pardon my looking down as I go. Everything else is off the cuff except for these monologues

00:02:03.220 and I do want to go into that. Good to see you there, Valerie. So yes, the ever-shifting

00:02:07.380 goalposts are what constitutes adequate consultation with Indigenous bands on pretty

00:02:12.980 much any action of the government these days are crippling the nation economically and socially

00:02:17.460 until the actual obligations of the country to Indigenous people are definitively defined.

00:02:23.380 No substantive policy initiatives or infrastructure projects are ever going to come into being in this country.

00:02:29.920 The duty to consult, we hear so much about it, the duty to consult Indigenous people isn't within the Constitution, actually.

00:02:35.860 If you look at it, Section 35, it's a short and straightforward segment of the document.

00:02:41.060 I'm going to read it verbatim. It states,

00:02:42.940 the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of canada are hereby

00:02:47.800 recognized and affirmed okay in this act aboriginal peoples of canada include indian inuit metis

00:02:53.520 peoples of canada good for greater certainty in subsection one treaty rights includes the rights

00:03:00.060 they now that now exist by way of land claims agreements or maybe so acquired yes read the

00:03:05.860 treaties they're pretty straightforward too number four notwithstanding any other provision of this

00:03:10.300 Act, the Aboriginal and treaty rights referred to in subsection 1 are guaranteed equally to male

00:03:14.540 and female persons. That's it. Nowhere does it say consult within that text. It certainly doesn't

00:03:21.200 say consent. The duty to consult we keep hearing about is a judge-made constitutional obligation

00:03:27.800 developed by the Supreme Court of Canada. This is in a ruling regarding the Haida ban in 2004.

00:03:33.940 The Supreme Court said when the Crown, federal or provincial government in other words,

00:03:37.780 contemplates conduct that might adversely affect

00:03:40.840 and established or potential Aboriginal or treaty rights,

00:03:44.080 it has a duty to consult the affected Indigenous groups.

00:03:48.760 That's it. 0.88

00:03:50.140 Still, judicial activists adding to our Constitution.

00:03:54.220 The nature of Canada's system, though, follows the Living Tree Doctrine.

00:03:57.780 It's a principle of constitutional interpretation

00:03:59.720 that views Canada's Constitution as a dynamic, evolving document

00:04:03.360 rather than one frozen in time.

00:04:05.100 It's a nice ideal, but it's empowered activist judges to veritably rewrite the document, not in a good way.

00:04:12.260 The definition of what may or may not impact treaty rights hasn't been clarified,

00:04:16.920 and it dumps the onus of consultation on pretty much everything.

00:04:20.840 Treaties don't confirm any rights outside of reserves, actually, aside from hunting and fishing access.

00:04:25.620 But as usual, the courts have read in all sorts of implicit rights, which have created a quagmire.

00:04:31.380 Even trying to build a new golf course distance from any reserve lands could become a constitutional nightmare.

00:04:36.900 The principle of consultation is simple on its face.

00:04:41.540 Consult means to seek advice, information, or input from somebody before deciding on something.

00:04:47.560 When looking at that definition, it sounds well-meaning and should be easy to achieve.

00:04:53.460 The problem is that the courts continue to shut down projects and claim there hasn't been enough consultation,

00:04:59.120 though they won't say how much is enough.

00:05:00.840 The attempts by Kinder Morgan to get approval for the Trans Mountain expansion are a prime

00:05:05.040 example of this. They held hundreds of public and private meetings. They invited every Indigenous

00:05:09.940 person in Western Canada to add input. They met with every chief they could find, and they hired

00:05:15.000 countless consultants to try and reach out. Despite this, they were constantly told it just wasn't

00:05:19.660 enough. In the end, they said, well, fine, to hell with you, and they pulled out of Canada.

00:05:23.840 Can you blame them? Activists in courts have blurred the line between consultant consent.

00:05:28.800 even if the bar for consultation was finally defined and met by a person company or government

00:05:35.040 trying to go through the process some indigenous person or another is going to refuse to offer

00:05:39.460 their consent on the deal and it'll get scuttled unanimous consent consent is impossible to reach

00:05:45.780 and no authorities have the courage to finally tell indigenous activists we've done our due

00:05:50.140 diligence and we're going to go ahead now whether you like it or not if we ever want to get things

00:05:54.480 done the response to these opponents really has to start getting this blunt when i was in the oil

00:05:58.140 field, the process of consultation was used as a form of extortion by the bands. When I was doing

00:06:03.820 advanced work on seismic projects, we would have to get nearby Indigenous bands to sign off on

00:06:09.640 these consultation process and these forms. Now, while technically we only needed to consult,

00:06:13.420 we couldn't do a thing until we had that signature. Well, in other words, we needed consent. And

00:06:19.200 garnering consent typically meant ensuring the chief was well compensated through hiring his

00:06:24.420 or her preferred contractors and perhaps giving some salaried position to some folks even if they

00:06:29.520 didn't really actually do anything. Sometimes the compensation was a little more direct.

00:06:34.920 You can understand what I'm saying here. In the end though it just led to killing work as the

00:06:38.740 companies gave up and pulled out of the region. Anybody who were in the oil field knows about this.

