Conservative MP Billy Morin says he will spend the summer talking to Indigenous leaders about encouraging people to vote in the Alberta referendum on Oct. 19.
Albertans are set to vote on whether they want to stay in Canada or prefer to hold a future binding referendum on separating from the country.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he and his caucus will be campaigning across Alberta this summer and encouraging people to stay in “the Canadian family.”
Morin, who was chief of Enoch Cree Nation before entering federal politics, says he understands many First Nations people are hesitant to vote — but this referendum is different.
He says he sees chiefs in his home province fighting for treaties.
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Treaty rights are the constitutionally recognized, nation-to-nation agreements signed more than a century ago between the Crown and Canada’s Indigenous peoples.
The lands of five different treaty nations fall within the boundaries of Alberta: the big three are Treaty 8 across northern Alberta, Treaty 6 in Edmonton and central Alberta, and Treaty 7 stretching from south of Red Deer to the Canada-U.S. border.
Small slivers of two other regions also stretch into Alberta: Treaty 10 near Cold Lake, and Treaty 4 east of Medicine Hat.
First Nations in Alberta are fighting back against separatists in court and in May, a judge quashed a citizen petition for a referendum on the basis the province didn’t fulfil the duty to consult.
The following week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the court ruling ‘erroneous’ and vowed to appeal it, while announcing the separation question was being added to the existing referendum on immigration and the Constitution.
— With files from Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press and Karen Bartko, Global News
An Albertan thinking they’re in charge is like a crossing guard thinking hes a cop.!
First Nations people should be careful. They are starting to ask far too much than is written in the Treaties.
FNs are free to vote if they want to. That means they have to get out of bed and go to the voting station. That might be too much to ask.
People who contribute absolutely nothing to the province’s economy should have NO say whatsoever how the province is governed. Why the hell are we obligated to “consult” the minority who doesn’t bother to get a job, pay taxes, and become self sufficient for once?
So, the only way the taxpayers can free themselves from these archaic treaty shackles is to get rid of the Crown aka Chucky et al the UK hoity toity parasites? Then anything signed some 200 years ago would thus be no longer binding.
Canada owes Alberta NOTHING!!!!
Every Albertan will have the same weight of vote. 1.
Many years ago it was ONLY people who paid TAXES got the right to vote on HOW THEIR MONEY GOT SPENT, no one else got to vote and it was these people WHO GREW THE COUNTRY, not the indigenous people who were NOT paying taxes at all way back then. Now EVERYONE, whether they pay taxes at all get to decide how the money most of us pay today get to decide how OUR MONEY gets spent, including none paying indigenous. Nice huh? “Early in Canada’s history individuals had to own property or pay a certain amount in yearly taxes or rent to be able to vote.
Canada owes FNs nothing