Smith tells First Nations chiefs to “check themselves” over treason accusation
“I think it’s disgraceful that any government that wants to be taken seriously would level the charges that serious against another government,” said Smith.
Author: Quinn Patrick
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says First Nations chiefs need to “check themselves,” in response to calls for her to be investigated for treason by the RCMP over the province’s fall referendum question on separatism.
“I think it’s disgraceful that any government that wants to be taken seriously would level the charges that serious against another government,” Smith told reporters in Calgary on Thursday. “I’ve had my differences with the federal government, but I have never used language like that.”
The Assembly of Treaty Chiefs in Alberta unanimously voted to request the RCMP to investigate whether the province’s fall referendum amounts to criminal treason by the premier and her United Conservative Party.
“We call for this investigation on the basis of the intentional violation of the Treaties; of calling a referendum in the face of severe risks to Canada’s sovereignty and the Treaty Relationship and of failing to take action on the violation of privacy rights of millions of people,” the ATOC said in a news release.
“Further, Premier Smith and the UCP government have done all this with significant risks of foreign interference and influence.”
The RCMP confirmed that they are aware of the request but have yet to release an official response.
“I would ask the treaty chiefs to check themselves, because we have a very collaborative relationship between our government and our ministers,” Smith said, adding that “this kind of overwrought language has no place in a democracy.”
Meanwhile, Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations Joey Pete accused Smith of “trying to steamroll her separatist regime onto the rest of Albertans.”
Pete said that Smith’s position has been “infringing on the Constitution that built the framework of Canada” and that “Her and her government need to check themselves, and remember who they work for.”
Smith herself has made it clear that she would vote for Alberta to remain part of Canada in October’s referendum.
On Wednesday, the premier said her government and the assembly have a collaborative relationship and she wants it to continue.
They make me laugh. I would suggest that they listen to the actual people who put them into the positions they’re in. A lot of natives are voting for separation and that’s a fact. These chiefs are just doing the dirty business of the federal government, is what’s going on. Don’t kid yourself, a lot of money is involved here. That is what they are thinking about. Also, do they honestly think that with the heavy influx of immigrants we’ve had into Canada by the very government they seem to support that it won’t be long before the Canadian Indians are marginalized? These people should’ve been off reserves and assimilated with the rest of society a long time ago.
The chiefs fear the end of whitey's free gravy train and their exhalted status as more than equal to the Canadians who have to pay for this racist gravy train.