00:06:43.140 Now a province can't even hold a democratic referendum without the permission of a handful 0.95

00:06:46.540 of chiefs representing a portion of a small ethnic minority within the country. Canada has given

00:06:51.460 race-based de facto veto authority to representatives of some of the most socially

00:06:56.300 dysfunctional communities on the continent. It's a recipe for disaster politically and 0.99

00:07:01.960 economically, and it's going to come to a head if this issue isn't resolved, and it could end

00:07:06.200 terribly if resolution doesn't come soon. The rule we need to find legally is that consultation

00:07:11.320 does not mean consent, and if the majority continues to stymie the democratic rights of

00:07:16.240 majority the frustration might lead to the majority asserting itself in extrajudicial ways

00:07:22.080 and in such a circumstance everybody loses all right well that's my ranting about consultation

00:07:27.440 all that good stuff let's check in and see what else is happening with our newsletter dave nailer

00:07:30.560 hey teleprompter horror i know not a good way to start the show i don't like to let the world know

00:07:36.960 that i opened that monologue reading a teleprompter i do i thought you'd memorized i do write my own

00:07:42.080 stuff i just assume you memorize the whole thing well not quite maybe i gotta start if i'm gonna

00:07:48.160 keep giving uh john the wrong files at the start of the day hey welcome back well thanks you've

00:07:53.760 been uh exploring deepest darkest saskatchewan for a week there's a lot of miles on this last

00:07:58.640 few days yes regina saskatoon and swift current uh see anything exciting uh go out by the hills

00:08:06.000 for example not really no it's a nice drive it's nice out there this time of year i think i saw

00:08:12.000 one of your tweets you were very impressed with the downtown somewhere yeah that was moose jaw

00:08:16.480 i had time before going to swift current i was talking to john about that too he'd gone out

00:08:19.520 there you know they got the tunnels and everything like the bone tunnels yeah i didn't have time to

00:08:22.720 get into the tunnels but the downtown itself is actually for a prairie town you wouldn't know it

00:08:26.560 driving off the highway loads of old brick buildings and restaurants and galleries i

00:08:30.720 just like that look it's a cool downtown so i explored for a bit before my next speaking

00:08:34.720 engagement yeah there you go sell lots of books a fair amount yes i see your number what number

00:08:40.000 one bestseller now number one in a few categories yeah so uh with the updated uh sovereignty's

00:08:45.440 handbook yeah nice knocked the dust off it and brought some things up and added some pages

00:08:50.720 reissued it for folks interested in a guidebook to i am in the presence of greatness without a

00:08:55.120 doubt i like to think that's selling genius anyways happy anniversary which one the fifth

00:09:01.840 anniversary of the graves oh yes yes it's uh certainly one worth uh celebrating interpreting

00:09:06.560 well yeah we're uh our alex zolton bc reporter is actually on the ground in victoria right now

00:09:12.640 there's a big rally led by our francis widdowson uh commemorating the fifth anniversary so if that

00:09:19.680 goes as they always seem to know she's going to end up getting arrested and there's a small mob

00:09:24.800 will uh will assemble so that should be good fun uh alex uh alex is out there and the other good

00:09:31.760 story of the day is Gilbo. Yes. The biggest thorn in Alberta's side for a decade is gone. He's going,

00:09:38.560 he's going, going, gone. Leaving the Liberal caucus and resigning his seat as soon as the

00:09:43.920 summer recess hits, which is just a couple days away. I love it. I looked at Mark Carney's, you

00:09:49.200 know, statement on X and everything in the picture, you know, thank you for your service. We really

00:09:53.360 appreciate your time. It's just the political motions they all go through, but we know this

00:09:58.320 wasn't a happy parting this is gilbo saying i can't stay with you you guys have drifted

00:10:02.800 too far towards uh and in a way you've got to admire him for standing up for his convictions

00:10:07.120 he does do that i mean he's he's not like uh gladu for example who can flip overnight and

00:10:11.840 turn from one of the most conservative members of parliament to a loving liberal uh yeah yeah

00:10:17.520 there's words for people like that yeah um forgot what i was gonna say oh do you where do you think

00:10:23.280 think he's going to go, the UN or China? Oh boy, I don't know. Or as he said, he's true to his

00:10:28.560 principles. He might take up the local chapter for Greenpeace again and start doing protests

00:10:33.160 and stunts again. I mean, that seems to be where he's happiest. Premier Smith better get slopes on

00:10:38.560 her roof and get the guy off. Yeah, I mean, he's got a parliamentary pension now, so I mean, he'll

00:10:42.160 have plenty of time to go around and do whatever he pleases. Yeah, exactly. I want to talk about

00:10:47.020 another good story we have today, courtesy of Franco and the boys at the CTF. They've got

00:10:52.900 Freedom of Information requests back on what carny spends on food on his airplane trips.

00:11:00.440 You know, it's when he flies, it's not like he gets a WestJet cracker or a cookie.

00:11:06.340 And to be honest, they're pretty good.

00:11:08.240 But, you know, for a three hour flight, you need a little bit more.

00:11:11.060 So he spent one hundred and ninety five thousand dollars on food for his flights, which would feed a Canadian family for four for decades.

00:11:19.460 uh some of the stuff that uh he ate was veal escalope i don't even know what that means

00:11:26.260 i don't know veal escalope some sort of calf yeah i don't know what escalope is and if that doesn't

00:11:34.000 uh inspire you there's beef tenderloin in border borderlays sauce and see beef tenderloin these

00:11:41.540 days i've only heard about it i haven't eaten that in years you need to take a mortgage to

00:11:45.660 beef tender i can barely get hamburger no exactly it's it's ridiculous and uh scottish salmon fillet

00:11:52.620 is the domestic salmon just aren't well yeah you don't want to you gotta import it from scotland

00:11:57.020 of course you gotta marinate that in a whiskey or something and uh when you're all uh you know

00:12:02.700 filled with that though you got cream brulee for dessert oh well that's important so yeah compare

00:12:06.940 that to a west jet cookie yeah you'll throw some salted peanuts at you if you're having a good flight

00:12:11.740 yeah so 195 grand on three flights spent 93 grand on one trip to rome and just for comparison

00:12:20.460 when trudeau did a similar trip he only spent 43 grand make sure to look cheap that makes

00:12:26.940 yeah trudeau look like a tightwad carney is out of control well he likes he likes the royal

00:12:32.780 lifestyle yeah he's gonna have it for a while apparently he's still as popular as ever in most

00:12:37.020 to Canada yeah who can explain that I don't know not me not me either all right that's it that's

00:12:43.260 what you got well I know there's plenty more that you'll be back and working on so I'll let you get

00:12:47.100 back to it I appreciate the updates and uh we'll see you on the pipeline you bet good luck with the

00:12:52.060 teleprompter right thanks Dave all right that is our news editor Dave Naylor as you can see he works

00:12:58.060 without a teleprompter and now you see I am I'm honestly ad-libbing I've got some notes here but

00:13:03.180 but you're seeing the pure unfiltered me.

