David Eby says Alberta separatists are committing 'treason.' Is he right?
OTTAWA — British Columbia Premier David Eby sparked a firestorm of legal speculation about the foreign outreach of Alberta separatists on Thursday when he called the activities “treason” ahead of a first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa.
Eby was referring to three trips members of the pro-independence Alberta Prosperity Project say they made to Washington, D.C. in 2025 to meet with unnamed Trump administration officials, first reported on late last year .
His use of the term “treason” was quickly waved off by legal experts — the 1893 treason law on the books sets the bar at high crimes like “kill(ing) Her Majesty” (meaning Queen Victoria) and aiding a military attack on Canada — but Eby’s comments did raise questions about the legality of these meetings, especially given the recent expansionist rhetoric from the U.S. targeting Canada and other parts of the Western Hemisphere .
Some countries have criminal laws proscribing contact between unauthorized persons and foreign officials. South of the border, the little-used Logan Act of 1799 prohibits any private U.S. citizen from conducting diplomacy with foreign governments without official authorization.
However, there is no equivalent law in Canada barring private individuals from engaging in such communication.
“The short answer would be ‘no’, we don’t have a Logan law,” said Global Affairs spokesman John Babcock in an email to National Post.
Nor do private citizens need to clear such foreign talks with the federal government, Babcock added.
However, a spokesman for the federal Justice Department, Ian McLeod, said that, while private citizens are free to speak with foreign officials, these talks are nonetheless subject to criminal laws prohibiting espionage, sedition and the sharing of state secrets.
“A determination of whether any activity violates these … offences, or any other criminal offence relating to threats to the security of Canada, is a determination for law enforcement,” wrote McLeod in an email.
Jeff Rath, a lawyer with the APP, says that he and two other high-ranking members of the group visited Washington, D.C. three times in 2025, most recently claiming they met with unnamed officials inside the U.S. State Department’s headquarters in December.
Rath says the talks have covered U.S. recognition of a successful independence referendum in the province, defence and trade co-operation in case of separation, cross-border oil pipeline routes and a possible multibillion-dollar loan to help Alberta transition to an independent jurisdiction.
Eby isn’t the first public figure to use the word “treason” to characterize the group’s activities.
Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney referred to Rath as a “treasonous kook” in the spring of 2025 after the separatist appeared on Fox News in the U.S. to promote his cause. (Kenney is a board member of Postmedia Network, which owns National Post, but plays no role in day-to-day editorial processes.)
The APP is the primary group pushing for an Alberta independence vote in 2026 and has until early May to collect enough signatures to trigger a provincewide referendum on the question: “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?”
Rath said his group did its homework before booking the flights to Washington, D.C.
“We researched all of this extensively before meeting with anyone in the U.S. We are not engaged in any activity that is unlawful,” said Rath.
Cameron Davies, leader of the separatist Republican Party of Alberta, has travelled separately to Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, to court U.S. allies for his cause. He was in Phoenix, Ariz. in December to attend America Fest, the annual conference of Turning Point USA, the Republican-friendly activist group founded by Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September.
Davies said he’s also taken steps to ensure he stays on the right side of relevant Canadian laws.
“I’ve sought legal counsel (and) we’re staying well within the conversations of a private citizen. Any ideas that are floated are purely speculative,” said Davies.
Both Rath and Davies said they’ve made it clear to foreign contacts that they don’t have the authority to make agreements on behalf of Alberta or Canada.
Canada’s existing legal framework of criminal laws prohibiting treason, sedition and espionage set the bar for prosecution so high as to make prosecution almost inconceivable with regard to the Albertans’ meetings, said Yuan Yi Zhu, a Canadian professor of international relations and law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
“They’d pretty much have to be caught on tape helping Donald Trump plan an invasion of Canada” to be prosecuted, said Zhu.
The federal government passed legislation beefing up provisions against foreign interference in June 2024, including the creation of a Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner to whom groups and individuals working with foreign governments in some contexts would have to report. However, the commissioner has not yet been appointed.
National Post
With files from Tracy Moran
rmohamed@postmedia.com
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