A special court procedure on a proposal for Alberta separation referendum is scheduled to start today in Edmonton.
A hearing at the King’s Bench court will begin Thursday morning.
Gordon McClure, Alberta’s electoral director, sent the question proposed to the court last week, asking a judge to determine whether the Constitution violates, including the rights of the treaty.
The question asks the Albertans: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta will become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?”
Prime Minister Danielle Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery have criticized the derivation to the courts, saying that the question must be approved and only face judicial scrutiny if you receive a majority vote.
Multiple groups, including the first nation of Athabasca Chipewyan in northern Alberta, said they hope to make presentations.
A letter sent this week to the King’s Bench court, Colin Feasby, by a government lawyer, said Amery intends to make presentations as well.
The letter also said that Mitch Sylvestre, an executive of the Alberta Prosperity project, who proposed the question, plans to request the case that is imposed and ends the judicial review before it begins. A group’s lawyer did not answer the questions on Wednesday.
If the question is approved, Sylvestre would need to collect 177,000 signatures in four months to vote.
The government letter reiterates that Amery believes that the question must be approved.
“The minister’s position is that the proposal is not unconstitutional and, therefore, must be approved and allowed to proceed,” says the letter.
“A law is established that the government of any province of Canada has the right to consult its population through referendum on any subject, and that the result of a referendum on the secession of a province, if clear enough, must be taken as an expression of democratic will.”
The McClure office said it cannot make more comments because the matter is before the courts.
McClure approved a competitive referendum question in June and asks if Alberta should declare an official policy that will never separate from Canada.
The efforts to gather signatures for that proposal, presented by former progressive conservative vice president Thomas Lukaszuk, began last week.
Lukaszuk needs to collect almost 300,000 signatures in 90 days to obtain your question on a ballot, since your application was approved before the new provincial rules with lower signature thresholds came into force.
