First Nation to push ahead with legal challenge of Alberta government's sovereignty act
See more sharing options
Send this page to someone via email
Share this item on Twitter
Share this item via WhatsApp
Share this item on Facebook
Alberta's bill lowering the bar for a separation referendum has spurred a First Nation to push ahead with a legal challenge against the premier's flagship sovereignty act.
Danielle Smith has said her Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act is needed to push back on what the province believes is unconstitutional federal encroachment on provincial jurisdiction.
But Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Henry Lewis says it undermines his community's pre-existing treaty with the Crown.
Story continues below advertisement
He announced the legal challenge is moving forward a day after Smith's government passed a bill significantly lowering the threshold for citizens to prompt a referendum, including one on seceding from Canada.
Get daily National news
Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
The First Nation filed a statement of claim in 2022, but lawyer Robert Hladun says the community put it on pause, hoping for consultation and a resolution with government.
Smith has said she wants Alberta to stay in Canada, but Lewis says the referendum legislation signals that the province is pushing a separatist agenda.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
29 minutes ago
- Global News
Calgary residents asked to be patient ahead of G7 summit in Kananaskis
It's an exciting time to be a Calgarian, as world leaders and a small army of delegates will touch down in Alberta over the coming days for the G7 summit in Kananaskis. The annual Group of Seven (G7) summit brings together the leaders of seven of the world's advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union. Canada assumed the presidence of the group for 2025, thus is hosting this year's gathering from June 15 to 17 in the Alberta rockies west of Calgary. For weeks, various stakeholders such as police and the military have been preparing for the high-security gathering. 1:56 Heading to Kananaskis? Prepare for restrictions amid G7 summit On Wednesday, Mayor Jyoti Gondek and city general manager Doug Morgan laid out some of the changes Calgarians will see, focusing on increased congestion in the downtown core, as well as the airport. Story continues below advertisement View image in full screen Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says her constituents have always shown patience and hospitality when large events come to town. With the G7 summit days ahead, she's hoping it will be no different. Devon Simmons / Global News Gondek is asking Calgary residents for patience, while sharing her excitement for the days to come. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Just remember, these disruptions, while necessary, are also temporary. And they ensure the safety of everyone that's involved.' 'Calgarians are well known for their patience and hospitality. We're just asking for a little bit of both for the next coming days.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Calgarians are well known for their patience and hospitality. We're just asking for a little bit of both for the next coming days." Rolling blockages due to motorcades could also affect Calgary commuters on short notice during the summit. 'From our traffic management centre, our team will monitor the roads 24/7 with access to real-time data and camera feeds,' Morgan said. 'They can quickly respond to changing traffic conditions and keep things moving.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They can quickly respond to changing traffic conditions and keep things moving." 1:58 Calgary hopes to showcase itself ahead of G7 Summit The summit also presents an opportunity for individuals and groups to have their voices heard at several designated protest zones around the city. Story continues below advertisement 'We're going to be gathering on Sunday to send a loud and clear message to world leaders meeting at the G7 summit — water is not a commodity, and it's not to be negotiated,' said activist Jesse Cardinal. She's the executive director of Keepers of the Water, a group that aims to amplify voices of Indigenous Canadians concerned about the use of one of the country's most precious resources. The group will be part of a peaceful gathering of several organizations on June 15th at one of the protest zones at the Calgary Municipal Complex. 'We're Indigenous people and we're gathering on traditional Indigenous territory,' Cardinal explained. 'We respect the zones that are blocked off where we're not supposed to be for safety reasons.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We respect the zones that are blocked off where we're not supposed to be for safety reasons." With such a large influx of law enforcement already noticeable to many Calgarians, some may wonder if the Calgary Police Service will be able to continue their normal line of work. Story continues below advertisement 'It's important to remember (policing) is a partnership between the Calgary Police Service, the Alberta RCMP, as well as Alberta Sheriffs,' Gondek said. 'The Calgary Police Service remains committed to serving Calgarians to meet their everyday needs just as they always have.' Mount Royal University Justice Studies professor Doug King shares the mayor's confidence. 'For people who might be thinking 'this is a good opportunity to do some nefarious things…' give it a shot and see what happens. 'There's probably going to be more police officers visible.' King stresses with a lengthy amount of time to prepare, and Calgary's penchant for hosting large events year after year, this really is business as usual for officers. 'This is the stuff careers in the Calgary Police Service are made of,' King said. As part of its presidency year, Canada hosted a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, from March 12-14, and a G7 finance ministers and central bank bovernors' meeting in Banff, Alberta, from May 20-22.
