AFN calls on Ottawa, provinces to protect treaty rights in wake of Alberta separatism
The Assembly of First Nations has passed an emergency resolution demanding that provincial governments respect treaty rights and constitutional processes. This follows concerns that Alberta's potential separation from Canada could undermine the legal relationship between Indigenous groups and the Crown.
Why it matters
This highlights the legal and constitutional tensions between provincial sovereignty movements and Indigenous treaty rights in Canada.
On Thursday, at the annual meeting of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) in Ottawa, chiefs passed a resolution asking the highest levels of government to ensure constitutional processes that impact First Nations only proceed with consultation and consent from affected groups.
“The emergency resolution … states that no province has the legal authority to alter, diminish, or extinguish treaty rights or the constitutional relationship between First Nations and the Crown,” said an AFN news release issued Thursday.
The resolution also asks the federal and provincial governments to “uphold the honour of the Crown” and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), the release said.
The Alberta government has planned to normalize Alberta’s separation from Canada, “while failing to recognize or engage” First Nations, whose treaty rights and interests “would be fundamentally affected by such constitutional change,” the release said.
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