00:13:05.900 So I want to talk about something.

00:13:07.300 I usually talk about subscriptions right now,

00:13:08.940 but I want to talk about something new with the Western Standard.

00:13:10.960 We've opened our online store for all sorts of products, good things,

00:13:17.160 proud Albertan wear and gear, and you can get on there.

00:13:20.440 It helps you support independent media by buying some of that swag,

00:13:23.460 and it's some neat stuff to wear.

00:13:25.640 And one of the things that just came on it just in time,

00:13:28.120 you can get your own Stephen Gilboa t-shirt uh from the Western Standard Store there he is in

00:13:35.240 his orange jumpsuit the image barely you know you can get a coffee mug you can get a hoodie

00:13:39.340 uh barely does him justice when when that picture of him when he was being arrested one of his many

00:13:43.980 times being arrested with those absolute psycho eyes going on on him jumpsuit Gilboa and you can

00:13:50.600 get one for yourself and you can save 10 if you use that code Corey 10 nice easy one to remember

00:13:55.660 Corey 10, you'll save 10% on that or all sorts of other things. As I said, proud Albertan wear,

00:14:01.560 good hats. Also, there's a bunch of stuff with the image of Ralph Klein giving the finger that's

00:14:08.420 available on there. I love that. That's a classic moment of a leader who really, at least, you know,

00:14:12.680 good or bad, certainly didn't hesitate on how to let the world know what he was about. So check it

00:14:17.180 out, guys. Westernstandardstore.news. See what sort of a neat thing, gifts for other people,

00:14:22.460 stuff you can wear proud albertan wear and just you know look at the conversation starter of

00:14:27.420 wearing a nice gilbo jumpsuit t-shirt or having that coffee mug wake you up in the morning and

00:14:32.940 remind you why you're getting up to become politically active because guys like him were

00:14:37.160 actually close to the uh halls of power in canada for a long time all right let's get on to our

00:14:44.380 guest i see him in the lobby there great to have him come in here dennis kalma of the newly formed

00:14:50.780 Alberta Transition Council and well they've been busy so thanks for joining us today Dennis I

00:14:57.620 really appreciate you taking some time to talk to us. Thanks for having me on the show much

00:15:01.080 appreciated. So I mean I guess I'll get right to the point what is the Alberta Transition Council

00:15:06.680 what's the intent? So the intent of the Transition Council is to map out a detailed plan that covers

00:15:13.540 a period of time from when we win the referendum until the country is stood up and operates on

00:15:20.760 its own apart from canada and by putting in processes in place and functions in place to

00:15:27.080 keep paying the bills keep sending out the pension checks and so forth until such time as a future

00:15:33.800 legislature of alberta can essentially replace them with the long-term solutions so it's not

00:15:40.280 an attempt to set long-term policy it's purity to give us a means to operate until the long-term

00:15:46.600 policies can be established and put into place great so i mean it's uh you've got what you're

00:15:52.920 going to be calling a white paper i guess that'll be a document sort of showing a lot of the the

00:15:57.800 details and and requirements and things that we would be working towards in an independent west

00:16:03.480 yeah so we've got about 15 subject areas which we call domains they're things like immigration

00:16:10.040 banking and monetary indigenous affairs and so forth and each one of those areas is being

00:16:18.840 examined by a team of experts between three and six people who are going through and saying okay

00:16:25.400 how do we handle immigration over the transition time and they're going to write essentially a

00:16:30.840 small white paper about 20 odd pages that'll actually cover exactly what do we do and how

00:16:35.960 do we do it some will be complex because there's something to replace pick on military and the

00:16:42.680 defense is one that's got more complexity to it others might be much simpler so then that will

00:16:48.120 be combined into a large document that will be sort of the handbook or guide the white paper

00:16:54.280 that essentially sets out the plan by which we run an independent alberta once we reach independence

00:17:01.480 day what are some of the the resources you're using for a source you know to sort of build this

00:17:07.280 like are using any of the the material that quebec you know did a heck of a lot of this decades ago

00:17:11.580 as they prepared i'm sure there's a lot of parallels i mean there's some differences too

00:17:15.300 but uh you know some of the the concepts and ideas from there have you incorporated some of

00:17:20.060 that into these or are you planning to so so the the folks that we're engaging these are really

00:17:24.700 experts in their field there are people that have been in some cases writing policy in ottawa

00:17:30.180 who have been plugged into the Quebec situation and they're taking that knowledge and expertise

00:17:35.660 and applying it to the Alberta case. So really me personally, I'm counting on those experts to

00:17:42.000 understand what's been done, what resources to examine and then what to write down into their

00:17:47.160 respective white paper. And with yourself, you've done a lot of work already on the value of freedom

00:17:53.460 and other things with the Alberta Prosperity Project prior to this. Is this sort of a similar

00:17:59.220 exercise or this is getting a little more detailed i guess into some of the transitional items that

00:18:04.260 would have to be hit later on well i feel first of all i i'm a geek and a nerd i'm not the type

00:18:10.020 of guy to go around knocking doors and whatever but i can think through problems and write up

00:18:14.820 documents that make sense so um i've been on a transition essentially from the initial value

00:18:20.340 of freedom document which did the fiscal planning which led naturally enough into the constitution

00:18:25.860 development and i was the editor for that yet to be released i might add and then as the

00:18:31.220 questioning went on people said okay great we get the financial picture got it we understand

