Warum zahlen Albertaner für den Gerichtsstreit der Separatisten?

This is a solid question I hadn’t actually considered, because I wasn’t aware the Alberta Government was appealing on behalf of the separation campaign. I’ve been somewhat offline for a few days for various reasons; and now as I look, lo, Alberta [really is using tax payer dollars to support the separatists.](https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-premier-danielle-smith-defends-appeal-separatism-petition) Here’s how Smith defends it:

> Smith said 400,000 people signed a petition wanting to affirm that they want to remain in Canada, and 300,000 signed a petition saying the opposite is democratic.
>
> “That’s over a quarter of every Albertan who is eligible to vote, and that’s the reason we have a citizen initiative process, so the people on both sides of an issue can have it out, talk about it, and be able to hopefully, in this case, chart a better path towards autonomy within the united Canada, which is my position,” she said.

Really? *Really?!*

In order to defend this Smith is conflating the _anti-separatists_ with the _separatists_. Somehow I don’t think the anti-separatists are as eager to appeal the ruling the derailed the separatist movement.

And what a _dishonest_ bit of rhetoric that is to claim that this is serving the interests of a quarter of Albertans. This is serving the interests of the separatists, who amount for _less than_ one in every eight Albertans _by her own calculus_.

She’s throwing tax payer money at supporting a tiny minority of Albertans. There’s a simple reason why that might be the case, and I suspect it’s the correct reason: Smith supports the separatists.

Because it was the Alberta Government that has a duty to consult the First Nations **before** they approved the latest separatist petition, and Justice Leonard ruled the petition invalid because they failed to do so.

The first separatist petition was rejected by the Chief Electoral Officer for the same reason. The UCP didn’t want to notify First Nations up front, probably because of the negative press it would spark. The UCP then passed Bill 14, which removed the CEO’s ability to reject petitions on constitutional grounds. It also reduced the signature threshold, extended the timeline, and removed other requirements such as riding participation.

Justice Leonard concluded that the duty to consult was mandatory, as decided by the Supreme Court of Canada back in 2004/5, and that duty – on the part of the government – had not been met. The CEO was therefore in error in approving the petition.

Basically, the UCP, on behalf of the separatists, tried to legislate away the 20 year old consultation requirement and the judge has told them they don’t get to do that, so now the petition is waste paper.

You can read the court documents here: https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abkb/doc/2026/2026abkb375/2026abkb375.html