Is it 'treason' for Alberta separatists to maneuver with foreign officials? Ottawa says no
OTTAWA — Federal officials say that Alberta separatists going around Ottawa and repeatedly meeting with U.S. officials to advance their cause is legal for Canadians, within certain limits, even though similar behaviour could be prohibited elsewhere.
When separatist organizer Jeffrey Rath claimed last week he was meeting with officials connected to the White House to garner support for Alberta’s independence, Edmonton talk show host Ryan Jespersen responded by saying, “In a lot of countries, this tomfoolery would get you strung up for treason.”
But unlike the U.S., whose little-used Logan Act criminalizes so-called private diplomacy , Canada has no law on the books stopping private citizens from meeting with representatives of foreign governments.
“The short answer would be ‘no’, we don’t have a Logan law,” said Global Affairs spokesman John Babcock in an email to National Post.
Nor do private citizens need to clear such foreign talks with the federal government, Babcock added.
However, a spokesman for the federal Justice Department, Ian McLeod, said that, while private citizens are free to speak with foreign officials, these talks are nonetheless subject to criminal laws prohibiting espionage, sedition and the sharing of state secrets.
“A determination of whether any activity violates these … offences, or any other criminal offence relating to threats to the security of Canada, is a determination for law enforcement,” wrote McLeod in an email.
Rath and his fellow organizers with the pro-independence Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) have visited Washington, D.C. three times this year, most recently reporting they met with unnamed officials inside the U.S. State Department’s headquarters earlier this month.
The APP says the talks have covered U.S. recognition of a successful independence referendum in the province, defence and trade co-operation in case of separation, cross-border oil pipeline routes and a possible multibillion-dollar loan to help Alberta transition to an independent jurisdiction.
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney earlier this year referred to Rath as a “treasonous kook” after the separatist appeared on Fox News in the U.S. to promote his cause. (Kenney is a board member of Postmedia Network, which owns National Post, but plays no role in day-to-day editorial processes.)
The APP is the primary group pushing for an Alberta independence vote in 2026 and is set to start collecting signatures this week in support of its referendum question. Elections Alberta last week officially approved the group’s Citizen Initiative Petition application that would, if the petition is successful, ask Albertans the question, “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?”
Rath, himself a lawyer, said his group did its homework before booking the flights to Washington, D.C.
“We researched all of this extensively before meeting with anyone in the U.S. We are not engaged in any activity that is unlawful,” said Rath.
Cameron Davies, leader of the separatist Republican Party of Alberta, has travelled separately to Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, to court U.S. allies for his cause. He was in Phoenix, Ariz. earlier this month to attend America Fest, the annual conference of Turning Point USA, the Republican-friendly activist group founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September.
Davies said he plans to visit El Salvador and Argentina in the spring for what he calls exploratory talks with “freedom-minded governments.”
He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Alberta’s legislature this summer, finishing third with 18 per cent of the vote in a rural byelection that was widely seen as a bellwether for the province’s independence movement.
Davies said he’s also taken steps to ensure he stays on the right side of relevant Canadian laws.
“I’ve sought legal counsel (and) we’re staying well within the conversations of a private citizen. Any ideas that are floated are purely speculative,” said Davies.
Both Rath and Davies said they’ve made it clear to foreign contacts that they don’t have the authority to make agreements on behalf of Alberta or Canada.
Canada’s existing legal framework of criminal laws prohibiting treason, sedition and espionage set the bar for prosecution so high as to make prosecution almost inconceivable with regard to the Albertans’ meetings, said Yuan Yi Zhu, a Canadian professor of international relations and law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
“They’d pretty much have to be caught on tape helping Donald Trump plan an invasion of Canada” to be prosecuted, said Zhu.
Prosecutions of private Canadian citizens for crimes against the state have been virtually unheard of in the post-Second World War era.
Zhu said that the lack of a popular mandate for Alberta separation — with no open separatists currently holding elected office and polls showing most Albertans opposed to the idea — is legally irrelevant.
“There’s no law against being a crank,” said Zhu.
Adrienne Davidson, a political science professor at McMaster University, said the legality of these talks could become a more complicated question once a referendum campaign is officially underway.
“I think, legally, it could raise some really interesting questions (surrounding) interference into electoral processes or referendums … I think that’s where the real question of foreign interference would come in,” said Davidson.
The federal government passed legislation beefing up provisions against foreign interference in June 2024, including the creation of a Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner to whom groups and individuals working with foreign governments in some contexts would have to report. However, the commissioner has not yet been appointed.
National Post
With files from Tracy Moran
rmohamed@postmedia.com
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