A government lawyer will be in court today in Edmonton to intervene on behalf of a group that wants Alberta to separate from Canada.
A letter from a Justice Department lawyer to Justice Colin Feasby indicated he will be in court this morning to oppose the request by Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure to seek a court ruling on whether a referendum question drafted by a leader of the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project violates Canada’s Constitution.
Nicholas Trofimuk told the Court of King’s Bench judge that Justice Minister Mickey Amery’s position “is that the proposal is not unconstitutional, and therefore should be approved and permitted to proceed.”
“It is settled law that the government of any province of Canada is entitled to consult its population by referendum on any issue, and that the result on a referendum on the secession of a province, if sufficiently clear, is to be taken as an expression of democratic will, giving rise to an obligation on the part of the federal government and the governments of other provinces to enter negotiations that may lead to secession,” Trofimuk’s letter stated.
“The relevant legislation is clear that if a constitutional referendum proposal is successful, the results of the referendum are binding on the Government only insofar as the Government must ‘as soon as practicable, take any steps within the competence of the Government of Alberta that it considers necessary or advisable to implement the results of the referendum,’” it continued.
“If the Government proposes legislation in response to a referendum, that legislation will be subject to constitutional scrutiny. Asking a question about secession, and indeed, taking the steps in section 16 of the Citizen Initiative Act following collection of signatures, does not violate any of sections 1 to 35.1 of the Constitution Act, 1982,” he argued.
Trofimuk’s letter includes a statement that, “As stated many times publicly by the Premier of Alberta, the Government of Alberta does not support secession from Canada but supports a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”
“The Government does, however, support the democratic right of every citizen of Alberta to participate in a citizen’s initiative process, as set out in the Citizen Initiative Act, and bring forward a petition asking a clear question for citizens to consider,” his letter said.
In a July 29 new release, McClure, an independent officer of the Legislature, set out an explanation for the public of why he believes the matter must be referred to the courts.
He noted that the question proposed by Mitch Sylvestre of the APP – Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada? – “is a serious and significant question, with the potential to have profound impact on all Albertans.”
“The Chief Electoral Officer has responsibility under the Citizen Initiative Act to determine if the requirements of s.2 of that Act have been met,” that news release continued. “One of those requirements set out in section 2(4) of the Act is that ‘An initiative petition proposal must not contravene sections 1 to 35.1 of the Constitution Act, 1982’.”
“Given the potential implications of the constitutional referendum proposal and given the Legislature has expressly authorized the Chief Electoral Officer to state a question seeking the opinion of the Court, the Chief Electoral Officer has referred a question to the Court for its opinion. The Chief Electoral Officer has requested the Court provide an opinion on the following question: Does the following proposal contravene section 2(4) of the Citizen Initiative Act, in that it contravenes any or all of sections 1 through 35.1 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”
That news release was published by McClure after Premier Danielle Smith and Amery publicly admonished him for taking the matter to the court and pressed him to drop it. In their social media comments, they referred to judicial review as “red tape.”
Despite Premier Smith’s frequent protestations to the contrary, it is quite clear that the United Conservative Party and the APP are closely aligned and have been acting in concert.
It must also be noted that the premier’s notion of Alberta sovereignty is incompatible with the concept of a united country.
Despite the obvious profound significance of Amery’s decision to intervene in opposition to McClure’s request, thereby using taxpayer funds to act on behalf of a group dedicated to the breakup of Canada, no statement or news release on the topic was published on the government’s Alberta.ca website yesterday.
The government’s plan to intervene became known when former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk made reference to it in a post on social media yesterday afternoon.
On July 30, McClure’s office approved a petition for the “Alberta Forever Canada” citizen initiative launched by Lukaszuk, who has long been a vocal critic of the Smith government’s separatist machinations.
Lukaszuk’s petition calls for the referendum question to be “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?”
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