OTTAWA — Federal officials say that Alberta separatists going around Ottawa and repeatedly meeting with U.S. officials to advance their cause is legal for Canadians, within certain limits, even though similar behaviour could be prohibited elsewhere.

When separatist organizer Jeffrey Rath

claimed last week he was meeting with officials connected to the White House

to garner support for Alberta’s independence, Edmonton talk show host Ryan Jespersen responded by saying, “In a lot of countries, this tomfoolery would get you strung up for treason.”

But unlike the U.S., whose

little-used Logan Act

criminalizes

so-called private diplomacy

, Canada has no law on the books stopping private citizens from meeting with representatives of foreign governments.

“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.

Rath and his fellow organizers with the pro-independence Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) have visited Washington, D.C. three times this year, most recently reporting they

met with unnamed officials

inside the U.S. State Department’s headquarters earlier this month.

The APP 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.

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney earlier this year

referred to Rath as a “treasonous kook”

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 is set

to start collecting signatures

this week in support of its referendum question. Elections Alberta last week officially approved the group’s Citizen Initiative Petition application that would, if the petition is successful, ask Albertans the question, “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?”

Rath, himself a lawyer, 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. earlier this month 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 plans to visit El Salvador and Argentina in the spring for what he calls exploratory talks

with “freedom-minded governments.”

He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Alberta’s legislature this summer, finishing third with 18 per cent of the vote in a rural byelection that was widely

seen as a bellwether

for the province’s independence movement.

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.

Prosecutions of private Canadian citizens for crimes against the state have been virtually unheard of in

the post-Second World War era.

Zhu said that the lack of a popular mandate for Alberta separation — with no open separatists currently holding elected office and polls showing

most Albertans opposed to the idea

 — is legally irrelevant.

“There’s no law against being a crank,” said Zhu.

Adrienne Davidson, a political science professor at McMaster University, said the legality of these talks could become a more complicated question once a referendum campaign is officially underway.

“I think, legally, it could raise some really interesting questions (surrounding) interference into electoral processes or referendums … I think that’s where the real question of foreign interference would come in,” said Davidson.

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

• After U.S. outreach, Alberta separatists will head to Latin America to rustle up support for their cause
• Why Alberta separatists keep travelling south of the border

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OTTAWA — As Canada prepares to enter 2026 which could see the Parti Québécois (PQ) take power in Quebec and enact its promise of a third referendum, it remains unclear what, if anything, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government intends to do about it.

The PQ has been riding high in the polls in Quebec for the past two years and could aspire to form a majority government after the October election. Its leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, has vowed to hold a referendum in his first mandate — before 2030.

Liberal sources told the National Post that former Quebec lieutenant Steven Guilbeault had started to map out a federal strategy to respond to the PQ, but it was very early stages.

“He was starting to see what their posture should be. Should they have some messages? Should they make some (media) appearances? If so, what kind of appearances? So, he was still at the beginning of the elaboration of a strategy,” said one source.

But Guilbeault resigned from his cabinet positions in late November, including his role as Quebec lieutenant. A spokesperson for his office said he was unavailable for an interview.

His successor, Joël Lightbound, is expected to settle into his role in the new year and to take the lead on all things Quebec — including the PQ. A spokesperson for Lightbound also refused an interview, citing a lack of time.

But sources described Lightbound as having a more “discreet” approach, not one that would be outright confrontational and could direct too much attention toward Ottawa.

Jonathan Kalles, who served as Quebec adviser to then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and is now a vice president at McMillan Vantage, said Carney’s team will need to figure out who are his main spokespeople in terms of responding to the PQ.

“Most important, that it be coordinated and not individual ministers or members making comments without being part of a larger plan,” he warned.

Back in November, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly accused the PQ leader of wanting

to throw Quebec “into the arms of Donald Trump”

after he called for a “closer relationship” with the United States if Quebec were to become an independent country.

Quebec Liberal MP Angelo Iacono went even further a day later, claiming that

an independent Quebec would be at risk of being invaded

by the U.S.

Kalles said there will also be moments when St-Pierre Plamondon might say or do things that could damage his electoral chances, and the federal government “would be wise to pick and choose the moments when to respond and when not to respond.”

One of those moments was when St-Pierre Plamondon called out

the cultural sector in the province as being “disloyal” to Quebec

after some of them congratulated Marc Miller’s appointment as federal culture minister. The PQ leader ultimately apologized for his comments.

The PQ subsequently dropped four points in a Léger-Québecor poll

— from 39 per cent of decided voters to 35 — despite the Quebec Liberal Party being embroiled in scandal.

“That’s clearly a result of people reacting to (St-Pierre Plamondon)’s attacks on the cultural milieu, which were over the top and ridiculous,” said Kalles.

