The Blood Tribe Chief and Council issued a new community notice on June 16, 2026, updating members about the next steps in the fight against Alberta’s push for a separation vote. The notice comes after the Blood Tribe, along with Piikani Nation and Siksika Nation, won a complete legal victory on May 13, when Justice Shaina Leonard of the Alberta Court of King’s Bench struck down the approval of the Stay Free Alberta petition. Both the Alberta government and petition leader Mitch Sylvestre have since appealed that ruling.
The June 16 notice calls the province’s appeal “a radical request aimed at immunizing a category of Crown conduct from the scope of the duty to consult altogether.” The Blood Tribe says the government is asking the Court of Appeal to declare that the Crown does not have to consult First Nations when it authorizes a citizen-led petition. This, the notice warns, would allow the province to ignore Treaty rights whenever it approves public votes that could affect those rights.
The legal battle started after a group called Stay Free Alberta collected more than 301,000 signatures for a separation petition between January 3 and May 2, 2026, submitting them to Elections Alberta on May 4. But on May 13, Justice Leonard ruled that the Crown failed to meet its constitutional duty by not consulting any First Nations before the petition was approved. The Blood Tribe had launched the court challenge in January, alongside Piikani and Siksika Nations, with support from Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation.
Despite that court win, Premier Danielle Smith announced on May 21 that Alberta will hold its own referendum on October 19, 2026. That vote will ask Albertans if the province should stay in Canada or start the legal process for a binding separation vote. The Blood Tribe says it will strongly fight the appeals and keep defending Treaty rights under Treaty 7, the 1877 nation-to-nation agreement with the Crown that came decades before Alberta existed as a province.
The next steps will play out in the Court of Appeal, where both the province and Sylvestre are trying to overturn the May 13 ruling. The Blood Tribe’s notice makes clear that the community will keep pushing back to ensure that any vote about Alberta’s future respects the Treaty relationship and the Crown’s duty to consult.