Global News
32 minutes ago
- Global News
BC Ferries' plan to build new vessels in China takes heat from both sides of the aisle
BC Ferries is taking heat from port and starboard over its selection of a Chinese shipyard to build its next four major vessels. The ferry service opened bidding for its major vessel replacement project to pre-qualified shipyards last September, and on Tuesday announced it had chosen China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards (CMI Weihai) following a due diligence process. That decision has landed in the choppy waters of a global trade war and a surging 'buy Canadian' movement that was not on the radar last fall. 1:52 BC Ferries contract awarded to Chinese shipyard B.C. Transportation Minister Mike Farnworth said Wednesday that while BC Ferries is an independent organization that makes its own commercial decisions, he was 'disappointed (in) the fact that there is not more Canadian content' in the plan. Story continues below advertisement 'Whenever contacts like this are awarded, I want to see as much Canadian and British Columbian content as possible.' BC Ferries is a private company, not a Crown corporation. However, its sole shareholder is the B.C. government. The issue has also drawn fire from the BC Conservatives, who have called for a review of the decision. Leader John Rustad said the decision to source the ferries from China put the province's economy and security at risk, given ongoing trade and tariff tensions with China. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Do we really want Canadian ships built in China?' Rustad said. 'Who knows what that relationship will look like a few years from now.' 2:55 BC Ferries is getting 4 new vessels In announcing CMI Weihai as the builder, BC Ferries cited its strong bid — including technical capabilities, experience and the 'overall cost and value' it delivered. Story continues below advertisement Cost was also front and centre when BC Ferries announced the process. 'What we are not going to do is ask our customers to pay one dollar more than they need to simply because we are picking a local company,' BC Ferries executive director of communications Dave Groot told Global News in a Sept. 27 interview. At the time, B.C.-based Seaspan shipyards said the bid process, which did not include incentives for B.C. or Canadian content, had essentially ruled it out of contention The company acknowledged there was no question that building in B.C. would cost more, but said it would create major economic spinoffs, including income tax revenues from high-paying skilled jobs. Seaspan, which handles highly complex and multi-billion-dollar contracts for the Coast Guard and Canadian Navy, says it is more than capable of delivering the new ferries. 1:03 Seaspan blows horn on BC Ferries' ship-building bidding process 'We acknowledge the need for BC Ferries to get some of these replacement vessels very fast given their aging fleet,' Seaspan senior vice-president and spokesperson Dave Hargreaves said in a Wednesday statement. Story continues below advertisement 'We are hopeful that the B.C. government will work with our B.C. industry team to develop a strategy to build some of the seven vessels, particularly the last two, in B.C. in the future.' Not all reviews of the choice have been bad, however. Bruce Williams, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, said the Chinese contract is in the best interests of ferry-dependent communities, adding that BC Ferries did years of due diligence and that no Canadian companies entered bids. 2:01 BC Ferries defends shipbuilding bid process 'This is very timely, and it's a good thing to have this happen,' Williams said, noting that there was an urgent need for greater ferry capacity. At this point, I think it's in the best interest of all the people, who rely on BC Ferries … especially up and down the coast in communities that are very reliant upon it.' Story continues below advertisement The list of pressure points between Canada and China is long. China has imposed a variety of tariffs on Canadian goods, including seafood tariffs that have directly impacted B.C.'s fishing industry. Canada has also raised concerns about the country's human rights record and its support for Russia in the war with Ukraine.
