Application for review of electoral officer’s decision pending before Court of King’s Bench
The chief and Council of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) has welcomed the Alberta Court of King’s Bench’s issuance of a stay in the Alberta separation referendum campaign until the determination of certain First Nations’ originating applications.
Following a Court of King’s Bench decision dated Dec. 5, 2025, the chief electoral officer declined to issue an initiative petition to Mitch Sylvestre under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act, 2021 (CIA). Around that time, the legislature amended the CIA.
Last Jan. 2, the officer decided to issue an initiative petition to Sylvestre under the CIA.
The applicants in Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation v Alberta (Chief Electoral Officer), 2026 ABKB 278, were ACFN and the Blackfoot Nations, comprising the Piikani Nation, Siksika Nation, and the Blood Tribe.
In their originating applications, the applicants sought a judicial review of the officer’s decision and served a notice of constitutional question. They alleged that the CIA provisions were unconstitutional.
The applicants argued that any attempt to secede from Canada, especially without consulting the First Nations, breached the sacred Treaties. According to the applicants, the government betrayed the Crown’s duty to uphold the Treaties when it facilitated the referendum process, lowered the required number of signatures, and gave more time to gather them.
The applicants applied to stay the officer’s decision and/or enjoin him from making decisions on the second initiative petition, including approving any petition results and referring the proposal to Alberta’s justice minister, pending the applications’ final determination or a further court order.
Stay issued
Until the resolution of the originating applications, the court granted a stay preventing the chief electoral officer, upon receiving the petition signature sheets from Sylvestre, from:
- determining under s. 10 of the CIA whether Sylvestre’s second initiative petition met the requirements of s. 6 of the CIA
- taking the next steps after either a successful or unsuccessful petition, including certifying any petition results or making a referral to the provincial justice minister
The court clarified that it was not staying the signature collection period or its expiry.
In issuing its order, the court considered the various interests involved, including the fact that the signature collection period had commenced.
The court noted that the CIA required the proponent of an initiative petition to obtain a threshold number of signatures within a specific period. Here, Sylvestre had to gather the signatures and submit them to the officer by May 2.
The court explained the next steps under the law. Upon compliance with the signature threshold, the officer had to decide within 21 days whether the initiative petition met the statutory requirements. If it did, the officer would submit the proposal to the justice minister.
The justice minister would then refer the constitutional referendum proposal to the lieutenant governor in council for a referendum under Alberta’s Referendum Act, 2000.
ACFN’s reaction to stay
“Whether the summer of 1812 or the spring of 2026, Canada's Indigenous people have always been the first and last line of defense against American annexation,” said Chief Allan Adam in ACFN’s statement welcoming the stay. “While Ottawa sleeps, Alberta's first inhabitants are doing everything we can to save confederation.”
Emphasizing the importance of Canada’s respect for the rule of law and the supremacy of the constitution, Chief Adam shared that the court challenge aims to benefit children and youth in the province, as well as other Albertans.
“We shall never allow our Treaties to be broken, and we will never bend the knee to foreign tyrants or their useful idiots,” Chief Adam said in the statement. “We are standing up for our Treaties, for our people and for the land that is all under threat through this referendum effort.”
