Judge to go ahead with review of Alberta separation question

A judge has denied an application to quash a review of a proposed Alberta referendum question on separation.

Court of King's Bench Justice Colin Feasby says it will benefit democracy to have a full hearing on the constitutionality of the question.

Alberta's chief electoral officer, Gordon McClure, referred the question to court last month so a judge could determine whether it violates the Constitution, including treaty rights.

The group that submitted the question applied to have the referral quashed.

The Alberta Prosperity Project wants to ask: "Do you agree that the Province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada?"

A lawyer for the group argued judicial scrutiny is premature, since there's no guarantee enough signatures would be gathered to put the question on a ballot.

He also said the act of asking a question doesn't violate the Constitution.

Lawyers for Justice Minister Mickey Amery and the chief electoral officer did not take a position on quashing the referral.

Amery and Premier Danielle Smith have criticized the electoral officer's decision to refer the question to the court, saying it should be approved and only face judicial scrutiny if it garners a majority vote in a referendum.

"Alberta’s government believes that the proposal is not unconstitutional and therefore should be approved and permitted to proceed," Amery's press secretary, Heather Jenkins, in a statement last week.

"It is settled law that any province is entitled to consult its population by referendum on any issue."

Feasby said McClure was just doing his job and following international best practices for administering referendums.

A letter from Amery's lawyer to the judge last week said the minister plans to make submissions if there is a review. Other groups, including the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta, have said they also hope to make submissions.

If the proposed question is approved, the Alberta Prosperity Project and its chief executive officer, Mitch Sylvestre, would need to collect 177,000 signatures in four months to get it on a ballot.

A competing referendum question was approved by McClure in June and asks if Alberta should declare an official policy that it will never separate from Canada.

Efforts to gather signatures for that proposal, put forward by former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, got underway earlier this month.

Lukaszuk needs to collect nearly 300,000 signatures in 90 days in order to get his question on a ballot, as his application was approved before new provincial rules with lower signature thresholds took effect.

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson