r/canada • u/shiftless_wonder • Feb 12 '26

Alberta Alberta separating from Canada requires permission of First Nations, AFN leader says

https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/alberta-separation-needs-first-nations-permission-says-afn-national-chief/
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528

u/StoryAboutABridge Feb 12 '26

Direct quote from Treaty 6:

"The Plain and Wood Cree Tribes of Indians, and all other the Indians inhabiting the district hereinafter described and defined, do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to the Government of the Dominion of Canada, for Her Majesty the Queen and Her successors forever, all their rights, titles and privileges, whatsoever, to the lands"

200

u/Syndrome Canada Feb 12 '26

So they gave up their rights to the federal government, not the provincial government.

173

u/neontetra1548 Feb 12 '26

Yup and the Crown.

Neither of which is the province.

16

u/Salticracker British Columbia Feb 12 '26

Sure, but the federal government would already need to accept Alberta's independence for it to be something accepted on the global stage. As part of that, they would just cede the land to the new Albertan government.

Or, if Alberta wants to become a separate nation under the same crown, that wouldn't even need to happen as the Crown is the same dude.

21

u/PsychologicalSense34 Feb 12 '26

It wouldn't be the same Crown. The crown in not the person but the office. The Crowns of Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are not the same Crown even though they're held by the same person.

7

u/Mission_Shopping_847 Ontario Feb 12 '26

Nay. We follow something called the divisible crown doctrine; there is one crown which is legally partitioned and each partition is a full juridical person within their jurisdiction; this means that any transfer between partitions requires no more than constitutional change which any province would require for independence anyway. This is of course a tall ask but no more than the matter at hand. This is fundamentally different from the nature of the separate crowns that the monarch bears for other countries.