The Royal Canadian Legion won’t allow a group pushing for a sovereignty referendum in Saskatchewan to hold meetings in Legion halls.
Unified Grassroots is encouraging people to sign a petition calling for a referendum on a sovereign Saskatchewan. Its website says the purpose of the referendum would be “to empower the provincial government to negotiate new terms for Saskatchewan’s relationship whether as part of Canada or as an independent nation.”
In an email to CBC News, the provincial executive director of the Legion’s Saskatchewan Command, Chad Wagner, said Unified Grassroots’s “public calls for actions like Saskatchewan separation, and therefore their events, do not align with the Legion’s founding principles and the promotion of Canadian unity.”
Nadine Ness, the president and founder of Unified Grassroots, said the town halls are about more sovereignty for Saskatchewan — which could still be within a united Canada.
“It’s teaching people about the democratic processes that we have in our country,” she said. “So people either want this to be a democratic country or they want this to be an authoritarian country.”
Unified Grassroots had planned to hold eight of its upcoming town hall meetings in Legion halls across Saskatchewan, including in Prince Albert, Meadow Lake, Humboldt, Nipawin, Weyburn and Estevan. Those events have now been cancelled by the Legion.
Ness said she learned about the cancellations from the local Legion halls she had booked.
She said one told her this directive came from Saskatchewan Command, while another said it came from Dominion (or national) Command.
Ness said she has asked for an explanation, but as of early Thursday afternoon, she had not heard from either of them.
“They won’t return my calls,” she said. “They have my phone number. They never once reached out to us to even see what it was about.”
In the emailed response to CBC News, Wagner said each branch of the Legion has autonomy, but the branches must be run in line with the Legion’s core principles. Wagner said the Legion “simply reminded” its branches of its policies.
He said groups like Unified Grassroots are not within the Legion’s objectives, thus the events were cancelled, adding the Legion will not entertain an event that encourages or promotes separation.
In a video on social media, Ness said the word “separation” doesn’t appear in advertising for the town halls, but acknowledged separation is one of several possible outcomes of her group’s efforts.
“We don’t know what the outcome is,” she said. “We’re going to try to do everything we can so that it doesn’t get to separation, but it is still on the table.”
In her interview with CBC News, Ness said her group is now receiving invitations from across the province to host town hall meetings in quonsets and barns.
