FN leaders call on Alberta Premier’s executive director to resign

By Jeremy Appel, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

(ANNews) – First Nations leaders are calling on Premier Danielle Smith to apologize and fire her office’s executive director after he made online remarks blaming chiefs for their people’s suffering. 

Bruce McAllister, a former MLA and TV broadcaster, was responding to the Assembly of Treaty Chiefs (AOTC) unanimously passing a resolution on June 16 asking the RCMP and auditor general to investigate the premier for treason. 

“We call for this investigation on the basis of the intentional violation of the Treaties; of calling a referendum in the face of severe risks to Canada’s sovereignty and the Treaty Relationship, and of failing to take action on the violation of privacy rights of millions of people,” reads an AOTC statement. 

Criminal Code section 46(2) defines treason as using “force or violence for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Canada or a province,” or providing military or scientific information to another state that “may be used by that state for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or defence of Canada.”

On X, formerly known as Twitter, McAllister called the AOTC motion “childish nonsense.” 

“People are sick and tired of hearing unrealistic demands from them,” he added. “It might be tolerable if their communities were beacons of prosperity, safety, strong families and real accountability, but sadly, they’re anything but.”

After listing social issues that disproportionately plague First Nations communities, including drug abuse, domestic violence, poverty and children being removed from their families, McAllister questioned whom the AOTC, which represents chiefs from Treaties 6, 7 and 8, “are taking their orders from.”

“It surely isn’t their own people,” he said. 

Chief Rupert Meneen of Tallcree First Nation in Treaty 8 told Alberta Native News that McAllister’s comments remind him of racist remarks that are common from anonymous social media accounts. 

Meneen said there appears to be a pattern of these attitudes within Smith’s “inner circle.” 

“These people have been empowered by her with what she’s doing,” he said. “The racists are just out there front and centre right now.”

Chief Sheldon Sunshine of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, also in Treaty 8, said in a June 19 statement that if McAllister’s comments “were made by a senior staffer in a Premier’s office in any other province they would be fired.” 

Meneen told this newspaper that he can’t see First Nations “even looking at partnering with this government” unless “there’s apologies, for one thing, and she has to fire these people, but I doubt that she’ll ever do anything about it.”

“It’s got to start from the top,” he added. “She’s got to be able to lead with her apologies, she’s got to be the one doing it, and she’s got to be sincere about it.” 

But the Premier’s Office is standing behind its executive director.

“Accusing elected officials of treason is dangerous and unacceptable rhetoric that only fuels division. It must be rejected entirely,” Premier Smith’s spokesperson Sam Blackett said in a statement. 

“We want to work collaboratively on a government-to-government basis to make our communities stronger. When the Treaty Chiefs are ready to do that, we’ll look forward to it.”

Matt Wildcat, a professor in Native Studies at the University of Alberta, told Alberta Native News that he shares the chiefs’ offence at McAllister’s comments. 

“It’s really unfair to tell First Nations to do better when they are required to do more with less resources than any other government in Canada,” said Wildcat. 

He added that it’s unclear to him whether the AOTC’s treason motion was “trying to make a political statement or trying to have a tangible outcome.” 

“From a strategic standpoint, if the goal was to rankle the premier, then they succeeded,” said Wildcat, “but … the AOTC call probably was stretching itself a little thin in terms of thinking an RCMP investigation is going to go anywhere.” 

He added that there’s a “long-running debate in Indigenous governance” about the utility of turning to colonial institutions, such as the RCMP, to “advance Indigenous claims,” rather than building independent “sources of strength, where you can press your claims through actions like civil disobedience and cultural regeneration.” 

“The RCMP is an institution, which has very often not been a source of justice for Indigenous Peoples,” Wildcat said, “and so is there a danger in placing our faith in legitimizing and upholding the RCMP as an arbiter of justice in this moment?”

Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta Grand Chief Trevor Mercredi has warned that the government proceeding with an Oct. 19 referendum on whether to pursue a vote on independence could result in civil disobedience. 

The Mounties didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Earlier this year, the AOTC passed a motion declaring non-confidence in the premier’s UCP government.