Have you heard anything more on the matter from the government?

We weren't told anything except for what we heard in the press. It’s this magical deadline that was never part of anything we were ever told. The entire petition process has been vague and ever-changing, and it feels manipulated to me. 

I'm not naive. I know that politicians lie constantly. I guess I come from a different world where you keep your word when you’ve said something to someone’s face.  Danielle Smith is pretending that we needed to go through this bureaucratic purgatory to get our question on the referendum ballot, but she's shown that she can put whatever she wants there on a whim. She was in public, a number of times, expressing her deep conviction and belief in direct democracy — and specifically named our petition as something that would be on the October ballot if we got our numbers.

But I'll tell you, that kind of chaos and finger-on-the-scale, flip-flopping and favouritism is very, very consistent with how the entire process has been handled for the last six years that I've been fucking involved with it. 

As you say, you’ve been involved with the opposition to coal mining on the Eastern Slopes for many years now. What was it that made you think that organizing a petition was the best way to advance this cause?

Because we tried absolutely everything else: We've tried writing MLAs. I've met with every possible minister. I've met with the other parties. I've met with coal CEOs. I met with the coal lobbyists, the head of the Coal Association of Canada. We've had marches, media events, music videos, a social media campaign, but, you know, these people don't listen. 

Then we were at a water-oriented town hall with Smith in June 2025 that was very contentious. The crowd was very anti-coal and it was pretty rowdy. At the end of it, she looked us in the eye and said, ‘If you guys really want to change it, have a citizen’s initiative.’ So we did.

Yours was the third petition that was submitted to the government. The other two being Forever Canadian, which is upset about how their petition was used to justify the government’s version of the separation question, and, of course, Stay Free Alberta’s petition — which has a host of issues, but still, they’re upset with what’s being done with their petition. And now, Water Not Coal is not even on the ballot. What does that say to you about the referendum legislation that this government introduced?

Bullshit. It's bullshit. This whole process is clearly designed to give the government cover to do what they want. When I met with the Premier May 11th, one of my specific asks was, we would like to have as much editorial control over our questions on the referendum ballot that they have over the nine or, now, 10 questions that they’ve proposed — because they were all framed in a very particular way by the government. She said, ‘Well no, you don't get editorial control, because like all the other questions we have a particular outcome we want to have.’ I thought that was supposed to be the inside voice, right? (The Premier's press secretary did not address this claim in its written response to Forward Weekly.)

And I don't know if that's because she's in a bubble and doesn't remember what her job is or if it's just raw hubris and narcissism or what, but that's not what a referendum is supposed to be.

I'm in a very small club of people in the province who have been proponents of these citizen initiated petitions. We all have different points of view, but I suspect that we would actually agree on the fact that the legislation written around them is completely haphazard. It’s like they throw this shit together because it’s flopped and changed and morphed and loopholed so many times. I don't know how much of this is on purpose — some diabolical intention — and how much of it is just incompetence.

Given that even you don’t know where the petition goes from here, where do you go from here?

We’re asking for a complete moratorium on all new coal mining activity, including exploration, in any of the Eastern Slopes area, until this is resolved. 

We've got over 10 percent of the Alberta voting public’s support, so this is no longer some fringe issue. This is a serious thing, and it was done using the government's own mechanisms. We went through every loophole and every roadblock and change. And every way they tried to screw with us, we followed all the rules to a T and we succeeded. 

The government must respect that by having a moratorium on all the coal activity until this is resolved. 

After Elections Alberta announced that the Water Not Coal petition had failed verification, we requested an updated comment from Lund but did not receive one in time. He released a statement on Facebook late Friday saying, “We are simultaneously shocked by this outcome, yet, unfortunately, not surprised, given the continual government rule changes and roadblocks we have faced throughout this campaign.”