Michel Breau, associate vice president at the Wellington Dupont Public Affairs, said Carney’s team would be wise to weigh their efforts made to alleviate the threat of Western alienation versus the real threat of Quebec electing a separatist government in 2026.

“There’s already been stretches of time when the Quebec government felt it was prepared to suddenly run an independent country’s government. That isn’t the case in Alberta,” he said.

Breau, who worked for Quebec Liberal ministers for a decade, said events such as Guilbeault’s departure from cabinet because of the Alberta MOU and

naming investment banker Mark Wiseman as ambassador to the U.S. despite Quebec opposition

could eventually add up.

“You can start to have a little bit of a drip, drip, drip, in terms of stuff that seeps a little bit, I think, into the woodwork of, does Mark Carney really get Quebec?”

The federal government is not “blind” to the fact that the PQ is leading in the polls in Quebec at the moment, said one source close to Carney’s thinking speaking on a not-for-attribution basis.

However, they remain convinced that the Quebec election is “anybody’s game” — pointing to the unpredictable turn of events at the federal level in 2025. They also said that the uncertainty around the CUSMA review in 2026 could sway Quebecers to stay within Canada.

In any case, the federal public service is likely quietly working in the background to prepare for all scenarios — including a majority PQ win.

In an interview, former clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick said he thinks “pretty soon, it would be time to start doing that quiet prep work.”

“The prime minister’s focus is going to be pulled mostly to Canada-U.S. stuff and trade and security and building those houses and infrastructure projects and all that kind of stuff. So, this could become quite a drain of focus and attention,” he said.

Wernick, who was assistant deputy minister at the department now known as Intergovernmental Affairs during the 1995 referendum, said the federal government will “always have to find a working relationship with the federalists within Quebec.”

For now, the whiff of scandal has cast a chill between Liberals in Ottawa and Quebec City.

Publicly, most federal Liberals are steering clear of provincial politics — seeing that their former colleague, Pablo Rodriguez, recently resigned as leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec after facing a criminal investigation by the province’s anti-corruption police.

At an unrelated announcement on Dec. 16, Lightbound even contradicted a reporter for suggesting the Liberal parties of Canada and Quebec were somewhat related.

“It is neither the little brother nor the big brother. There is no connection between both parties, and there hasn’t been a connection for decades,” he said.

Privately, the federal Liberals are keeping a close eye on the person who could succeed Rodriguez as leader of the provincial party: Charles Milliard, former head of the Quebec Federation of Chambers of Commerce.

Philippe J. Fournier, founder of

the polling aggregator website Qc125

, said that while Milliard has no political experience, it might work in his favour against political opponents who might struggle to find ways to undermine him or uncover “skeletons in the closet.”

Even though the PQ has been steadily polling in first place, Fournier predicts it is too early to tell what might happen come October given how divided the Quebec electorate is.

“There is no precedent. … So, I believe it is completely unpredictable, even if the PQ is the favourite,” he said.

National Post

calevesque@postmedia.com

• Feds to reveal future of EV mandate in 2026, as Liberals urged to relent on 100% target
• Carney says U.S. tariff reprieve ‘unlikely’ to happen before CUSMA review talks

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There were several clear signs that many Canadians were growing tired of Justin Trudeau as prime minister and Liberal leader as fall turned to winter in 2024.

He’d

lost a pair of byelections

and the

support of the NDP

, was facing

mounting dissent within his own caucus

, and watched as his

approval ratings plunged

and Pierre Poilievre’s soared. Things turned from bad to worse when long-time senior minister

Chrystia Freeland abruptly resigned

, citing policy friction with Trudeau.

The already beleaguered prime minister was even told to

“please get the f— out of B.C.”

by a woman who recognized him at a ski resort last Christmas. (Trudeau replied with a chuckle and wished the woman “a wonderful day.”)

Suffice it to say, there were plenty of red flags and Trudeau, to his credit, seemed to notice them. He

tendered his resignation

in January and handed the reins to Mark Carney in March.

And while other past prime ministers have largely quietly exited the spotlight to seek out whatever degree of a private citizen’s life is available to them, nine months after his departure, Trudeau can’t seem to stay out of the limelight.

But unlike those prime ministers before him who found “fame,” per se, through their tenure as the head of government, Trudeau has been famous since birth.

“When he was born, this was like the biggest front page news in the country,” Nelson Wiseman, political science professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, told National Post in an interview.

“Whereas normally, I think it would have been noted, it wouldn’t have been as big a thing as it was because not only was he the son of Pierre Trudeau, around which a mystique had already developed, but Trudeau’s wife was so young.”