00:18:36.580 the constitution got it but how do we get there from here and that's where the transition plan

00:18:41.780 came in and when keith asked me to participate and help him i said sure why not yeah absolutely

00:18:48.340 i'm glad you mentioned him so for folks unfamiliar keith wilson is another one of the principles with

00:18:53.140 this organization and group that's getting going now keith's been more visible and outspoken and

00:18:58.740 promoting independence lately he was in the the recent debate and and things like that but that's

00:19:04.100 almost a more campaigning sort of role is this a campaigning type of organization or is it an

00:19:08.740 educational one or is it both how would you kind of define what this is so this is this is actually

00:19:15.380 more like a think tank it's okay it's people assessing the problem and saying how do we solve

00:19:21.300 this and we're not going to be campaigning we're not knocking doors we are going to do at some

00:19:26.580 point is publish the documentation have it reviewed by experts obviously make materials that explain it

00:19:34.020 to the average person who is an interest in some of these details and uh uh you can do that that's

00:19:41.300 that's where etc really will come to a stopping point and we'll consider what to do after that

00:19:47.540 Great. So, I mean, as I've done a lot of, you know, events speaking at and promoting, you know,

00:19:53.220 independence and moving towards hopefully converting people into that concept or idea

00:19:58.660 altogether, a lot of the issues are people just have a heck of a lot of questions. What about

00:20:03.060 this? What about that? How would we do this? How would we do that? The time is running fast now,

00:20:09.140 as we're looking at one question, perhaps hitting Albertans this fall. I imagine you guys are

00:20:13.700 working as fast as you can but you're going to be prioritizing some of these things like what are

00:20:17.460 some of the main areas that you've already sort of worked on and defined and filled in some of

00:20:22.980 those those voids and questions or what are some of the ones that are going to be coming

00:20:26.900 so we we we're working on all of them right now none of them are completed

00:20:30.980 we're seeing some really good progress in the banking and uh and currency uh um

00:20:37.060 domain we're also seeing some really good progress in the air navigation and air traffic control

00:20:42.420 domain and uh one element that i haven't spoken to but is relevant is the process by which we

00:20:49.060 ratify a constitution and i would say the thinking on that's basically completed has to be put to

00:20:55.140 paper yet but that's where we're at the other ones in some cases we're still bringing on a

00:20:59.940 few more people on board the team will be about 50 people by the time we're done so it's not like

00:21:04.820 it's a it's a small endeavor yeah and that that process to ratify a constitution that's a monster

00:21:10.660 And kind of a big one to explain to some people, you know, like, let's say walking down the timeline, let's say Alberta had voted and, you know, overwhelmingly had supported independence.

00:21:21.340 We're moving towards that. There would be a constitutional convention. And what would that involve?

00:21:28.660 Like, you know, because a lot of people never really thought this far along.

00:21:31.740 And, you know, they aren't political geeks like ourselves to kind of have a basis or a concept of that.

00:21:36.940 What are you guys envisioning with laying out what that means?

00:21:40.080 Well, what we do not want is to have a bunch of people in a closed room deciding on behalf of the people of Alberta.

00:21:48.520 So we're anticipating there will be multiple groups and representations ranging from obviously existing government to groups of citizens who have an interest.

00:21:58.580 There will be a process by which we have to get maybe not unanimity, but certainly alignment from each of the relevant groups.

00:22:05.700 and then ultimately it'll have to go to the people for visibility and ultimate ratification so

00:22:11.580 the main thing we want to avoid is this will not be a political party locking themselves in a room

00:22:17.040 and saying okay alberta here's your constitution hope you like it it's going to be a public process

00:22:22.680 it's going to be a transparent process it'll be a democratic process great and as you said you're

00:22:29.100 going to be pulling together people with with experience and and such to contribute this and

00:22:33.320 build those white papers and things like that. So that there's a good blueprint, I guess, going in

00:22:37.580 when it gets to that point of holding a constitutional convention. In the meantime,

00:22:42.680 though, I mean, how do you guys stay visible? Are there going to be events with this group or

00:22:47.980 is there going to be an online presence, discussions, things like that? Like in that

00:22:52.780 sense of, I know you can't have a thousand people contribute to the super, you're going to get a

00:22:57.100 heck of a mess, but you still want to have as much input from others as you can too. Like what's

00:23:02.120 what's the communication strategy so so we'll be doing some communication the main thing to notice

00:23:06.760 is what the timeline is we're not seeing this dragging out for months and months right now our

00:23:10.840 target is roughly the middle of july to have the first solid draft out and that draft of course

00:23:16.680 will go for public uh review and input and feedback um there's a reviewing process prior to

00:23:22.520 that but that's a more limited one with people that are plugged in so that'll go out in the

00:23:27.000 public um it'll be examined at that point and obviously we take feedback all right and as an

00:23:33.400 organization uh you know in that that name of transparency and such uh it's a a non-profit

00:23:39.000 society or what's the structure of what this group is well it is not a third-party uh advertiser it

00:23:45.640 is a volunteer run organization that has got its purpose to pull together that transition plan

00:23:53.240 all of us are volunteers great and in that you know just to make sure things are clarified

00:23:58.360 because i got a feeling there's going to be a lot of confusion and and things like that as we move

00:24:03.880 towards a referendum i'm seeing groups springing up all over the place uh mostly on the federalist

00:24:08.280 side but there i'm certain there's going to be others something changes when you uh become a

00:24:13.800 third-party advertiser right like you guys aren't aspiring to be that but how is it then just to

00:24:18.920 clarify why you were not a third-party advertiser well for one thing we're all volunteer we're

00:24:23.560 literally a bunch of guys working together so uh keith has done the legal work on that and

00:24:28.520 and you know we're not we're not spending money we're not collecting money we're not taking

00:24:32.440 donations we're not advertising for a cause we're just saying here's the technical means by which

00:24:37.720 we undertake this uh transition so there will be other groups standing up but i'm aware of several

00:24:43.800 that are being set up to be third-party advertisers

00:24:46.440 that will go through all those controls

00:24:48.720 and reporting to Elections Alberta and so forth.

