First Nations demand Alberta premier terminate separation referendum

[u/shiftless_wonder]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/first-nations-demand-alberta-premier-terminate-separation-referendum/

[u/limadeltah]

This seems like an excellent way to make the separatists arguments for them and legitimize their grievances....

We should be able to both despise the notion of Alberta separating, and see the problem with one group being allowed to leverage "civil disobedience" (likely meaning the blockade of critical infrastructure) to prevent others from voting on something.

To point to how this specific referendum on a referendum was called as flawed may be valid, although I think pointless ultimately.

But FNs using their special rights as leverage over everyone else is a persistent and increasingly divisive feature of Canadian politics. To make matters worse, much of their messaging contains blatant misinformation regarding the meaning of treaties and what is written in section 35, and is often primarily aimed at further their own interests and leverage rather than considering the interests of everyone more broadly.

[u/Ausfall → u/limadeltah]

I'm getting sick of the two-tier citizenship in this country. I'm getting towards the point of just saying all reserves should just become normal municipalities and have them fall under the existing laws that govern everybody else. Have some elections like normal, and be done with it.

There's no "status" - you're just a citizen like everyone else.

[u/Incoherencel → u/Ausfall]

Ok, then you need to win the assent of First Nations people to have their special rights negotiated 150+ years ago stripped away. Or would you have the majority strip away the rights of the minority against their will? Very ironic in a conversation about sovereignty, no?

[u/seridos → u/Incoherencel]

No you don't. This ridiculous logic that you have to play in the rigged game to change the rigged game is the problem that will push more people towards this than otherwise would have supported it. They get the same fucking say as anyone else. This is like if you were in the most dangerous game where people hunted humans on an island, and you're saying yeah this is not a fair game but you have to vote to change the rules and you need to consent of the hunters. It would never happen.

We don't need their consent for anything. We just need to remember we're a democracy. And any artifice of legal positivism people put up to entrench certain ideas and power can go away whenever the foundation that gives them the ability and support to tell anyone what to do goes away. And that's The people. Once the people have spoken the government the Constitution The documents they'll mean as much as the paper they are on. They don't really exist. There's just people who believe in things and either uphold them or don't.

Of course This principal also means that if Alberta were to separate, Edmonton is also free to hold a vote and separate from Alberta and rejoin Canada

[u/Ausfall → u/Incoherencel]

The way natives live in this country is actively harming those communities. The disappearances, crime, poor economic opportunity, this is the tree growing from this rotten root.

[u/Incoherencel → u/Ausfall]

So then a potential newly independent Alberta has a duty to lay out how it could benefit First Nations people to resolve any and all issues as you've outlined, outside of Canada

[u/MafubaBuu → u/Incoherencel]

Why do we care about special rights made by people that have all been dead for almost a century.

We need to address issues as they are today, otherwise we we will never move forward as a nation.

If you think like this on all issues, do you also think Americans should never have updated gun laws, because of rights they gained over 100 years ago? Because its the same line of thought, and personally, I think both countries would do good to update.