The spectre of separation haunting Alberta nowadays may deeply divide the province, but almost everyone seems to agree about one thing: No matter what happens, no matter what the courts say, no matter whether or not the separatists really have enough signatures to get a referendum on the ballot, Premier Danielle Smith will see to it that their referendum is there anyway.

This may not be universally acknowledged just yet, but a consensus is emerging. It needs to be said that this is not a sign we’re living in a democracy with a healthy respect for the rule of law.

Inside the brutalist Edmonton Court of King’s Bench building yesterday, lawyers for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy were arguing in favour of an injunction to stop the separation petition by the so-called Stay Free Alberta front group for separatist elements within the Premier Smith’s United Conservative Party. 

In a nutshell, they and other lawyers for Treaty 6, 7 and 8 First Nations argue in the case brought by the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation that using Alberta’s so-called citizen-initiative legislation to try to break up the country violates treaty rights enshrined in the Canadian Constitution. The CBC and Alberta Native News both published detailed summaries of the technical arguments made yesterday by the First Nations’ lawyers. 

Outside, the courthouse in Churchill Square about 300 people gathered under gloomy skies to hear chiefs of the province’s First Nations, many wearing traditional regalia, express their deep distrust of the premier and her government, and of the federal government as well.

“People were asking why would I meet with her,” Piikani Chief Troy Knowlton told the crowd. “Well there’s an old gangster adage that also applies to politicians: You keep your friends close. You keep your enemies closer.”

“We’ve got to know what their next steps are. We’ve got to let them know, instead of hearing through the media, what our statements are, our concerns are. I was able to tell her face to face, ‘Your separatism agenda is nothing more than political fantasy,’” said Chief Knowlton, who is also president of the Blackfoot Confederacy. “‘You allow the white supremacist racists and bigots to be able to come out of their homes and yell and scream. …’”

“First Nations are more united than ever in our history,” he said.

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation warned supporters not to be tricked by the apparent differences between the federal and Alberta governments as they rush to develop resource extraction projects without appropriate consultation. 

Comparing Prime Minister Mark Carney to Pontius Pilate washing his hands of responsibility to First Nations people before handing treaty land over to Alberta, Chief Paul warned rally participants, “They don’t say it, but they go hand in hand.”

Thomas Lukaszuk, proponent of the successful Forever Canadian petition that the Smith Government has changed its own rules to make it easier to ignore, suggested on social media yesterday that separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre would be delighted if the court issued an injunction. “This way he’ll never need to prove that he got 177,000 signatures (I doubt he did) and Danielle Smith will give him a referendum anyhow.”

Indeed, reporting by CBC political commentator Jason Markusoff last week suggests that’s exactly what could happen. If the First Nations win in court, Mr. Markusoff wrote, “this could set up a Plan B for separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre: appeal directly to Premier Danielle Smith to put the referendum to leave Canada on October’s ballot, regardless of what the court had just said.”

No one who has been paying attention to Ms. Smith and her apparently separatist dominated cabinet and caucus can doubt that this is a real possibility. The UCP has changed the law to allow electoral mischief by their separatist allies, and then changed it again to make it difficult for anyone else to use it. 

Sadly, it keeps getting harder to imagine that there’s anyone still in her caucus or cabinet willing to publicly stand up for Canada, or the rule of law.