The late Trudeau and former prime minister was 51 when he married the 22-year-old Margaret Sinclair in 1971 and Justin, their first of three children together, was born on Christmas Day that year.

He spent most of his early youth living at 24 Sussex Drive and accompanied his father, often with brothers Alexandre “Sacha” and Michel, to various events and appearances, forcing all of them into the public eye.

After a low-key adolescence and early adulthood thanks to his father’s departure from office in 1984, he returned to the public eye in his late 20s when he delivered

the eulogy for his father in 2000

.

By 2008, and despite previously

telling CTV in 1995 that he would never enter politics

, he ran and was narrowly elected for the first time in Montreal. The rest is Canadian history as the 44-year-old former school teacher became the nation’s second-youngest prime minister in 2015 and the first sired by a previous prime minister. (His father’s brief successor, Joe Clark, became the youngest at 39 in 1979, but served less than a year before his Progressive Conservative government was defeated by the elder Trudeau in 1980.)

His inherited fame is a view also endorsed by Acadia political science professor Alex Marland, who says to understand Trudeau “is to look at him first and foremost as a celebrity.”

“Once you look at him as a celebrity, you start to understand him in a very different way than other prime ministers, other politicians,” Marland told National Post.

Whereas other prime ministers were “just another citizen” before being elected to the highest office in Canada, Trudeau’s “normal is as a celebrity.”

Marland, without opining on the specifics, added that some of the things that have put Trudeau back in the headlines since his somewhat unceremonious exit “are consistent with that theory.”

The Monday after Carney’s ascension, Trudeau took a trip to Canadian Tire to shop for utensils and appliances,

sharing his outing on Instagram

, one of the social media platforms he had strategically embraced throughout his political career.

While his predecessor, Stephen Harper, governed during the advent of social media, it wasn’t a tool employed by the Conservatives at the time.

“There was never anybody that he ran into that he wasn’t willing to take a selfie with,” Wiseman said of Trudeau. “In fact, a relative of mine has a selfie of herself and him — I’m not even sure she’s a Liberal.”

Outside of campaigning for his replacement in Papineau, Que., Trudeau was mostly off the radar post-politics until he showed up to King Charles II’s throne speech in May wearing

a pair of green and orange Adidas sneakers

with his two-piece suit. The casual attire in the presence of royalty reportedly led to some

“outrage” in the U.K.

In the weeks that followed, he shared images from individual vacations he took with the three children he shares with ex-wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau — Xavier, 18, Ella Grace, 16, and Hadrien, 11.

Since their separation after 18 years of marriage in 2023, the former couple appear to have maintained a co-parenting relationship, even vacationing and spending some holidays together, including as recently as

this Thanksgiving.

Amidst those moments, however, came an event that could not have been on anyone’s 2026 Bingo card: Trudeau and Grammy-nominated international pop star Katy Perry were spotted having dinner together at Le Violon, a swanky Montreal restaurant. He also accompanied his daughter to Perry’s sold-out show at the Bell Centre.

The July revelation followed up with more

Trudeau and Perry sightings

: kissing atop her yacht in a California harbour, a date caught by Paris paparazzi and Trudeau joining her on tour in Europe.

They became “Instagram official” in early December when Perry

shared photos and video of herself and Trudeau in Tokyo

, where her world tour just ended. On the same trip, the pair

dined with former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida

and his wife, Yuko.

Marland reasons Trudeau’s inherent celebrity status will mean the interest may never wane.

“When we see a photograph of him having dinner with an American pop singer in Montreal, is that because he made it known that he was there? Or is that because he actually wanted his privacy,” he pondered.

It’s not clear if Trudeau and his ex-wife spent time together this Christmas. He shared

a single photo with the kids

on his social media, while Grégoire Trudeau

shared an image of herself staring into a sunset

in a post that mentions neither Trudeau nor her children.

“I welcome this new year the way I welcome the horizon — with trust, open arms, and a heart that knows its own rhythm,” she wrote. “I’m choosing presence over pressure, depth over noise, and the quiet courage it takes to stay true to myself.”

Perry, meanwhile, was silent on social media over the holidays.

Professionally speaking, Trudeau hasn’t had nearly as much scrutiny as he has personally and romantically.

He said nothing of his post-political intentions in his

resignation speech

, nor in the one he delivered at the

Liberal leadership convention

, but he did offer some candid insight in a 2023 interview with

Quebec news station Noovo.

“I see myself working with young people, going back to teaching or as a professor in university, a speaker, maybe on technology in relation to our democracy,” he said when asked specifically about life after public office.

“I’m excited for the next chapter, but not right away.”

Not unlike other politicians before him, part of that involves speaking engagements and Trudeau is represented by the Speaker Booking Agency, which quotes his

in-person appearances starting at $100,000

.

