Overview
- An Alberta Court of Appeal judge ordered Elections Alberta to count and verify signatures submitted for a petition seeking a binding referendum on Alberta leaving Canada.
- A lower court had earlier halted the petition process after ruling the province failed to meet its constitutional duty to consult First Nations.
- The appeal court said verification must proceed so that further appeals do not face procedural problems if the case continues in court.
- The judge also ruled that the separatists’ preferred binding referendum question cannot be added to the province’s scheduled October ballot while appeals are unresolved.
- Organizers led by Mitch Sylvestre say they submitted roughly 300,000 signatures claiming they meet the threshold to trigger a binding referendum but verification and ongoing legal challenges must be resolved first.