Alberta separatists have no authority to unilaterally reopen or disregard treaty relationships that predate the province itself, writes Eric Strikwerda. Photo courtesy Alberta Prosperity Project/X.

A small but loud group calling itself “Stay Free Alberta” has lately been campaigning to give Albertans the right to vote on a referendum on whether the province should separate from the rest of Canada. Their petition to get that issue on a ballot during this autumn’s provincial election has, they say, garnered the required number of petition signatures to comply with provincial referenda regulations, although questions remain as to the legitimacy of the petition and its signatures.

Recent polling, however, suggests that a consistently high majority of Alberta respondents rejects separation on its face. And dealing the separatists a potentially fatal blow last week was Alberta Court of King’s Bench Justice Shaina Leonard’s ruling quashing Elections Alberta’s earlier approval of putting the petition before the voting public in October.

Disappointed separatists, as well as some United Conservative Party MLAs, have tried to spin Leonard’s ruling as abrogating the rights of the people to make their voices heard. “We think that today’s decision by the court will deny opportunity to well over 300,000 Albertans to have their petition verified by Elections Alberta,” the premier argued last Wednesday. “We think,” she continued, “that this decision is incorrect in law and anti-democratic.”

Others, like Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan, suggested the judge’s ruling was profoundly unfair. “All those good people put in so much work and time,” he noted on Friday, “and then basically, the rug was pulled out from under........

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