‘Leave it to the court’: Alberta premier declines to comment on referendum legal battle or sign petition

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is staying out of a judge’s decision to further examine a referendum question proposed by a group of separatists, while being pressured to take a tougher stance on the issue of independence.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby ruled Thursday to go ahead with a review of an Alberta separation question after an application to quash the proceeding and have the question approved without scrutiny was denied.

“They are going to do a constitutional lens test on it, so I’ll just leave it to the court to go through their process,” Smith said at an Alberta Next panel townhall on Thursday evening.

This comes after Smith and Justice Minister Mickey Amery publicly called on the chief electoral officer to stop that court reference so the vote could proceed.

“Their public criticisms of the chief electoral officer, an independent officer, I think that did not land well at all,” said Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University. “And I think we saw a reflection of that in the latest Alberta Next panel forum.”

Williams says the premier is in a “really tough position,” in that she’s caught between passionate anti-Ottawa separatists and pro-Canada patriots.

“(Former Alberta premier) Jason Kenney tried to please people who disagreed with one another (over COVID-19 policies) when he was premier, and he wound up displeasing everyone,” she told CityNews.

“So rather than pleasing and placating and appealing to people who disagreed, he ended up getting backlash from all of them, from across the spectrum. And I started to see a bit of evidence of that in the forum last night.”

At the event on Thursday in West Edmonton, Smith was cheered, booed and challenged.

She was asked if Alberta should remain in Canada and if she will sign a petition on that. She did not directly answer about her signature, but repeated a familiar stance, “I believe in a united Canada and Alberta sovereign within it.”

But Cam Davies, leader of the Alberta Republicans, says it is not good enough. He wants the premier to call a referendum for the spring, so any lengthy court battles are avoided.

“Let the people have their say and put the issue to rest. Either Albertans want it or they don’t, but let’s schedule it, articulate our arguments for and against and let democracy have its say,” Davies said.

The NDP disagrees, arguing an independence vote will hurt the province. Many public opinion polls have already concluded that the majority of Albertans want to stay in Canada.

“Such a referendum question, such rhetoric, will hurt investment climate in this province, it will hurt the economy, it will hurt jobs,” Irfan Sabir, the NDP’s justice critic, told CityNews on Friday.

The NDP says the government should not be sending a lawyer to intervene in the court case and should never have told the chief electoral officer what to do.

“Any interference from the government is unacceptable. The justice minister, who is supposed to uphold the rules of law in this province, doing that kind of thing is unbecoming of a justice minister,” Sabir said.

“That’s why we’re calling for him to be fired.”

CityNews reached out to the premier’s office Friday for a response to Justice Feasby’s decision, but instead received a statement from Amery’s press secretary.

“Alberta’s government believes that the proposal is not unconstitutional and therefore should be approved and permitted to proceed,” it said.

“It is settled law that any province is entitled to consult its population by referendum on any issue. As this matter is before the courts, we will not comment further.”

The legislature is set to reconvene in October. The next court date is in November, meaning this battle is likely to drag on, both politically and legally, for months.