00:24:51.280 Those are the guys that will be doing, you know,

00:24:54.300 door knocking and buying advertisements and so on and so forth.

00:24:57.680 But we're just going to be a bunch of nerds basically working away.

00:25:01.420 And I like that.

00:25:02.640 And as you said, it's a think tank role.

00:25:05.200 So just for others who aren't familiar, you know,

00:25:06.780 more like Fraser Institute or some of those others

00:25:10.180 that come up with you know papers and policies and ideas and notions and it's a good geekery

00:25:15.280 but hopefully translate it down to a point where your your lay person can read it and and digest

00:25:20.500 it uh but i mean these things do cost money uh you're saying you're not taking contributions uh

00:25:26.320 i mean i i would imagine you could still handle some input i mean uh you know just to keep things

00:25:31.300 rolling um at this point i would say no i mean that could change i mean maybe when it's all done

00:25:38.240 we have to bind a bunch of books together and send them out to the world i mean but that's in

00:25:43.140 the future right now uh we we met for example uh this week already and had discussions we're all

00:25:49.400 there on our own nickel it's not a problem well that's that's good to know um i guess you know

00:25:55.300 how else would you suggest though that people could uh support aside from money just your

00:25:59.960 endeavor in general you know ways of spreading the word or or offering input to you guys or or

00:26:05.200 you know participating in any ways are there things that the is everybody kind of wants to

00:26:08.920 get a i see a commenter saying you know how do i help with things in general how can people help

00:26:13.700 your group well i i think they can um if there are people that have subject area knowledge

00:26:20.480 like deep knowledge and have you know say hey i think i know how to do a good transition on this

00:26:26.400 certainly they can contact me and uh you know i'm happy to consider them right now we're we're

00:26:32.940 we're looking okay is in terms of people but uh the big ask will be once we publish and then we

00:26:40.140 do want people that we haven't talked to at that point and say okay yeah you missed this and what

00:26:46.540 about that that's really the big point of contribution the other folks the third party

00:26:51.560 advertiser groups being stood up that'll be more of a place for a lot of folks to go as well

00:26:56.480 great and then and uh i guess just for how to folks finding you and maybe that's how people

00:27:01.760 can help as well you know social media like share all of that good stuff you've got a website

00:27:06.880 i imagine there's an x presence maybe on uh facebook as well where can people find uh the

00:27:12.460 group so they can see these items when they start getting published so there's a website coming up

00:27:16.500 it should be released pretty quickly there'll be contact information on that and we're on x and

00:27:22.140 i just for anything i'll send you the the link actually cory i forget at the moment

00:27:26.340 because there's various links and that's a path by which people can get to us as well

00:27:30.440 great and just so you know i yeah it is up there albertatransitional uh albertatransitioncouncil.com

00:27:37.740 and it does have a note in the top right saying information you know letting people know that

00:27:42.380 it's on the go but not uh fully filled out but it's great you know the just as we know for the

00:27:47.620 internet and so on the earlier people are getting on there getting that traffic getting your spots

00:27:50.780 then when the real content starts filling in you guys will be reaching that many more so i appreciate

00:27:55.700 you coming on to share that with us is there more you'd like to add before i let you go

00:27:59.580 Well, I think the main thing that I want to restate is we're not doing anything new to world.

00:28:06.580 Every one of the processes we consider has been done, is being done today by Canada and many other countries.

00:28:14.540 So this is not rocket science.

00:28:16.960 There is no problem we're seeing now that can't be managed in an effective way.

00:28:22.020 Great. I appreciate and like that attitude.

00:28:24.780 And I'm just glad you guys are filling in those voids.

00:28:26.860 I'll have a resource when I'm doing those public speaking events now for more of those spots because

00:28:30.840 people hit me with all those questions and as you said it's not written in stone but there's still

00:28:35.240 going to be a lot of things that I could say well here here's a good document or plan on what you

00:28:39.420 were asking about in particular that maybe shed some light on it make you more confident feeling

00:28:43.300 that we're moving towards something with a plan rather than sort of let's tear it all down and

00:28:46.920 see what we can build afterwards uh out of the blue so uh thank you very much for for the work

00:28:52.340 and uh please keep me updated you know as you guys come up with stuff and I'll certainly happily

00:28:56.080 uh share it when i can thanks so much cory thanks for having us on the show great good to talk to

00:29:01.180 you so guys one more time that is dennis kalma of the alberta transition council so if you look it

00:29:07.220 up you'll find the site you'll find that presence on x and you'll see those updates coming from

00:29:11.580 dennis and all those others working on it and uh it's really important stuff it's not the flashy

00:29:17.500 i guess you know uh campaigning things it's certainly not thomas lukastic blasting around

00:29:22.420 in a dated motor home and doing his weird pillow talk things. This is getting more to the nuts and

00:29:28.380 bolts and important things. I'm one of the ones that goes around speaking at these events. Dennis

00:29:33.720 does as well. A great one down in Queensland. But sometimes I've got to often say to people,

00:29:40.320 I don't know, when they ask a question, what would we do in circumstance A or circumstance B? I got

00:29:45.220 to say, well, I don't know. We're kind of working on it. This is what could happen over here. This

00:29:48.800 is what might not happen over here but having a more structured response in these white papers

00:29:55.700 will be really helpful for those of us making that promotion out there and just for people in general

00:29:59.760 to understand we're not asking everybody to jump into a void we're looking at making a change that

00:30:07.500 will lead to something uh you know and then I'm seeing you know some of the the commenters great

00:30:13.340 to see you guys there uh Valerie saying this is the groundwork that needs to be done and it's true

00:30:18.200 And I appreciate Dennis and the others and Keith stepping up to do it.

