Court temporarily prohibits counting separatist referendum petition signatures
Justice Shaina Leonard's ruling came less than 24 hours after arguments wrapped up in Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy's challenge of the petition's approval.
This story was originally published in Alberta Native News.
The Court of King’s Bench has ordered the chief electoral officer not to count signatures for a separatist referendum petition until the court decides whether the petition was properly initiated.
Justice Shaina Leonard issued her ruling in favour of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and the Blackfoot Confederacy’s request for a stay in the counting of petition signatures on April 10, the day after arguments wrapped up in the First Nations’ application for judicial review.
Leonard emphasized that separatist organization Stay Free Alberta can continue collecting signatures for its referendum petition and that her “decision has no impact whatsoever” on its May 2 deadline.
“Specifically, the Chief Electoral Officer shall not certify the petition results or make a referral to the Minister of Justice until the Court has ruled on the Application by ACFN and the Blackfoot Nation,” she wrote.
According to Stay Free Alberta, the organization behind the petition drive, they’ve already amassed the approximately 178,000 signatures required to initiate a referendum.
ACFN and the Kainai, Piikani and Siksika bands of the Blackfoot Confederacy named the provincial Crown, chief electoral officer Gordon McClure and Stay Free Alberta CEO Mitch Sylvestre as respondents in their lawsuits, with their arguments heard on April 8 and 9.
“While Ottawa sleeps, Alberta’s first inhabitants are doing everything we can to save confederation,” said ACFN Chief Allan in an April 10 news release welcoming Leonard’s decision.
“We shall never allow our Treaties to be broken, and we will never bend the knee to foreign tyrants or their useful idiots.”
Separatist leaders have met with U.S. State Department officials three times to request support from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has advocated annexing Canada, U.K. newspaper the Financial Times reported in January.
Among them was lawyer Jeffrey Rath, who represented Sylvestre in court this week. Rath told right-wing YouTuber Rachel Parker in March 2025 that he would like to see Alberta become a U.S. territory.
Chief Adam emphasized in his statement that ACFN is fighting for “all Albertans, especially children and youth, who deserve to grow up in a country that respects the rule of law and recognizes the supremacy of the constitution.”
Earlier this week, the court heard from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN), which named the provincial government, federal government and McClure as respondents in their case, which is unrelated to Leonard’s Friday ruling.
SLCN is seeking an injunction against the section of the Justice Statutes Amendment Act, or Bill 14, passed by the provincial government in December, which removes a prohibition on unconstitutional citizen initiatives from the Citizen Initiative Act.
The legislation received royal assent after Court of King’s Bench Justice Colin Feasby ruled that the separatists’ first effort at collecting signatures for an independence referendum couldn’t proceed because of the Citizen Initiative Act’s provision prohibiting initiatives that could violate constitutional rights.
As a result of Bill 14, McClure approved a second separatist referendum petition with a slightly reworded question.
The ACFN and Blackfoot nations’ lawyers argued that as a representative of the Crown, McClure had a duty to consult with First Nations prior to approving the petition, since the court had already determined that an independence referendum would put their Treaty rights at risk.
The provincial government and Sylvestre’s lawyers each argued that First Nations’ Treaty rights aren’t at risk through the collection of signatures.
Orlagh O’Kelly, SLCN’s lawyer, said in a statement that she and her client are “delighted” that Justice Leonard imposed a “limited pause to consider this momentous case on its merits.”
“We’re looking forward to the court’s final decision on this harmful process, set in motion by Alberta without any authority under our Treaty,” added SLCN Chief Sheldon Sunshine in the same statement.
“We also expect Alberta will follow this court order and not move the goal posts on us while the court deliberates.”
In order to obtain a stay, the First Nations’ lawyers had to demonstrate that a failure to do so would cause “irreparable harm” to their clients. They argued that this harm would primarily take the form of an erosion of Treaty rights.
Justice Leonard emphasized that she wasn’t yet ruling on whether the Crown, as represented by the province, had a duty to consult at this stage in the petition process.
However, Leonard ruled that the First Nations “have provided evidence of harm from lack of consultation and harm to Treaty relationships.”
She agreed that failure to grant a stay would inconvenience First Nations more than granting it would inconvenience the respondents.
“The alleged harm is irreparable and ongoing. In contrast, the Stay sought is for a short time” and only goes into effect once the petition signatures are submitted to the chief electoral officer, wrote Leonard.
In an interview with the Canadian Press, Sylvestre’s lawyer Jeffrey Rath questioned how quickly Leonard reached her decision, noting that it came less than 24 hours after three days of arguments concluded.
“I suspect that it’s just going to motivate our volunteer base and our canvassers and Albertans even more to get out and sign the petition,” said Rath.
Leonard said she intends on having a decision on whether the chief electoral officer acted appropriately in permitting the referendum petition within the next month.
“All parties who have participated in this matter, and the public, are entitled to have this process completed as expeditiously as possible,” she wrote.