The Wild Claims of Jeff Rath, Separatist Firebrand

With appearances on Fox & Friends and many mostly far-right U.S. and Canadian podcasts, larger-than-life lawyer Jeffrey Rath has emerged as the cowboy-hatted figurehead for the Alberta Prosperity Project, or APP.

Rath is also legal counsel to the APP, a loosely organized group of far-right separatists trading on decades of western alienation and grievance as part of a campaign to form a sovereign country, allegedly with the support and encouragement of the Donald Trump regime.

Since early January, thousands of Albertans have been flocking to APP events across the province to sign a petition in support of a referendum on the province’s separation from Canada.

On Dec. 24, Rath appeared on the Rachel Parker podcast to discuss a recent meeting — allegedly their third — between APP leaders and U.S. State Department officials in Washington, D.C.

“The meeting we had was very strange; we actually met in a SCIF of all things,” Rath told Parker, the wife of far-right influencer and Take Back Alberta leader David Parker, another secessionist.

A SCIF is a sensitive compartmented information facility, with soundproofing, complex locks and barriers to electronic surveillance. Within it, no cellphones or other technology is allowed.

A night at a hotel bar

But a few weeks earlier on Nov. 27, Rath definitely was not in a secure facility. It was the eve of the United Conservative Party annual general meeting in Edmonton and Rath was perched on a stool at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald’s horseshoe-shaped bar in downtown Edmonton, profanely disparaging Alberta Premier Danielle Smith while spouting wild, unproven allegations and opinions to some strangers.

“I have this from a pretty impeccable source,” Rath said. “Jason Kenney, Marshall Smith and the other three or four senior high-powered gay deputy ministers within the Alberta government all flew down to Puerto Vallarta together in advance of the last election.”

Rath alleged they “conspired” there “to plot what they were going to do and how they were going to position themselves when Rachel Notley won the election.”

Jason Kenney is the former Alberta premier. Marshall Smith is Danielle Smith’s now former chief of staff. And Rachel Notley is the former leader of the Alberta NDP, which did not, as many expected, win the 2023 election.

Rath spun out a conspiracy in which, after the upset UCP election win, there was an agreement not to split the party. The deal required the installation of Marshall Smith as the premier’s chief of staff, Rath said, with the sole authority to hire deputy and assistant deputy ministers.

Rath made derogatory statements about Marshall Smith’s past history, before delivering the punchline “What could possibly go wrong? I ask you” and erupting in raucous laughter.

In an emailed response after publication, Kenney said he has never been to Puerto Vallarta, has never been to Mexico on a personal trip and has never travelled anywhere with any of the people Rath mentioned. He said he went to Mexico City in 2019 as premier and to Guadalajara on behalf of the federal government in 2008.

“Apart from making a single donation to a friend’s constituency association, I have been completely uninvolved in Alberta partisan politics since leaving office in the fall of 2022,” Kenney said.*

Marshall Smith did not respond to requests for comment.

Unbeknownst to Rath, one of his newly met bar-stool buddies was David Wallace, the political fixer who is alleged to have harassed a potential key witness in the wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against the UCP government by a former Alberta Health Services CEO.

In an email, Wallace told The Tyee he had no idea who Rath was until he was informed by private investigator Tyler Argue, who had joined Wallace at the bar for supper as he conversed with Rath.

In an interview in an Edmonton coffee shop, Argue told The Tyee he recognized Rath because Argue had been active in the UCP, once serving on the Highwood UCP constituency association board.

Argue wasn’t hired to surveil Rath. But he said that after he heard Rath use a crude term to describe Danielle Smith, he pulled out his phone and started surreptitiously recording. Rath regaled them with APP talking points and stories for at least 45 minutes, he said.

Using a specialized app, which time-stamps and geolocates videos, Argue recorded several short videos, ensuring that he participated in the conversation to meet the legal standard for recording. In Canada, a private conversation legally can be recorded as long as one participant gives consent, and that consent can be provided by one of the people involved in the conversation.

Argue said it was a coincidence that he encountered Rath at the bar. He said he was staying at the Hotel Macdonald to attend the UCP annual general meeting the next day and provided a receipt from the hotel as proof.

He said he had been hired to provide security for someone attending the AGM but declined to say who hired him or who he was protecting.

The Tyee has learned the security was for Wallace, who has made enemies among UCP supporters through his previous work as a political fixer in Alberta.

The video was first posted on social media platforms on Nov. 30. The original post on X now has about 34,000 views.

Argue said he provided the video to someone, who posted it. He declined to say who he gave it to, but he said it wasn’t the client who hired him to protect Wallace.

Rath claims no recollection

During several testy exchanges by phone and text, Rath declined to discuss the video. He suggested he may not have been at the Hotel Macdonald bar that night and insisted repeatedly that he had no recollection of saying anything.