It’s not immediately clear how many he’s booked through the firm, but his first known and documented speech came when he

delivered the keynote address

at the 26th World Knowledge Forum in September. About a month later, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs awarded him the 2025 Global Leader honours.

It was an honour to be recognized by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs as the 2025 Global Leader. Sharing this moment with so many inspiring leaders from Chicago and around the world was truly special. The Council’s work to bring people together across borders, ideas, and… pic.twitter.com/XxrHAJJtn2

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 30, 2025

As for what his “next chapter” will include, Wiseman said Trudeau is unique in that he’s still a relatively young man, making him the youngest at time of departure (53) since Arthur Meighen in 1926. (John Sparrow David Thompson, Canada’s fourth prime minister, was just 49 when his term ended in 1894.)

Harper, meanwhile, was only 56 when he was voted out of office on Trudeau’s first majority win as Liberal leader in 2015, but the former prime minister was anything but a media darling during his two terms.

Marland said Harper is the only modern leader to whom Trudeau can be compared, but there’s a huge contrast between the two.

“Harper really didn’t seem to enjoy the camera, even when he was prime minister. He was far more interested in policy and almost used the media when he needed to,” he said.

“The same thing has happened when he’s out of power, that he’s really not appearing a lot in the news. It’s much more selective and careful.”

After leaving office, Harper returned to Alberta, where he launched a global strategic business consulting firm, co-founded an investment fund, chaired various organizations, and did speaking engagements around the world,

according to the province.

Wiseman isn’t convinced Trudeau will follow suit.

“My feeling is that Trudeau doesn’t need the money and he doesn’t care that much about that,” he suggested.

While Trudeau’s precise net worth is unclear, he stands to make up to $8.4 million in pension payments, according to the

Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation. 

Other past prime ministers who’ve pivoted to consulting include Jean Chrétien, Brian Mulroney and Trudeau’s father, all of whom did so at law firms.

Whatever Trudeau chooses to do with his time in the years to come, Marland doesn’t think a normal life is in the cards.

“It was already done for him,” he said. “He could never ever be just another citizen.”

• Montreal meet-ups, California cuddles and their Paris premiere: Timeline of Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry’s new romance
• Trudeau’s two pensions worth $8.4 million, taxpayers federation estimates

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A woman who fell into a pocket of deep, soft, fresh snow while skiing in Banff on Saturday may have died by suffocation, according to a local ski resort.

The victim was later identified by her brother as 47-year-old Farah Merchant of Toronto.

“She was a loving and devoted mother to her son, Liam, a cherished daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend,”

Faiz Merchant wrote in a Facebook post

confirmed by National Post. “She had a kind soul and touched so many lives with her love, warmth, and compassion. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her.”

The ski patrol team at the Sunshine Village Ski Resort in Alberta responded to a call about an unresponsive skier on Banff Avenue, a green run in the lower mountain area, in the afternoon and arrived within three minutes, as reported by the

Rocky Mountain Outlook.

With wide, gentle and groomed slopes, green runs are considered the easiest terrain for skiers.

Another skier tried to help Merchant after witnessing her fall, said Kendra Scurfield, the resort’s director of brand and communications, in a statement to the Outlook.

The ski patrol spent two hours trying to resuscitate her to no avail, she said.

Scurfield said it appeared the woman didn’t fall into a tree well — an area around the base of a tree where unconsolidated snow creates a hazard similar to quicksand — but still ended up in a “deep snow immersion” situation.

“It looked like she had fallen into deep snow and there may have been either asphyxiation due to the snow or cardiac arrest,” Scurfield said.

According to

Back Country Skiing Canada,

snow immersion suffocation (SIS) can occur when someone falls into deep, loose snow and becomes immobilized, usually in a head-first position.

“In an inverted position you can become trapped under the snow. Breathing becomes difficult as the loose snow packs in around you.

“If a partner is not there for immediate rescue, the skier or rider may die very quickly from suffocation — in many cases, he or she can die as quickly as someone can drown in water.”

It’s not clear if Merchant was skiing with a partner at the time.

The woman’s body was sent to Calgary for autopsy, the RCMP told the Outlook.

 

The resort also extended its sympathies to her family.

“We understand how hard it must be for them, and we’d also like to thank our ski patrol team for their work,” Scrufield stated.

On Dec. 26, Sunshine Village said it had already received 258 centimetres, making it the fifth snowiest month in its recorded history. Another 11 centimetres fell the night before Merchant’s death.

National Post has contacted the resort and the RCMP for comment and more information.

• B.C. avalanche kills three ‘very, very proficient’ heli-skiers, another badly injured
• Jasper versus Banff: Why one mountain town soared and the other didn’t

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.