VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The premier of Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta said Monday she will hold a referendum on separation from Canada next year if a citizen-led petition reaches the required number of signatures.
Speaking on a livestream address, Danielle Smith said she personally does not support the province leaving Canada and expressed hope of a “path forward” for a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.
“Should Ottawa, for whatever reason, continue to attack our province as they have done over the last decade, ultimately that will be for Albertans to decide," she said. "I will accept their judgement.”
Smith’s announcement comes just one week after Prime Minister Mark Carney led the Liberal Party to a fourth consecutive federal government. It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten Canada with tariffs and talk of the country becoming the 51st state.
Carney and Trump are scheduled to meet in the White House Tuesday.
Smith’s United Conservative government recently introduced legislation that, if passed, would reduce the bar petitioners need to meet to trigger a provincial referendum.
The bill would change citizen-initiated referendum rules to require a petition signed by 10 percent of eligible voters in a previous general election — down from 20 percent of total registered voters. Applicants would also get 120 days, rather than 90, to collect the required 177,000 signatures.
Smith accused previous federal Liberal governments of introducing different legislations that hamstring Alberta’s ability to produce and export oil, which she said has cost the province billions of dollars. She also said she doesn’t want the federal government meddling in provincial issues.
“We don’t ask for special treatment or handouts,” she said. “We just want to be free to develop and export that incredible wealth of resources we have. Freedom to choose how we provide health care, education and other needed social services to our people, even if it’s done differently than what Ottawa has in mind.”
Smith has met with Carney and said he “had some promising things to say about changing the direction of his government’s anti-resources policies.”
Smith said her government will appoint a negotiation team to try to bring an end to federal policies that have long irritated the province. She also will chair an “Alberta Next" panel hosting a series of town halls to hear ideas and grievances from Albertans.
John Soroski, a political scientist at MacEwan University in Edmonton, said while there is anger in the province, he isn’t sure if it will lead to voting to separate.
“These grievances are serious,” he said. “I think the prospects of separation are highly unlikely.
The largely French-speaking province of Quebec held referendums in 1980 and 1995 over separation. Both failed.
Soroski said Smith may be following the lead of Quebec politicians who have used the threat of separation when dealing with the federal government.
“I don’t see Smith wants separation, but I think it’s very useful for the province to have in its back pocket the idea that there’s this large number of discontented Albertans,” he said.
Smith said she will work with Carney “in good faith” but wants “tangible proof of real change.”
FILE - Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith, accompanied by other Council of the Federation members, speaks to reporters at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota county is investigating the arrest of a Hmong American man by federal officers that was captured on video as a potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment, officials announced Monday.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said at a news conference they are pursuing information from the Department of Homeland Security that they need for their investigation into the arrest of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, 56, on Jan. 18. Ramsey County includes the state capital of St. Paul.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers bashed open the front door of Thao’s St. Paul home at gunpoint — without a warrant as far as Choi and Fletcher have been able to determine — then led him outside in just his underwear and a blanket in freezing conditions.
“There are many facts we don’t know yet, but there’s one that we do know. And that is that Mr. Thao is and has been an American citizen. There’s not a dispute over that," Fletcher said. “There’s no dispute that he was taken out of his house, forcibly taken out of his home and driven around.”
The sheriff continued: "Is that good law enforcement, to take an American citizen out of their home and drive them around aimlessly, trying to determine what they can tell them?”
DHS, which oversees ICE, has refused so far to cooperate with Ramsey County, or with other state and local investigations into the killings by federal officers of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
ICE and DHS representatives did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Ramsey County's announcement.
Choi said they’re trying to determine whether any crimes were committed that they could prosecute under state or federal law. He also said St. Paul police were investigating another case related to the immigration crackdown for potential violations, but he declined to provide details.
“This is not about any type of predetermined agenda other than to seek the truth and to investigate the facts,” Choi said.
Agents who arrested Thao eventually realized he was a longtime U.S. citizen with no criminal record, Thao said in an interview with The Associated Press in January. They returned him to his home after a couple of hours.
Homeland Security later said ICE officers had been seeking two convicted sex offenders. But Thao told the AP he had never seen the two men before and that they did not live with him. The Minnesota Department of Corrections later said one of the two wanted men was still in prison.
Videos captured the scene, which included people blowing whistles and horns, and neighbors screaming at more than a dozen gun-toting agents to leave Thao’s family alone.
Thao declined to comment on the announcement Monday.
The director of the trial division in the County Attorney's Office, Hao Nguyen, said they wrote to DHS, ICE and local federal prosecutors March 20 outlining the evidence they're seeking.
“We know there are reports, there’s just no way that there aren’t," Nguyen said. "We want also to know who was working that day, who was working that month. Where did they report to? Who did they report to? We also want to understand what recordings might be out there in terms of digital recordings, witness interviews, video recordings.”
They set a deadline of April 30, after which they could sue or convene a grand jury, Choi said.
The state and the chief prosecutor in neighboring Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, sued the Trump administration last month to gain access to evidence they say they need to independently investigate three shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The lawsuit accuses the federal government of reneging on its promise to cooperate with state investigations after the surge of around 3,000 federal law enforcement officers into Minnesota.
Choi urged members of the public who might have evidence about Thao's case or other potential violations to come forward. Minnesota and Hennepin County have made similar appeals.
The Trump administration has suggested Minnesota officials lack jurisdiction to investigate federal law enforcement actions. But Fletcher said he believes they do.
“There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal agents," the sheriff said. "There’s qualified immunity for all law enforcement in a lot of different capacities. But seizing a person out of their home who’s an American citizen, they’re not immune from that.”
Karnowski reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press reporter Jack Brook contributed to this story from New Orleans.
FILE - Chongly "Scott" Thao, a U.S. citizen, sits for a photo at his home Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn., the day after federal agents broke open his door and detained him without a warrant. (AP Photo/Jack Brook, file)