Rath accused Wallace, who he called a “weasel,” of recording the video and altering it using artificial intelligence. He further alleged Wallace was part of a “connivance” with the premier’s office.

Argue showed The Tyee several of the videos, including the original video posted online, and explained how the app worked that recorded them. The video posted online was not altered.

Rath speculated that the premier’s office was angry because he had upstaged Danielle Smith at the UCP annual general meeting on Nov. 28.

Rath drew cheers and a standing ovation at a bear-pit session when he asked, “How many of us all favour a free and independent Alberta?” Smith’s response, that she supported “an independent Alberta within a united Canada,” drew a mix of booing, heckling and some cheering.

In an email, Becca Polak, the premier’s principal secretary*, said Rath’s claims “are untrue. Any suggestion otherwise is false and defamatory.”

Despite saying he could not recall what he said, Rath insisted the statements about Marshall Smith were true.

The Tyee is not linking to the video or publishing Rath’s full statement about Marshall Smith because some of his allegations about Smith can’t be proven.

Spinning Ottawa-Beijing conspiracy theories

This has not been the only conspiracy theory advanced by Rath. On the same Rachel Parker podcast, Rath claimed U.S. officials “are very enthusiastic about Alberta becoming an independent country.”

“The one thing that we all fervently believe and have in common is that the government in Ottawa and the landlocking of Alberta's resources is being done by Ottawa at the behest of the Communist Chinese,” Rath said.

“The Americans see it within their national interest both under the Monroe Doctrine, that has been around forever, and their new national security strategy to support Alberta independence and freeing the third-largest oilfield in the world from control by the Communist Chinese.”

The APP also has claimed U.S. officials have offered to provide a $500-billion loan to assist Alberta’s transition to a sovereign state and that the Americans promised to immediately recognize the province’s independence if the APP wins the referendum vote.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to numerous requests for interviews or for comment. Rath and other APP leaders have refused to disclose who they met with from the U.S. State Department.

An Alberta Brexit brewing?

Mount Royal University political scientist Lori Williams said she saw the controversial Rath video on social media in December.

While not commenting specifically about the video, she contrasted the quality of the APP leadership with that of previous leaders of the Quebec separatist movement.

“They had amongst them university professors like Jacques Parizeau, people with political experience and respect,” she said.

“These were very well-known people in the Quebec separatist movement who were serious. They had visions and clarity in terms of where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do.”

“Whereas in Alberta, they don’t seem to have the same kind of experience or knowledge or understanding or vision. It is more anger-focused, or even rage-focused, and it is not well informed.”

The role of conspiracy theories in the APP separatist initiative is “significant,” Williams said, referencing the Ottawa-Beijing theory that has become a major talking point in APP messaging.

Recent polling shows the support for separation among Albertans is about 19 per cent, with 75 per cent saying they would vote against independence. But Williams noted that the early predictions by pollsters and pundits were wrong about the Brexit referendum vote, which was about the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

The “leave” side won by a narrow margin, and has caused not only deep, ongoing divisions among the populace but also immense political and economic strife.

To trigger a referendum vote in Alberta, nearly 178,000 verified signatures are required by the deadline of May 2, 2026, set by legislation. Since the petition process kicked off earlier this month, thousands of Albertans have lined up for hours at APP events to sign the petition.

The APP claims to have about 2,000 registered canvassers and more than 66,000 volunteers, and they expect to gather at least a million signatures. If they do, a referendum vote could be held in October.

“There are a lot of people, for very practical reasons, who are worried about what this could do to Alberta, to the relationships between and amongst Albertans,” Williams said.

There is so much disagreement about what independence would look like, whether it is worth pursuing and what its goals and aims are, Williams said, that “it becomes all the more concerning because of the damage that they could do, whether they win or not.

“It could feed an anger and rage which is already quite substantial in our society, and if it becomes a main focus, it will be very difficult for any leader to manage effectively, whether that be Danielle Smith, who is trying to manage it within a party, or any one of these separatist leaders who seem to be engaging in a fair bit of infighting.”

In one of the Hotel Macdonald videos viewed by The Tyee, Rath said Cameron Davies, the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta, “isn’t fit to be a dog catcher.”

Race-based appeals and a First Nation challenge

At a Jan. 7 APP meeting in Didsbury, Mitch Sylvestre, who along with Rath and Dr. Dennis Modry is one of the main APP leaders, cited an unproven claim that has circulated online for years.

As reported by the Edmonton Journal, Sylvestre claimed that former prime minister Justin Trudeau stated: “The very concept of a nation founded by European settlers is offensive to me. Old stock white Canadians are an unpleasant relic and, quite frankly, replaceable. And we will replace them.”

The quote is originally from a meme posted by former far-right Ontario Conservative member of the provincial parliament Randy Hillier. Fact checkers have deemed the quote to be fake.

