Alberta Separatist Lawyer Discovers Treaties Exist, Audience Reacts Accordingly
They came from Treaties 6, 7 and 8, the grand chiefs and chiefs sitting shoulder to shoulder Thursday morning in west Edmonton, united by history, shared jurisdiction, and a mutual appreciation for irony.
They laughed.
Not the warm, communal kind. This was the sharp, surgical laugh reserved for ideas that collapse under their own confidence. The absent punchline was Jeffrey Rath, Alberta separatist lawyer and recent amateur benefactor of Indigenous peoples.
Just days earlier, Rath had promised that an independent Alberta would “triple” Indigenous funding and rescue First Nations from a century of federal neglect, a proposal delivered from a Days Inn conference room, the traditional birthplace of constitutional theory.
On Thursday, leaders from three treaty territories politely declined the offer, noting they were already sovereign nations with binding treaties, an awkward detail for any breakup plan involving Canada.
Several chiefs also remembered Rath from his previous career arguing Indigenous rights all the way to the Supreme Court, before disagreements over legal fees cooled the relationship.
History, it turns out, has a very long memory.
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