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The grand chief of the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations says King Charles “expressed his concern” on Wednesday after hearing about a separatist push in Alberta during a face-to-face meeting with Indigenous leaders.
Grand Chief Joey Pete, who was part of a delegation of Treaty 6 chiefs who went to Buckingham Palace, said in a news release that the King was “very interested” in what the Indigenous leaders had to say.
“We made him aware of the separatism issue in Alberta and the threat to treaty it represents,” the chief said.
“He expressed his concern and committed to learning more.”
The meeting took place in response to invitations Indigenous leaders had sent to the King to attend an event this summer marking the 150th anniversary of Treaty 6 being signed.
Pete also said he asked the King to issue a royal proclamation to affirm the sacredness of the treaty and the rights it affords.
“It was a significant meeting, as treaty partners and equals.”
Pete is also chief of the Sunchild First Nation, southwest of Edmonton.
Louis Bull Tribe Chief Desmond Bull, who was also part of the delegation, said another topic of conversation was Canada’s “ongoing failure to meet treaty obligations.”
“He took it all very seriously,” Bull said.
Pete was not available for an interview with The Canadian Press, but earlier Wednesday he told CTV News that the King is planning to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney next week.
Rajan Sawhney, Alberta’s Indigenous relations minister, said Wednesday she was hoping to speak with Pete directly about the alleged treaty violations.
“I would like to know more about what he thinks those treaty violations are, and I think I’d have to speak to him, to hear from him directly, to understand his perspective,” Sawhney told reporters at the provincial legislature in Edmonton.
“At this point I don’t agree with those allegations.”
Sawhney said she thought it was a good opportunity for the Treaty 6 delegation to meet with the King, and for the King to meet with Carney.
“Dialogue is important at every level about a number of different issues. Everybody has their perspective. I’d be interested in learning more about what comes out of those meetings.”
Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Indigenous leaders have been vocally opposed to the separatist movement in Alberta for months.
The royal face-to-face came two days after more than a dozen First Nations chiefs, and even more band councillors and elders, came to Alberta’s legislature to demand that Premier Danielle Smith’s government denounce separatism.
The chiefs had also been pushing for a non-confidence vote on Smith’s government, which the Opposition NDP tried to force on Monday only to be stymied by the premier’s United Conservative majority government.
Chiefs and supporters watching from the gallery heckled the government after the vote was blocked.
“Traitors!” one person shouted.
Multiple First Nations are also pursuing legal challenges regarding provincial legislation permitting citizen-led petitions that seek referendum votes, such as the ongoing campaign to put separation on a ballot.
That campaign, which officially got underway in January, has until May to collect nearly 178,000 signatures. Smith has said that should the petition be successful, the question of whether Alberta should separate from Canada will be put to voters in a referendum this fall.
Smith has previously said she won’t demonize those who are upset with Ottawa and that it’s her job to prove Alberta can have a productive relationship with the federal government.
The premier’s refusal to denounce separatism has led to criticism from Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, who has accused Smith of pandering to both sides of the debate and triggering economic uncertainty in the process.
Nenshi continued the criticism Wednesday, saying he thought the government was more concerned about its political fortunes than recognizing and acting on the concerns the separation movement has created.
“Minister Sawhney has a lot of explaining to do in terms of how she let this go this far,” he said. “We have a government that never thinks about the implications of what it’s doing.”
