{"id":23220,"date":"2026-05-13T21:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/?p=23220"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:55:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:55:02","slug":"stay-free-alberta-petition-quashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/?p=23220","title":{"rendered":"Stay Free Alberta petition quashed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An Alberta Court of King\u2019s Bench justice has quashed Elections Alberta\u2019s approval of a petition seeking a referendum on Alberta independence from separatist group Stay Free Alberta. Within hours, Dani Panama said Alberta taxpayers will appeal the decision, calling it &#8216;undemocratic&#8217;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">When asked how far she would go\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Smith claimed that she wanted a permissive approach where any subject could be discussed\u2026<\/p>\n<p>And added she isn\u2019t sure that Duty to Consult applies to separation.<\/p>\n<p>As if two judges hadn\u2019t recently ruled it does.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/abpoli?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#abpoli<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ableg?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ableg<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/cdnpoli?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#cdnpoli<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rjt9W8TNQd\">pic.twitter.com\/rjt9W8TNQd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; The Breakdown (@TheBreakdownAB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheBreakdownAB\/status\/2054691637528608974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n\u27a1\ufe0f Premier Smith: We think there might have been an error in law and we are going to appeal it. Lay lawyer Dani Panama says she isn\u2019t sure that &#8216;Duty to Consult&#8217; applies to separation. Two judges have recently said it does, plainly.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/images-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" \/><\/td>\n<td>Justice Shaina Leonard issued two decisions May 13. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>One found that chief electoral officer Gordon McClure made an error in law to approve the second citizen&#8217;s initiative petition and failed to consider an earlier decision that said separation would violate Treaty rights.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-13-174516.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Leonard&#8217;s conclusion says there was an error of law, &#8220;rendering the [chief electoral officer]&#8217;s decision unreasonable.&#8221; She also found that the government, as representative of the Crown, failed in its duty to consult with applicants Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Blood Tribe, Piikani Nation, and Siksika Nation.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HIOcyCXbIAAYhPE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"424\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HIOcyCXbIAAYhPE.jpg 680w, https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HIOcyCXbIAAYhPE-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/screenshot-2026-01-23-at-25457-pm.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"407\" height=\"197\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/screenshot-2026-01-23-at-25457-pm.png 407w, https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/screenshot-2026-01-23-at-25457-pm-300x145.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px\" \/><br \/>\nStay Free Alberta collected signatures between Jan. 2 and May 2. Mitch Sylvestre, leader of the group, delivered the petition to Elections Alberta&#8217;s Edmonton office on May 4. <\/p>\n<table><Tr><\/p>\n<td>Terd kicker lawyer Jeff Rath was fundamentally unhappy with Leonard&#8217;s decision.<\/td>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HH9XZtobUAA1MB3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>\u201cWe disagree fundamentally with the decision which appears on its face to violate principles of natural justice and contain numerous errors of law,&#8221; he wrote on X.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/assholes.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"530\" height=\"297\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-23226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/assholes.png 530w, https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/assholes-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Alberta Court of King\u2019s Bench justice has quashed Elections Alberta\u2019s approval of a petition seeking a referendum on Alberta independence from separatist group Stay Free Alberta. Within hours, Dani Panama said Alberta taxpayers will appeal the decision, calling it &#8216;undemocratic&#8217;. When asked how far she would go\u2026 Smith claimed that she wanted a permissive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1252,1251,1249,1250],"class_list":["post-23220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gordon-mcclure","tag-jeff-rath","tag-mitch-sylvestre","tag-stay-free-alberta"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/screenshot-2026-01-23-at-25457-pm.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23220"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23231,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23220\/revisions\/23231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gangsterismout.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}