'Separatist rhetoric' in Alberta is 'harmful and divisive for all': FSIN

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is raising the alarm about the possibility of a referendum in Alberta over separation.

On Tuesday, the day after the Liberals won the federal election, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tabled a bill that would make it easier for voters there to force recalls and referendums.

First Nations leaders in Alberta accused her of "attempting to manufacture a national unity crisis by enabling a referendum on separatism."

The FSIN, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, said in a press release Thursday that Smith's proposal to lower thresholds for citizen-initiated referendums, which could lead to a vote on separation, fundamentally ignores the nation-to-nation treaties signed between First Nations and the Crown.

The federation sees "separatist rhetoric as harmful and divisive for all, distracting from the real work of building a stronger, more unified Canada that also respects First Nations inherent and treaty rights and sovereignty," the release said.

"As a reminder, we are the First Peoples of these lands and waters," FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron was quoted as saying in the release.

"Those that want to leave are free to do so but all the lands, waters, and resources are First Nations, and were negotiated in the various treaties across Turtle Island," he said.

"Our treaties were and are still here long before the so-called western provinces became provinces."

Provincial boundaries were established after many treaty territories were defined, the federation noted. The numbered treaties were signed between 1871 and 1921. Both Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905.

Cameron said the signed treaties are constitutionally protected international agreements, and therefore cannot be "unilaterally altered" by provincial governments.

"Any process of separation that fails to honour the true spirit and intent of our treaties would violate both constitutional and international law," Cameron said in the federation's news release. 

"These treaties were made with the Crown, not with provinces, and they remain binding regardless of political aspirations."

University of Regina professor and treaty rights expert Danette Starblanket says if a referendum on secession came up in Saskatchewan, First Nations would take a strong stand, in the same way Indigenous people did during the separatist movement in Quebec in the 1970s, and would fight hard for their treaty rights in the courts. 

"We were very aware of those positions of First Nations in Quebec. And what it is is taking that stand to assert your rights and that will happen," said Starblanket.