National Observer
2 hours ago
- National Observer
Alberta seeks private investor to help build oil pipeline to coast
The Alberta government is working to entice a private-sector player to build a major crude pipeline to coastal waters, Premier Danielle Smith said Wednesday. "We're talking to all of the pipeline proponents; anyone who has had success in building a pipeline in Canada and has an interest in perhaps coming together as a consortium. Or, if one emerges as being a principal proponent, then we'll be interested in talking to them, too," Smith told reporters following a speech to the Global Energy Show. "But we know that it's a chicken and egg problem, that no one's going to come forward with a project without some guarantee that it is going to be approved." Alberta could help the project along by committing barrels of physical bitumen received in lieu of cash royalties from oilsands producers, Smith said. She has been enthusiastic about reviving a plan to ship oilsands crude to the northern B.C. coast for export to Asia, and the end point she sees making the most sense is Prince Rupert, B.C. Enbridge Inc. had once planned to ship crude to another northern B.C. port, Kitimat, via its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. That project was nixed in 2016 when the federal government banned tankers off the northern B.C. coast. Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel has said it would take a major overhaul in federal regulations for his company to revisit such a proposal. The Alberta government is working to entice a private-sector player to build a major crude pipeline to coastal waters, Premier Danielle Smith said Wednesday. Smith said Prince Rupert might be a more viable choice than Kitimat, as it has a less treacherous route out to the open Pacific and many other commodities already move out of there. Smith said no company will agree to build a pipeline to the northern B.C. coast as long as there is a tanker ban, and oilsands companies aren't going to expand their production as long as there's a federal emissions cap. The premier urged conference attendees to keep up the pressure on Prime Minister Mark Carney's government to do what needs to be done to get "nation-building" projects built. "Anything less than success means failing to act for Canada. It means failing to stand up for democracy and peaceful global development," she said. "And most importantly, it means a loss of economic prosperity that future Canadian youth and families cannot count on to enhance their standard of living locally and to eliminate energy poverty globally." With U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs throwing the Canada-U.S. trade relationship into disarray, there have been growing calls for Canada to tap into other markets for its resources. The only way meaningful amounts of Canadian oil can currently flow to customers outside the United States is via the federally owned Trans Mountain pipeline to the B.C. Lower Mainland, whose expansion started up about a year ago. Trans Mountain CEO Mark Maki told reporters on the sidelines of the conference that his is among the companies Smith has talked to about spearheading a new pipeline. "But as far as us ... optimize the existing kit is the first priority," he said. The Trans Mountain pipeline has been running at about 85 per cent of its capacity of 890,000 barrels a day. That could be taken further to 1.14 million barrels a day with the help of drag-reducing chemical additives and additional pumping horsepower. Maki said Carney, a former central banker, strikes him as a decisive and detail-oriented leader who "gets it." "The business sort of wiring to him, I think is where a lot of my optimism comes from," he said. Carney recently met with provincial and territorial premiers to hear about what projects they'd like to see fast-tracked under new legislation, but has not said which have made the cut. Smith said she'll give the Liberals until the fall legislative session — or four to six months — to determine whether Carney is serious about his pledge to make Canada an "energy superpower." Smith is also keen on accessing global markets via the East Coast or a pipeline to the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba, which would give tanker access to Hudson Bay. Smith heaped praise on Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew — a New Democrat of a much different political stripe than her United Conservative Party — for being open to that idea. "He has been very vocal in saying that he wants Churchill to be a major export hub, including oil and gas, and he's been unequivocal about that," Smith said. B.C. NDP Premier David Eby, on the other hand, has been skeptical about pursuing a Northern Gateway-like proposal while Trans Mountain, already in operation, is running under full capacity and has expansion potential.
