‘Separatist rhetoric’ in Alberta is ‘harmful and divisive for all’: FSIN [Video]

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is raising the alarm about the possibility of a referendum in Alberta over separation.

On Tuesday, the day after the Liberals won the federal election, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith tabled a bill that would make it easier for voters there to force recalls and referendums.

First Nations leaders in Alberta accused her of “attempting to manufacture a national unity crisis by enabling a referendum on separatism.”

The FSIN, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, said in a press release Thursday that Smith’s proposal to lower thresholds for citizen-initiated referendums, which could lead to a vote on separation, fundamentally ignores the nation-to-nation treaties signed between First Nations and the Crown.

The federation sees “separatist rhetoric as harmful and divisive for all, distracting from the real work of building a stronger, more unified Canada that also respects First Nations inherent and treaty rights and sovereignty,” the release said.