Beyond the ballot: Why the Alberta referendum is about more than separation

On Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on whether the province should remain in Canada or begin the legal process to hold a binding provincial referendum on separation from Canada. They’ll also be answering “yes” or “no” to nine additional questions, ranging from immigration to abolishing the Canadian Senate. This week on APTN News InFocus, journalist Danielle Paradis joins us to dig deeper into the Alberta referendum. Paradis spent the summer travelling across Alberta with journalist Tim Querengesser for their podcast, Separation Anxiety. They found themselves in church boardrooms and hot dog picnics, talking to organizers about the roots of the separatist movement. When it comes to understanding Indigenous sovereignty and Treaty rights, Paradis said Albertans are generally “no different from the rest of Canada”. “You just don’t see people understanding that the First Nations understand this as an agreement to share the land. Not ceding the land, but that there is this acknowledgement that we’re going to be living together, that we have this ongoing relationship,” Paradis said. “It’s all of a sudden apparent that there are some real rights for the land and power that the First Nations communities hold when it comes to whether or not Alberta would get to separate.” Meanwhile, four provinces east, Quebecers are voting for their next premier. The Parti Québécois promises to hold a referendum on separation by 2030 if elected. It’s a reminder that this isn’t the first time First Nations and Inuit have challenged separatists. In the second half of this episode, APTN’s Montreal web reporter, Jesse Staniforth, discusses how the Cree of Eeyou Istchee asserted their rights during Quebec’s separatist referendums of 1980 and 1995. “The most striking thing the Crees did in 1995 was that they organized their own referendum,” Staniforth said. “They flew out onto the land and found people on their traplines and brought out ballots saying, ‘Do you consent, as a people, that the Government of Quebec separate the James Bay Crees and Cree traditional territory from Canada in the event of a Yes vote in the Quebec referendum?” “And 96.3 per cent voted no.” Continue Reading