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Braid: First Nations fury over separatism sends leaders to Buckingham Palace

Legal, constitutional treaties cover a vast swath of Alberta’s land. First Nations would fight any attempt to strip away those entitlements, their land and their link to the Crown

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Cross the sea to meet King Charles III.

Six Alberta and Saskatchewan chiefs took their fury over Alberta separatism to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

Wearing their powerful headdresses, carrying themselves, as always, with great dignity, Treaty 6 chiefs told the king what’s going on in Alberta.

He listened hard, according to the leaders, and said he’d learn more about Alberta separatism.

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It was diplomatically vague but highly symbolic. By taking the meeting, the king signalled his sympathy with First Nations frustration.

Regular Alberta federalists are often upset, worried or angry with Premier Danielle Smith’s ambiguity about a referendum on separatism.

Trust me, those emotions are nothing compared to the existential fear and fury among First Nations.

Their ties with this land are tens of thousands of years old. Their political ties with Canada are guaranteed by the Crown.

If Alberta were independent, cut loose from Canada and therefore the Crown, those ties could cease to exist.

The hardcore separatist leaders barely mention this problem.

Legal, constitutional treaties cover a vast swath of Alberta’s land. First Nations would fight — literally, I believe — any attempt to strip away those entitlements, their land and their link to the Crown.

The boiling anger led the chiefs not just to London, but to the legislature on Monday, where they backed an NDP motion to declare non-confidence in the UCP government.

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There was a long, raucous debate in the house, followed by majority defeat of the motion. That brought derisive shouts from First Nations leaders in the gallery.

Some observers accused them of being co-opted by the NDP. That shows a dim grasp of First Nations pride and their deep skills in dealing with the world around them.

They’d already held their own non-confidence vote. If anything, the NDP was their ticket to confront the UCP directly in the legislature.

It was intense, moving and ultimately displayed the government’s weakness and prevarication on separatism.

NDP member Brooks Arcand-Paul, himself Indigenous, hit on the abuse many First Nations people take for standing against separatism.

“Ask any Indigenous person, they will tell you that hate has only increased due to this government’s separatist agenda,” he said.

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“Why won’t a single member of the government denounce separatism as a first step to rebuilding this foundational relationship? Where is their courage?”

The government has two answers.

They say that while First Nations have their rights, so do other Albertans, including the privilege of voting in a separation referendum.

The second response shows how phoney the whole separation issue is, how carefully designed to hold the United Conservative Party together.

Indigenous Relations Minister Rajan Sawhney told the legislature: “I just want to state once again that we included a clause in the Referendum Act . . . to reaffirm that a government cannot implement the results of a referendum if doing so would contravene sections one to 35.1 of the Constitution Act.”

Section 35 guarantees Aboriginal rights and treaty rights.

Section 25 says the Charter of Rights and Freedoms cannot be interpreted in any way that abrogates Indigenous rights.

Even if the separatist question gets enough signatures and somehow wins majority support in a referendum, the government cannot take this province out of Canada.

This devotion to section 35 was mentioned several times, both by Smith and Sawhney.

But the First Nations don’t believe the government, for good reason.

When the courts were about to declare the separatist question unconstitutional because it violated section 35, the UCP simply pulled the case out of court.

Then they changed the law to allow unconstitutional questions.

Now they say that if the unconstitutional question wins, they can’t put it into effect.

Wounded and angry, chiefs looked for somebody to trust.

They went to see the king.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X and Bluesky: @DonBraid

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