But Sylvestre told the audience: “Old stock white Canadians, and that is us, and we don’t have to apologize for this room being filled with white people. This is what Alberta used to be and we are not apologizing.”

In what some political observers viewed as an attempt to appease the far-right separatist fringe within the party, Danielle Smith’s UCP government used legislation to assist the APP’s referendum campaign.

In December, a judge ruled the APP’s referendum question for voters — “Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state? — did not comply with Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act. Rather than appeal, the UCP government simply changed the act so that a question did not have to align with Canada’s Constitution, as had been required by the original act.

In response to this legislative change, the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation launched a legal challenge. They are seeking an injunction to stop the separatist petition process.

Their central argument is that secession would interfere with Treaty 8, which was signed between Indigenous nations and the Crown and predates the creation of Alberta as a province. Alberta doesn’t have the authority to alter a treaty in which it had no part, the Sturgeon Lake Cree argue.

Rath punished by law society

Ironically, Jeff Rath has made a career in law suing the federal government and the province on behalf of Indigenous nations, including a controversial case involving the Sturgeon Lake Cree.

In October 2022, a judge ordered costs of $235,000 against Rath and an associate for missing deadlines for affidavits, making redundant arguments and filing frivolous applications while acting for the Sturgeon Lake Cree.

The judge found this behaviour was “more than zealous representation and was not at the clients’ instructions, nor in the clients’ best interest.” She called the lawyers’ conduct “unreasonable, persistent and disruptive.”

In the Law Society of Alberta hearing that followed the judge’s ruling, Rath conceded “he took steps in the representation of a client that were clearly without merit” that had “unreasonably delayed the process of a tribunal.”

Rath’s lawyer characterized his role as one of “limited supervision.” On Nov. 26, 2025, the day before Rath was captured on video at the Hotel Macdonald bar, the disciplinary panel issued a reprimand and levied $800 in costs.

Rath was back before the law society earlier this month to face citations related to his conduct during the pandemic. The law society alleges Rath directly contacted Dr. Verna Yiu, the now former CEO of Alberta Health Services, even after he was told she was represented by counsel and he should not be contacting her.

He is also alleged to have threatened to bring murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against provincial and federal officials, including former prime minister Justin Trudeau, for their approval of COVID vaccines.

Rath has asserted he did not breach professional conduct rules, but he concedes he may have used “overly aggressive language.” The law society panel has reserved its judgment.

Last week, Rath was in court on behalf of Mitch Sylvestre, the CEO of the APP, arguing for Sylvestre’s standing in the Sturgeon Lake Cree injunction case, which flows from an underlying lawsuit against the federal and provincial governments for breach of treaty.

The Sturgeon Lake Cree say they have been treated like “chattel on the land” and allege the APP has opened the door to foreign interference in the referendum.

The Sturgeon Lake Cree obtained an affidavit from Wesley Wark, a prominent expert in national security, intelligence and terrorism, who served on the prime minister’s council on national security from 2005 to 2009.

Wark’s affidavit brings into sharp relief why Rath’s unguarded bar banter and the APP’s claims about meetings with the U.S. State Department are relevant to the public discourse.

Expert warns of US interference

In his affidavit, Wark said the public pronouncements made by the APP in support of its referendum effort are certainly shaped by political, economic, societal and cultural grievances.

Wark warned about the potential for foreign interference not just in the referendum but in the petition process itself.

Wark said it does not appear that the Alberta or federal government has taken any concrete steps to monitor or respond to the potential for foreign interference during the petition process.

“Foreign interference operations can cause widespread harm to democratic processes, to faith in governance, to societal resilience, to economic security, and to the ability of Canadians to make free and informed choices,” Wark states in the affidavit.

“The APP outreach to the Trump administration creates conditions that amount to a welcome mat for U.S. foreign interference by encouraging financial support, by aligning the APP’s political vision so closely with that of the Trump administration, and by giving full-throated support to the U.S. national security strategy,” Wark wrote.

On Dec. 16, apparently after Rath met with U.S. State Department officials in the SCIF secure room, he posted the above photo on X of a U.S. national security strategy document dated November 2025.

“A west coast pipeline through Montana, Idaho and Washington was on the agenda today in DC. THIS IS HAPPENING! Alberta will be free!”

In the final paragraph of Wark’s affidavit, he states:

“The U.S. has the capabilities, the doctrine, and may have the intent to engage in foreign interference during the petition process.

“The threat is real. It is also, without resorting to a crystal ball, foreseeable.”

If you have any information for this story, or information for another story, please contact Charles Rusnell in confidence via email.

* Story updated on Jan. 26 at 12:08 p.m. to reflect that Becca Polak is Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's principal secretary and not, as we previously had it, her chief of staff.

* Story updated on Jan. 26 at 8:26 p.m. to include comments from Jason Kenney.