Edmonton Forum

Head of Stay Free Alberta says group has collected required number of signatures

The Canadian Press

It's the last day for Alberta separatists to gather petition signatures that could trigger a referendum on pulling the province out of Confederation.

Because the deadline falls on a weekend, however, they have two extra days to deliver the petition.

Mitch Sylvestre, head of the group Stay Free Alberta, says it plans to hand the paperwork in Monday to Elections Alberta's head office in Edmonton.

More than a month ago, Sylvestre said they had already collected more than the approximate 178,000 signatures required since the petition started in January.

Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer for the independence movement, told CBC News on Friday that the signatures the group has gathered “number in the hundreds of thousands.” Rath said the exact figure will be announced Monday.

Premier Danielle Smith has said she would move forward with a provincewide referendum if enough names are gathered and verified.

“I don’t think that Danielle Smith politically can ignore hundreds of thousands of Albertans that have been standing in lines … stretching into the dark January nights for a chance to be able to vote on independence,” Rath said.

But the petition faces another hurdle. An Edmonton judge is expected to rule next week on a court challenge launched by a group of Alberta First Nations that argue the petition violates treaty rights.

However, Rath said his organization isn't worried about the ruling.

“We literally crushed the statutory requirement. We’re well, well, well over it. And as far as the court challenges go, we’re not concerned about it,” he said.

With files from Iman Janmohamed