00:30:24.020 And where did I see it?

00:30:25.580 You know, Tommy saying, how can I help independence?

00:30:27.520 I mean, there's lots and lots of ways, all the way down from being an individual who's just trying to promote it to sharing.

00:30:35.020 I mean, that's that great structure of social media where you can share these resources, things like that with other people.

00:30:43.200 Wild 1957 Flowers saying, show your best contact would be through the APP.

00:30:48.200 that's Alberta Prosperity Project. It's interesting with APP, and they've done an

00:30:52.160 incredible amount of groundwork and things. But as I was just noting before the show,

00:30:56.360 I'm not sure what's up. I checked out their website. They haven't put an update up in four

00:30:59.780 months. The campaign is sort of going right now. I'd say reach out to them, ask what's up,

00:31:05.720 see what's happening, because they certainly had the organizational structure before. They're the

00:31:09.380 largest independence group in Alberta by far. But as this campaign's unrolling, they've sort of

00:31:14.300 dropped off the map, and I'm not sure what's going on with them. I'd suggest you reach out to them

00:31:19.040 and ask, because I think at this point, people really should be getting organized and together

00:31:24.040 and working on a campaign, and we don't have a structure for it yet. LZGP saying,

00:31:29.880 door-knocking is addictive, lots of fun. I met some wonderful people volunteering in the past.

00:31:34.480 Door-knocking, you know, when it comes to campaigning, is one of those art forms. Some

00:31:39.100 people really love it, and it's great when they do. I have to admit, I always saw it as a necessary

00:31:43.400 evil, but a very important one. I see the benefit of it. And it's one of those things like so many

00:31:47.480 others. Once you start actually doing it and you get over your discomfort or getting outside of

00:31:52.040 your comfort zone and you meet a few people and realize this actually, yeah, this isn't so bad.

00:31:56.260 This is something you can look forward to. Once in a while, you'll get a door where somebody's

00:31:58.640 just going to slam it in your face or chew you out. But you know what? There's one of those

00:32:03.060 things for that typical Canadian politeness. 99% of people, even if they don't agree with you in

00:32:07.460 Canada, will just politely say, I'm not interested and move along. And you can keep moving on and

00:32:11.740 meeting, you know, like-minded people and doing things like that. Tommy Tempershow saying,

00:32:18.080 I'm going to put an Alberta flag on my golf cart and drive around Zilvin Lake. There's one of the

00:32:22.320 things I've talked about with passive campaigning. And I talked about that in Saskatchewan and I want

00:32:26.820 to mention it, that Alberta identity. I had to write some stuff this morning too, because

00:32:30.260 there was a, I do that Alberta fact check exercise with another organization and I put

00:32:35.820 articles out and they'd like denying that Alberta has a culture. They like denying that Alberta has

00:32:41.500 an identity. They say it's just about money. They say it's just about oil, like Blanchett said.

00:32:45.940 And that's just not true at all. Alberta definitely has a distinct culture and identity. It's not as

00:32:50.120 easily spotted and seen as in Quebec, where you have a language to make it right clear off the

00:32:55.560 bat. Saskatchewan has their own distinct identity. I was just driving through there. They're very

00:33:00.000 similar to Alberta, where there were certainly close siblings, but they're a distinct entity

00:33:04.300 of their own. But you got to set it up and promote it. And I worked all over North America when I was

00:33:09.840 in the oil field, you know, anywhere there was oil and gas, I got there up to Inuvik, down to

00:33:14.100 Louisiana, over through the Marcellus play out in West Virginia and upstate New York. I worked in

00:33:20.480 all those places. One commonality that I saw, one thing that was interesting, you see American flags

00:33:25.560 all over the place in the USA. They're very patriotic down there. People put them in front

00:33:28.560 of their houses all the time. You see state flags on government buildings and in front of some

00:33:33.720 businesses things like that around parks but it's only in two places where i see state or

00:33:40.280 provincial flags on private households all the time and that's alberta and texas you can't go

00:33:47.200 anywhere in texas you can't go three blocks without real knowing you're in texas because

00:33:50.800 somebody's house will have that texan flag out front and alberta not as predominant as texas

00:33:56.520 but you do see loads of alberta flags flying in front of houses farms private households and so

00:34:02.760 You see that displayed on their vehicles. You see it displayed on their wear.

00:34:05.960 There's, you know, even Tommy, maybe he'll put it on a golf cart.

00:34:09.680 It's really kind of important and it's indicative. It's something different.

00:34:12.960 It doesn't mean a person necessarily even supports independence, but it shows I identify as an Albertan.

00:34:17.700 I celebrate my identity as an Albertan. I will put that out and display it.

00:34:23.820 And more and more people should.

00:34:26.560 It's not even the same as putting a lawn sign in front of your place saying,

00:34:29.540 vote this way or vote that way, vote this party, vote that party.

00:34:31.920 It's just saying, hey, I'm Albertan and I want to show that off or a front license plate thing or all those different ways you can do it.

00:34:39.260 And I suggested that when I was speaking at those Saskatchewan meetings.

00:34:42.300 They got a nice flag out there, too.

00:34:44.160 You know, they got Rough Riders flags everywhere.

00:34:45.660 Hey, good on you guys.

00:34:46.540 Well, you should have a provincial flag next to that as well.

00:34:49.640 It's a similar showing of pride.

00:34:52.220 But that's another way to campaign, as Tommy is talking about, little ways, little ways to start conversations with your neighbors and things like that.

00:34:59.920 Tommy Tempers is saying,

00:35:00.920 what do you think for the future

00:35:01.720 that Alberta independence should do

00:35:03.860 and office rally structure program in the future?

00:35:07.460 I don't know.

00:35:07.860 There's a lot to unpack and unfold.

