It is a curious feature of Canadian political discourse that every few years, the spectre of Alberta separatism re-emerges, driven largely by feelings of Western alienation or perceived federal overreach. Yet few of its proponents seem to understand the constitutional, historical, and moral terrain on which they stake their claims.

Most glaringly, the notion that Alberta could legally or legitimately secede from Canada ignores the foundational reality that this province exists entirely upon Indigenous treaty land: Treaties 6, 7, and 8, signed decades before Alberta was even established.

Treaty Obligations: The Legal Bedrock
Treaties 6 (1876), 7 (1877), and 8 (1899) are not quaint relics of the colonial past. These were solemn nation-to-nation agreements made between the British Crown and various Indigenous nations; primarily Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Nakota, and others. The Crown, not the provinces, is the party to these treaties. This distinction matters enormously: Alberta, created in 1905, was superimposed upon lands already bound by legal and moral obligations that persist to this day.

Treaty nations agreed to share the land, not to surrender it to a future province. Indigenous consent was given to the Crown, not to the provincial governments that came later. As such, Alberta’s claims to land, resources, and governance are valid only to the extent that they flow through the Crown’s treaty responsibilities, not through any inherent sovereignty.

The Supreme Court Speaks: Secession Is Not a Unilateral Act
This legal landscape was sharply clarified in the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark Reference re Secession of Quebec (1998). The Court ruled decisively that no province has a unilateral right to secede. Any attempt at secession would require negotiations with the federal government and with other provinces and, crucially, with Indigenous peoples.

The Court emphasized that Indigenous peoples have rights protected under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, and that their consent is a necessary component of any major constitutional change. As the ruling states:

“The continued existence of Aboriginal peoples, as well as their historical occupancy and participation in the development of Canada, forms an integral part of our constitutional fabric.” (Secession Reference, [1998] 2 S.C.R. 217)

This is not simply a legal technicality. It is a reaffirmation of the reality that Canada is a nation founded not just through British and French settler traditions, but through treaties with Indigenous peoples, treaties that are still very much alive in constitutional law.

Indigenous Sovereignty and the Fallacy of Secession
The idea that Alberta could leave Canada while continuing to govern Indigenous treaty land is untenable. Indigenous peoples were never consulted in the creation of Alberta, and any attempt by the province to secede would, by necessity, face resistance from Indigenous governments asserting their own sovereignty.

During the Quebec referendum in 1995, the Cree and other First Nations asserted that they would remain in Canada regardless of Quebec’s decision. They argued, correctly, that their treaty relationships were with the Crown, not the province of Quebec. The same principle applies here: Treaty First Nations in Alberta are under no obligation to follow a secessionist provincial government. In fact, they would have a powerful legal and moral claim to reject it.

Furthermore, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which Canada has committed to implement, recognizes the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination. Any secession that disregards that right would contravene both domestic and international law.

No Secession Without Consent
In short, Alberta cannot separate from Canada without first navigating the constitutional reality of treaties, Indigenous sovereignty, and the Supreme Court’s own binding interpretation of secession. The land on which Alberta stands is not Alberta’s to take into independence. It is treaty land, Indigenous land, shared under solemn agreement with the Crown.

Alberta exists because those treaties allowed Canada to exist in the West. To attempt secession without Indigenous consent is to ignore the very foundations of the province itself.

If separatist advocates wish to have a serious conversation about Alberta’s future, they must first understand its past, and the enduring obligations it entails.

Sources:
Supreme Court of Canada. Reference re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 S.C.R. 217
Constitution Act, 1982, Section 35
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), 2007
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. “Treaties 6, 7, and 8.”
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Volume 1 (1996)
Borrows, John. Recovering Canada: The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (2002)