OTTAWA \u2014 Separatists in Alberta can thank the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois for making the case that Albertans have the right to determine the province\u2019s own fate without interference from Ottawa.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the federal government is reviewing Alberta\u2019s referendum question \u2014 on whether voters want to remain in Canada or hold another binding referendum to separate from Canada \u2014 to ensure it complies with the Clarity Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an obligation as the federal government to look at the question and determine whether it\u2019s consistent with the Clarity Act. That is underway,\u201d said Carney.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying that\u2019s the case, but we\u2019re just in the process of doing our due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the day, Bloc MPs pre-emptively pushed back against the federal Parliament having a say in whether a clear majority of voters in Alberta decided on a clear question.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future of Alberta belongs only to Albertans, just as the future of Quebec belongs only to Quebecers,\u201d said Bloc House leader Christine Normandin in a press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo hear the prime minister even contemplate the idea that \u2018daddy Ottawa\u2019 could tell Albertans how to think, if their question is clear, or even what a clear majority is, is completely inadmissible,\u201d she told reporters before question period.<\/p>\n
Normandin added that the separatist Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois will continue to \u201cfight tooth and nail\u201d for the right of the population in Alberta to decide on its own future without interference.<\/p>\n
It is however unclear for the moment whether Carney will even decide to invoke the federal legislation for the first time in its history in response to Alberta\u2019s referendum this fall.<\/p>\n
The Clarity Act provides pre-conditions for the federal government before it recognizes the results of a secession referendum and before it starts negotiating. The question posed by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith does not explicitly propose to secede from Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t believe that the Clarity Act applies in this case since it is a policy question and not a binding referendum,\u201d said Smith from the meeting of western premiers she is hosting in Kananaskis, Alta.<\/p>\n
The father of the Clarity Act, former Liberal leader St\u00e9phane Dion, has himself said in an opinion piece<\/a> that it would be premature for the federal government to invoke the act.<\/p>\n But some Albertans are calling on the House of Commons to intervene regardless.<\/p>\n That is the case of Alberta\u2019s Treaty 8 First Nations which have said they will formally write to Carney to request that the proposed referendum question be reviewed by Parliament \u2014arguing that it is \u201cnot just an Alberta question but\u2026 a question for all Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n The Conservatives did not have a clear stance on the use of the Clarity Act for now.<\/p>\n Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said there are a lot of frustrated people in her home province of Alberta who want some \u201cclarity\u201d from the federal government on how they will start addressing some of the \u201cdeep and real frustrations\u201d they have.<\/p>\n The Clarity Act was adopted after the 1995 referendum in Quebec that nearly saw the province separate from the rest of Canada. It has been, however, controversial in the province because it does not clearly define what a \u201cclear majority\u201d the population is.<\/p>\n In a House of Commons committee, Bloc justice critic Rh\u00e9al Fortin repeatedly pressed Justice Minister Sean Fraser on whether that threshold would be 50 per cent plus one.<\/p>\n Fraser stressed that it would not only be inappropriate, but unhelpful for a Nova Scotian like him to insert himself into debates that are playing out in local jurisdictions.<\/p>\n \u201cI am hyper aware of the importance and political sensitivity of this conversation in at least two Canadian provinces today, and I don\u2019t want to do anything that will foment this conversation from going further,\u201d he said in response to Fortin\u2019s questioning.<\/p>\n Fraser added: \u201cI believe the removal of either Quebec or Alberta from the federation would be a social and economic disaster for which the country would never forgive itself.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the federal justice department will eventually form a legal analysis on the application of the Clarity Act once it has all the facts in hand in either case.<\/p>\n Later, Normandin and Fortin used their time in question period to once again tell the government how they consider the legislation to be a form of \u201ccontempt\u201d toward the population and provinces, and why it should simply never be used.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only does the Clarity Act give a sort of veto to the federal government on the wording of the question as if people were too stupid to understand\u2026 but this anti-democratic law also puts into question the principle of a majority in democracy,\u201d said Fortin.<\/p>\n Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said now is the moment for all levels of government to work together in a more complicated world and said that is precisely the work that the prime minister has been doing with the government of Alberta.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re working with all the provinces throughout the country specifically to show that the federation works and that we share the concerns of Canadians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that the Bloc just isn\u2019t showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n National Post Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 Separatists in Alberta can thank the Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois for making the case that Albertans have the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[164,2862,2138,26169,25029,125,111,348,4512],"class_list":["post-60456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-alberta","tag-alberta-premier","tag-bloc-quebecois","tag-christine-normandin","tag-clarity-act","tag-house-of-commons","tag-mark-carney","tag-question-period","tag-the-federal-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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