Separation from Canada would be a disaster for Indigenous rights in Alberta and plunge the provincial economy into even greater uncertainty. Yet providing an easier path for Alberta separatists seems strangely to be a top priority of Premier Danielle Smith, regardless of the ensuing constitutional chaos.

Bill 14 was hurried through the Alberta Legislature just before Christmas, clearing the way for a fringe cohort to move forward with a referendum question freshly deemed unconstitutional by Court of Kings Bench. Separatist extremists are now collecting signatures for a divisive question to be put to Alberta voters likely later this year that ignores Treaty obligations predating the province’s entry into confederation.

Reaction from First Nations was unsurprisingly swift, with Chiefs of Treaty No. 6, 7, and 8 stating they “will not tolerate any action that seeks to undermine our Treaties, our Rights or our Sovereignty.” The Alberta government is now being sued over their hasty pro-separation law, further metastasizing the mess created by the premier. The Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN) has asked the court to issue an “urgent” interim injunction against the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) petition.

“Alberta has treated SLCN as though they are chattel on the land, merely an afterthought in forced negotiations, not the first step in any potential secession,” warned the SLCN lawyers in their statement of claim. “This is contrary to law: Alberta’s secession cannot happen without First Nation consent to change a party to Treaty No. 8. Consent, not consultation, is required before the question of secession is delegated from a party to the treaty to the individuals who have come to inhabit Alberta.”

One expert contacted by DeSmog agreed that any effort for Alberta to separate from Canada is standing on shaky legal ground in regard to First Nations.

“Every right that Indigenous people in Alberta have is the result of a settlement with the Crown and right of Canada,” Amir Attaran, law professor at the University of Ottawa told DeSmog. “If you take that away, what legal status does that give these people in a new Alberta? Nobody knows the answer to that question.”

For some separatists, however, ignoring Indigenous rights is not only a side effect of an independent Alberta, but an explicit goal. At an event cross-promoted by APP, lawyer and Fraser Institute fellow Bruce Pardy made the case for Indigenous rights to be abolished in a sovereign Alberta.

On his Substack, Pardy has argued that “In a free Alberta, Aboriginal rights should not exist. Instead, reserve lands in Alberta should be divided into lots and transferred to individual Indigenous people, creating for them the same property rights and opportunities as everybody else.” Former APP CEO Dennis Modry has said that his organization opposes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, incorrectly calling it a “marxist agenda.” Smith considers APP a key ally and speaks favourably of Modry.

All this is clearly a way for Smith to distract from the very real issues facing her province. Alberta is grappling with a $6.4 billion budget shortfall due to sagging oil prices. Beleaguered doctors are urging the province to declare a state of emergency for a collapsing healthcare system. Critical water infrastructure needs urgent upgrades.

So what did Premier Danielle Smith prioritize on the last sitting day of the legislature in 2025? Rushing through her last-minute bill to insulate Alberta separatists from having their referendum question struck down by the courts.

In a scathing decision issued the day after Smith’s government introduced a bespoke bill to end legal oversight of referendum questions, Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby determined that the proposed referendum question from the separatist APP was indeed contrary to the constitution and Indigenous rights. Treaties negotiated between Aboriginal governments and the Crown formed the basis of the founding of Alberta and mean that secession could only happen with the prior informed consent of those First Nations.

Feasby was blunt in what he thought about the hasty legislative maneuvering to avoid a legal ruling on the potential breakup of the country. “Alberta’s cavalier disregard for court resources and lack of consideration for the parties and First Nations intervenors who participated in this proceeding in good faith is disappointing to say the least,” Feasby wrote in a judgment made moot only a week later with the passage of the new law.

So egregious is Smith’s assault on the legal system that two former Alberta ministers of justice and more than two dozen lawyers have since co-signed a letter calling out the premier’s “unacceptable behaviour”, including stripping referendum oversight from the Chief Electoral Officer. 

“We do not want an authoritarian government,” said Verlyn Olson, the former minister of justice and attorney general under Premier Ed Stelmach. “I think all you have to do is look a little ways south to see what happens when you get an authoritarian government that does not think it is bound by the normal rules that a democracy operates by.”

Meanwhile, other First Nations are supporting the SLCN legal action for obvious reasons.

“We affirm that the Alberta UCP government’s actions enabling and supporting the so-called Alberta Prosperity Project petition are a direct violation of Treaty obligations and the Honour of the Crown,” Chiefs of Treaty No. 6, 7, and 8 said in a joint statement.

The premier’s reckless rhetoric and actions now create a divisive constitutional crisis in the midst of an ongoing trade war with the erratic Trump Administration, which in its surprise attack on Venezuela earlier this year demonstrated a willingness to seize hemispheric oil resources by military force.

Experts recently warned that dark money funneled to separatist extremists or baseless allegations of a rigged referendum could be used as a ruse to try to absorb Alberta into the U.S. MAGA-adjacent commentators are already bragging about how the Trump Administration will assist Alberta separatists to help break up Canada.

Even the right-leaning Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) has warned of the economic devastation that would be wrought from separation, calling oft-repeated claims of lower taxes in an independent Alberta “fiscal fantasy.”

Trevor Tombe, the author of the MLI analysis, dismissed separatist statements about economic prosperity, stating plainly that “the fiscal and economic claims at the heart of such proposals are simply false. A separate Alberta would be a poorer Alberta.”

Many Americans would be inclined to agree. Less than one-third of U.S. voters now believe the chaotic Trump Administration is doing a good job on the economy. Why would Albertans want to climb aboard such a sinking ship?

Creating a needless crisis with First Nations to favour a fringe cohort speaks to Smith’s fixation on protecting her partisan flank rather than solving pressing problems for Albertans. Support for separation in Alberta has never exceeded 20 percent, slightly more than the proportion of Canadians that believe the Earth is flat or that the lunar landings were faked, but less than the number who think aliens have visited from outer space.

Playing footsie with separatist extremists during such a perilous time is the opposite of credible Canadian leadership. Alberta, Canada, and First Nations deserve better.