00:35:10.140 We've got a lot of frustration,

00:35:12.200 a lot of confusion.

00:35:13.180 The question that it looks like

00:35:15.880 we're going to be facing in October

00:35:17.440 is a terrible one.

00:35:19.020 I've said that in past videos,

00:35:20.000 my own videos.

00:35:20.520 I mean, it's a convoluted word salad

00:35:22.860 that's sort of based on what Lukasik put out

00:35:26.240 and then sort of offering another option

00:35:28.440 to move farther forward in the second half.

00:35:30.820 But it is what we have.

00:35:32.740 And we should push on it as hard as we can.

00:35:35.460 The bottom line is,

00:35:36.300 and Keith Wilson sort of made that clear,

00:35:38.340 is even if it's not ideal,

00:35:40.480 it's an opportunity.

00:35:42.840 And I kind of agree with him too.

00:35:44.900 Something I didn't like saying

00:35:46.100 or having to agree with,

00:35:47.000 but I don't, I mean, most polls,

00:35:49.260 even from the Western Standard Rebel,

00:35:51.160 it's not just legacy media,

00:35:52.620 have found that there's not a majority support

00:35:55.140 for independence yet.

00:35:56.220 There isn't.

00:35:56.720 It doesn't mean it can't change

00:35:57.920 or wouldn't change between now and a question being answered. But with a year of a lot of hard

00:36:02.420 work, a lot of groundwork, a lot of petitioning and everything going on, it seems like it

00:36:05.660 solidified the existing 30 some percent very well. But that mushy middle that everybody wanted to get

00:36:12.600 to hasn't budged an inch. It's actually about the same now as it was a year ago. And a recent poll

00:36:18.520 from Angus Reid, the first one done since the new question was out, showed a jump of about five or

00:36:24.840 seven percent support towards the independent side that's the first jump in that kind of support

00:36:29.900 we've seen and I think it reflects a bit of what Keith was talking about saying you know what

00:36:34.080 this gives an opportunity to campaign on a softer question yeah it's non-binding and that's

00:36:39.680 frustrating but it makes it a lot more winnable it makes it where you can reach out to people say

00:36:44.040 this is where you can express yourself put Ottawa on notice give them the middle finger and say

00:36:50.560 we've had it. We're standing up. This question allows you to do that. The other option is to

00:36:56.120 sit on our heels and let the other side take it. And when are we going to get another chance in

00:37:01.600 that case? We should be pushing on this and winning it definitively. Get that next move. I

00:37:07.560 know the road to independence isn't a straight line. It's a bunch of curves. It's a bunch of

00:37:11.260 hurdles. It's a bunch of roadblocks. If anybody ever told you it was going to be easy, they were

00:37:15.400 lying to you. If you thought it was easy, well, you're probably lying to yourself, but that's

00:37:19.960 okay. We can get beyond that. But we should be hitting this referendum with all guns, doing

00:37:28.040 everything we can to get as strong a positive vote as we can, even if it's not the ideal

00:37:32.580 circumstance that we wanted to have. And some people are concerning themselves more

00:37:40.500 with going after the provincial government, trying to tear Daniel Smith out of power,

00:37:45.600 things like that. Dedicating energy resources. I understand why people are frustrated with her.

00:37:50.460 I would have rather seen better balanced budgets. I'm wondering where the heck our provincial police

00:37:54.540 force went. You know, I mean, we've got some sheriffs expanding. That's good. But what about

00:37:59.260 the pension plan? Where the heck is that thing? Come on, we've talked about that for years. We

00:38:02.620 can do this. And of course, her very much federalist almost campaign lately. But she still

00:38:11.860 has offered a lot more mechanisms for being able to get this to the question to Albertans than

00:38:16.240 we've ever seen out of any premier in the past. Perfect. Not even close. But are we helping the

00:38:22.240 cause of independence by dedicating four months to trying to rip her out of power as some people 0.99

00:38:27.120 want to? I don't think so. I think that's, if you've got a problem with it, fair enough, lots

00:38:31.980 of people do. Save it until October 20th. I mean, you can still speak up and do things, but

00:38:36.760 absolutely and be critical but you've only got so much energy uh you know lzgp saying exactly

00:38:43.320 focus energy elsewhere is my thought like you only have so much you only have so much time

00:38:47.420 you only have so many resources and it takes time and resources people compared it to when

00:38:52.260 jason kenny was brought down years ago fair but remember what happened then hundreds of meetings

00:38:58.760 had to be held to organize that push actually to get it done i don't know how many hundreds of

00:39:03.360 thousands of dollars were spent, whether directly or indirectly, but to build that momentum and

00:39:08.280 campaign and then hold that meeting. And all of the emotional energy, the intellectual energy,

00:39:13.760 all of those things, volunteers, people working, all to bring down Jason Kenney.

00:39:18.340 If you had to replicate that and do it again by this August, all of that is being directed

00:39:24.140 towards there. And all of that is being directed away from a campaign to get a positive vote

00:39:28.640 on October 19th, which means you're definitely not going to get. Meanwhile, Lukasik is staying

00:39:34.860 focused on having people vote for his question. Stephen Carter has got his little group. He's

00:39:40.380 fired out there now. Another one with Matt Solberg is out there now. These groups are

00:39:44.860 sprouting up like daisies. They're hitting the ground running. They're putting campaign signs

00:39:48.560 out. They're making their case. And we're having an internal discussion on whether or not we should

00:39:53.320 rip the premier out of power. Guess who's going to win on October 19th if this trend continues?

00:39:59.440 So let's focus, guys. Focus. Get on this. Set aside the personal grudges and gripes

00:40:05.160 and see how we can get things done. Lori Dodd saying, I think that instead of focusing on

00:40:10.900 Smith, focus on making the independence movement more time to expose the useless MOU. Absolutely.

