Alberta separatists submit 300,000 signatures to push independence referendum

Alberta separatists have delivered more than 300,000 signatures to elections officials in western Canada , in support of their attempt to force an independence referendum in Canada’s oil-rich province. But the effort stumbled immediately as a separatist-linked group posted the personal data of nearly three million residents online in one of the largest data breaches in Canadian history, fomenting fears of a possible political interference crisis. On Monday, hundreds of supporters gathered in Edmonton, the provincial capital, as Mitch Sylvestre, a separatist leader, delivered the petitions to Elections Alberta. “We’re not like the rest of Canada ,” Sylvestre told reporters and attendees. “We’re 100% conservative. We’re being ruled by Liberals who don’t think like us.” A minority of residents of the oil-rich province have long argued that the province’s woes are due to the structure of payments to Canada’s federal government and a perceived inability to get their vast fossil fuel reserves to market. In recent months, separatists have seized on the sentiment. Polls put separatist support between 18- and 30%. Last year, Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, reduced the number of signatures required for citizens to bring a constitutional referendum, dropping it from 588,000 to roughly 178,000. The provincial government also changed how citizen-initiated referendums worked, removing powers from Alberta’s chief electoral officer. …