Danielle Smith opens door to amending constitution to alter treaty rights

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she’s open to having a “conversation” with her fellow premiers about rewriting parts of the constitution relating to Indigenous treaty rights.

Smith told reporters on Friday that Section 35 of the constitution, which governs Crown-Indigenous relations, has been stretched beyond recognition by the courts.


She said that an Alberta judge’s decision earlier this month to throw out a petition for a binding referendum, on the grounds that the province failed to meet its duty to consult with First Nations, was a prime example of this overreach.
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“I don’t even know what the court would expect of a citizen-initiated petition to satisfy a bar to a duty to consult before they can even ask a question,” said Smith.

Smith has vowed to appeal the ruling, and is inviting her fellow premiers to help prevent similar decisions in the future.

“It needs to be challenged, we’re going to and, if there’s an appetite among the other premiers to talk about defining that ever further through some kind of constitutional amendment, I’m opening to having that conversation,” said Smith.

Smith was taking questions from the media in Calgary after announcing on Thursday evening that she’ll be adding an independence-related question to the fall referendum ballot.

She noted that Alberta isn’t the only province grappling with overly broad judicial interpretations of treaty rights.

“My reading of (Section 35) is that it was never intended to continue being open-ended and redefined by the courts, to create new and increasing rights over and over again with each new decision,” said Smith.

“It was never intended to undermine property rights (or) to undermine the ability of provinces to have control over their resources.”
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Amending the ‘constitution’ or just the Charter?
 
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border_humper said:



Amending the ‘constitution’ or just the Charter?
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border_humperblah, blah blah... meh I'm a globalist but golly gee willkers I'm (smith) sure trying to ensure you fail so trust me... just my recent observation of your abhorrent actions... seeing as your many words have always turned out to fail us when it matters!
 
I doubt there would be enough provinces to support this. I have always been against this being in the constitution in the first place and has caused loads of issues. Governments should be able to use notwithstanding clause to over rule ludicrous court decisions. However they can not at the moment.
 
Well it was put in by daddy Trudeau for just this reason. As for the notwithstanding clause, fuck that, bring back parliamentary supremacy. It may not be prefect but it's better than being ruled by 9 ivory tower, ermine clad gods!
 
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