00:40:15.740 That's another frustrating thing. It does feel like our premier is just letting herself be

00:40:19.280 strung along on an MOU for a pipeline we know is never going to happen. But guess what? Every time

00:40:24.960 she goes out and fails on one of these, we actually get more independent supporters.

00:40:29.260 People are realizing, wow, it really demonstrates the futility of trying to play within the

00:40:34.220 structure and framework that we were given. So let her carry on doing those things. What's the

00:40:40.000 worst that could happen? She actually gets a pipeline in. Okay, I'm fine with that. Guess what? 1.00

00:40:43.800 We'll get the pipeline in and I'm still supporting independence. But for now, we've got a question

00:40:49.760 ahead of us, a weird one, but it is one where we can express and move things closer towards

00:40:54.360 independence if we can get a good positive vote. It's turned into a de facto vote on independence

00:41:00.340 anyway. The federalists are already framing it as an independence referendum. The media is framing

00:41:06.360 it as an independence referendum. So people are looking at it. The citizens in general are looking

00:41:12.900 at it as such and if it comes in with 20 support this movement's dead for a while guys we've got

00:41:20.800 to get a strong and i think we can win this especially as keith had pointed out it's a much

00:41:26.360 easier case to make to people right now when we're still admittedly early in the phases of this whole

00:41:31.320 process this unprecedented process when we can say to people you can safely put your vote in now

00:41:37.900 on this and uh make your expression and then we make the campaign for the big question the real

00:41:45.780 question the binding question the constitutional question uh blaine uh sitter saying uh carney got

00:41:53.260 his carbon tax pipeline will get discussed later yeah maybe i don't know you know he got his carbon

00:41:57.340 tax though uh what else you know uh another one's shame on smith is right yeah well yeah these

00:42:05.860 negotiations, maybe not be good. But you know, again, you got multiple opportunities. There's

00:42:09.760 an annual general meeting not long after the referendum is going to be held. That's a good

00:42:15.240 time to express yourself to the party. And there'll be an election within a year after that.

00:42:22.900 But right now just isn't the time. But this is interesting stuff. You know, this was something

00:42:27.360 that came up and Sheila was talking about that gun read on her show today. I know that. And there

00:42:31.720 was another thing I was looking at, but there was a hot mic moment. I don't know if people saw it,

00:42:34.680 But Prime Minister Carney was caught saying when he walked away from a conference with Gregor Robertson, he said, what are you doing? This is stupid. You've got an offer. Take it. What he was talking about more than likely by looking at that was he was talking about Daniel Smith, though he won't admit it. He was saying, oh, I just said that to Gregor. Well, it made no sense in that context. No, he was he was talking about because his conference on housing got turned into a question about the independence issue. That's what I mean. 1.00

00:42:59.980 this question is going to referendum and it's making national news already. So let's ride it

00:43:04.340 instead of distracting ourselves from it. But he felt Smith should have just thrown her hands up 0.68

00:43:10.440 and taken the off ramp and said no. Instead, she scheduled a modified question. The true federalists

00:43:15.960 don't want this to go to the question at all. They're scared of it. We can do this. And others

00:43:21.180 are coming up. Parti Québécois leader, you know, Plumendon, he was defending the Alberta

00:43:27.160 independence referendum you see it's being framed as that already anyways and criticized carney's

00:43:31.640 comments the whole country is watching this and uh you know here's an interesting one with a

00:43:39.780 different group uh keith wilson was speaking uh fergus hodgson was holding that there's a video

00:43:44.700 up that's really good of that with eva chipiak and uh one of the statements he says albert

00:43:49.860 independence we can't rely solely on grassroots enthusiasm and volunteer activism uh if it's

00:43:54.260 going to succeed. But he laid out what we have to do and what has to get done and how to move

00:44:01.040 forward. He's shown some leadership. He's really emerged. He's been planning. He stood up for the

00:44:05.560 debate with Kenny. Eventually, we'll see what happens with that debate. I like that Kenny

00:44:10.300 sat out to do it, even though I'm sure he's just going to give more platitudes and fear-mongering

00:44:15.400 and everything when that video gets released, whatever he said at that debate. But it does

00:44:19.640 actually add credibility to the movement it shows they're taking it seriously it shows they do

00:44:25.140 realize that this needs to be campaigned about even from their side that means there's potential

00:44:30.320 on our side but we've got to stand up and take it we take hold of it make it work campaign this

00:44:38.580 won't do it on its own mark carney got up and said 50 plus one wouldn't be good enough for a win in

00:44:46.880 a referendum. Again, see, we are leading the conversation in this whole country. We are.

00:44:50.780 Alberta is. And because of this referendum. And then a couple of weeks ago, one of his members

00:44:56.240 of parliament said repeatedly to a bloc member that 50% one, 50% plus one is the bar. So his

00:45:03.820 own government doesn't know what they're doing, if they're coming or going. They don't know how

00:45:06.400 to respond to this. But as I said, the question's coming. It's turned into a discussion and a

00:45:14.720 question on independence embrace it quit fighting it make lemonade from the lemons all the platitudes

00:45:20.060 and good stuff guys because we have a real opportunity here and we can make some change

00:45:24.460 all right thank you very much one more time check out the western standard store guys lots of cool

00:45:28.620 stuff on there it helps support us and you can wear some cool swag and uh you know send pictures

00:45:33.480 of me and in that western standard stuff we'll pop it up on a show showing me uh modeling what

00:45:38.020 we've got on there and uh we'll share that keep spreading that word so thank you very much for

00:45:42.460 tuning in today, guys. Tune into the pipeline tonight. We'll have a panel discussing a lot

00:45:47.160 more of these issues going on. And subscribe to all those Western Standard channels. We've got

00:45:50.880 stuff breaking coming out all the time. So thank you for tuning in. We will see you all again next

00:45:55.580 week at this time.

00:46:12.460 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - May 27, 2026

Impossible indigenous consultation requirements will tear Canada to shreds

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