Analyst warns Eby’s language could push some ‘separatist-curious’ Albertans to become fully separatist
B.C. Premier David Eby is not backing down after calling the Alberta separatist movement seeking foreign assistance an act of treason — but one analyst is warning against using such serious language during a time where Canada needs to stand united.
Eby’s comments last week came amid meetings with fellow Canadian leaders in Ottawa, in response to reports that members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have met with members of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a group pushing for Alberta to become independent.
The group is seeking a $500-billion US line of credit from the U.S. Treasury to help bankroll the new country if they are successful in a referendum. An official with the U.S. State Department confirmed the meetings, but said “no commitments were made.”
“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is treason,” Eby said last Thursday.
In an interview on CBC’s The Early Edition on Monday, the premier doubled down on his comments.
This would also be a great time to turn a spotlight on how exactly which US owned media outlets are responding to this accurate description of an active attack on our sovereignty as a nation. I really think it’s time we start revoking licenses from foreign corporations pushing this initiative and refusing to address it clearly to provide cover as it infiltrates our society, and start awarding more attention and credibility to Canadian operated media. I’m wary of anyone claiming it’s “dangerous language” to label individuals while completely ignoring the danger of annexation from an openly aggressive state and the direct connection between the two. Don’t think it’s an issue? Do even a cursory online search of who owns our private news distributors and tell me there’s no vulnerability. People, especially conservatives want you to doubt CBC as state run media, but fully endorse completely unaccountable private media that has foreign ownership and is motivated by ideology accordingly. No media are perfect, but only one of these institutions relies primarily on the Canadian public for input and support, and that’s where accountability comes from.
Please, observe media critically and build your literacy, it’s more important than ever.
Very well put. I wonder if our government will ever consider foreign media ownership in Canada as a national security problem, because I think it’s high time they do. The media in the United States has been a huge contributor to the slide into the current shit show down there, and similar corporations own most of our outlets. I hope routing out foreign ownership is something that happens sooner than later, but I won’t hold my breath.
This also has me thinking what motivation conservatives actually have for defunding the CBC. Is it their love of the free market, or some greater plot to follow in the foot steps of the US?
Elby: a politician with the balls to call a spade a spade.
It’s why I voted for him.
Rally around him, even if your not from his province.
but one analyst is warning against using such serious language during a time where Canada needs to stand united.
We need to stand united - with the people who want to separate? So what, we’re supposed to tilt our heads, shrug, and say, “boys will be boys, donchaknow!”
Fuck off data analyst John Santos. Get bent.
Whether the word treason truly applies to the Alberta Prosperity Project’s meetings with the U.S. administration isn’t clear, but project co-founder Jeffrey Rath has called the characterization “defamatory.”
"It’s a childish temper tantrum on behalf of a spoiled NDP politician.”
Oh boo hoo, you treasonist, motherfucking bastard. You went to an antagonistic foreign state to talk about breaking up our fucking country. What did you think people would call it. I hope you rot in prison, asshole.
One thing we’ve learned from the US is that avoiding using accurate language to soften the meaning of things just lets the fascists take over.
It’s literally what 1984 was warning us about
The fact that this is even being treated as a debate is insane. Asking a foreign government to bankroll your political movement is already highly suspect. Asking a foreign government to bankroll your separatist movement is beyond the pale.
Debating settled language and concepts is a key element in rhetorically shifting the dialectic toward fascism, and you’re right to be alarmed by it. This is very recently precedented in the US itself, and we need to do what too few did there during early phases and push back and punish media narratives that are driving it. Don’t forget how many of our news outlets aren’t owned by Canadian companies or interests, and stay vigilant.
I can’t see how it would even work. Alberta doesn’t own all their land, they have a treaty with the indigenous population that gives them use, I assume that use would be void if Alberta “leaves” Canada
indigenous land
The US and Canada already agree on this one. The white people own that land
Yeah most provinces just stole land thus why we have the Cowichan issue.
A features of Alberta’s treaties: First Nations agreed to share the land, NOT surrender it outright.
So this would be a problem for Alberta if the Indigenous don’t want to be part of USA.
It is treason.
It’s the most treason really.
Well, yeah. By every metric, it fits the description.
Good! Cause it is! It’s a joke that anyone is saying it’s not.
They could always avoid calling out people for what they are and end up like the US - I’ve heard so many good things!
Awww, how can we be united as a country unless we mince words and actively coddle the people literally trying to separate??
Good, make the feds do something substantive about it.
Yeah really, the guy is doing treason, maybe he should be charged with treason?
