Original subtitles

Hello and welcome to Global Eye,

bringing you in-depth reporting and powerful stories

from across the BBC World Service. I'm Nadine Yousif and I'm in Canada.

On this week's programme,

two stories from two different corners of the world

about identity, independence

and the way that people fight to protect what defines them.

Coming up on the programme,

we'll go inside the most pivotal debate

on Canada's national unity in decades,

as a growing movement pushes for its richest province, Alberta,

to declare independence.

We're sick and tired of seeing the wealth leave this province

to subsidise other parts of Canada.

Others worry this debate will weaken Canada

and make it increasingly vulnerable to attacks from the US.

We're all very worried

that Alberta's politics could be consumed by this forever.

Also on the programme,

we travel to the remote mountains of Papua,

where the world's last tropical glaciers are rapidly disappearing,

exploring what their loss means for indigenous communities

and a landscape undergoing profound change.

Eternity glaciers are just about to disappear,

and seeing that recession,

being eyewitness to that in our lifetime

should be a real eye-opener.

I've been reporting on Canada for the BBC for the last four years,

based right here in Toronto.

But before that, I lived and worked in Edmonton,

the capital city of Alberta,

where the Prairie meets the Rocky Mountains.

Alberta is sometimes known as the Texas of Canada.

Its identity is forged by natural riches,

a strong, powerful energy industry, and a fiercely independent spirit.

...invites them into the community and ends the otherness.

Just as some Texans have long contemplated

charting their own path, some in Alberta believe

that the province should have more control over its own destiny.

Earlier this year, the provincial government of Alberta

made it easier for citizens to trigger referendums,

breathing new life into a debate

over how much control Alberta should have in its own matters

and even its place in Canada.

I travelled back to Alberta to explore a question

that cuts at the heart of identity and sovereignty.

Why do some Albertans want independence,

and what could such a profound change mean for Canada,

and Alberta's indigenous peoples

who have lived on these lands for thousands of years?

We live in the greatest country on Earth.

Independence in Alberta is necessary and inevitable.

We're going to fight the idea of separation.

I don't even consider myself to be Canadian any more.

I am not fighting for unity.

I am reminding people that we are united.

Could there really be a new country called Alberta?

Yes!

Separatists in Canada's wealthiest province

are campaigning for independence ahead of a referendum.

It's a very vocal minority of people who want to separate,

and that's not the general sentiment of Albertans. It's just not.

It's a movement fuelled by growing frustration

with politicians in Ottawa

and a belief that Alberta would be better off going it alone.

If Alberta was independent

and they came and said, "Do you want to join Canada?"

the answer would be absolutely no.

Opponents say it's vital to keep the country united,

especially in the face of threats from US President Donald Trump.

Canada has taken advantage of us. They have ripped us off for years.

I'm angry that this is even up for a question.

I worry about the Brexit effect here, right?

I mean, be careful what you wish for.

So could this vote be Canada's Brexit moment?

We'll explain it all.

What was once a fringe movement

has grown significantly in recent years -

enough to put a formal question of separation

on a ballot this October.

Over the past year, I travelled back west

to speak to Albertans from all sides of the debate,

to learn about what's fuelling this independence movement

and what it means for the future of Canada.

I feel more Canadian than I feel Albertan.

I was born in Canada, so I'm Canadian.

And, er... But I will put Alberta first.

I mean, I love Alberta, but I love Canada.

Before we get into the debate over separation,

it's worth understanding a little bit more about Alberta

and its place in Canada.

Alberta?

Unreal, baby! HE LAUGHS

Almost 3,000km from Canada's capital of Ottawa,

Alberta is home to about five million people,

just 10% of Canada's population.

The province is landlocked,

and stretches from the vast Prairies to the picturesque Rocky Mountains.

Alberta is also the hub of Canada's oil and gas industry,

sitting on the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world,

behind Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Because of this, Alberta is the wealthiest province in Canada

when looking at GDP per capita, punching well above its weight

when it comes to its share of the country's wealth.

So why the push to separate?

Well, for many, oil and gas is at the heart of the issue.

Many Albertans have long voted Conservative,

and, in recent years, there has been a growing sense

that the successive Liberal governments in Ottawa

have put environmental policies

over the province's oil and gas industry.

Fed up, we've had enough, we want the hell out,

and we vote to form a separate country.

Jeffrey Rath is a Calgary lawyer

and one of the lead organisers of Alberta's independence movement.

He's also a controversial figure,

embroiled in a legal dispute with a former client

over millions of dollars in alleged misappropriated funds.

Rath has denied the allegations and is fighting them in court.

Albertans feel completely unrepresented

within the Canadian Federation.

We're completely overtaxed, we're completely overregulated,

and we're sick and tired of seeing the wealth leave this province

to subsidise other parts of Canada

that don't like us, don't respect us,

don't want to have anything to do with us other than our money.

We first met him at an independence town hall in April of 2025,

just weeks before Canadians headed to the polls

in a federal election that saw the Liberals return to power.

Rath has also floated the idea of joining the US.

All right. CHUCKLING

Primarily interested right now in an independent Alberta.

There's a lot of people interested in pursuing statehood.

I... My mind is extremely open in that regard.

But, you know, like any relationship,

let's get out of Canada, right,

and then we can discuss

whether we want to join a rebound country later.

HE LAUGHS

Those advocating for separation, like Rath,

say they often feel alienated from eastern Canadian hubs,

like here in Toronto, where they believe that

the business and political elites don't share the same Albertan values

of small government, hard work and enterprise.

That disconnect is reinforced

by the reality that Alberta's smaller population

means it has less political sway than Ontario and Quebec.

Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Deputy Premier of Alberta,

says he gets the frustration,

but he doesn't think that leaving is the answer,

and he's taking that message across the province

aboard his so-called Unity Bus.

Hello, Thomas. Nice to see you again. Hey! Long time, no see.

I would bet you now

that this is the most photographed vehicle in Canada.

I'm wondering if... Do you get reception from the other side?

So we had some counter protests

where they would be purposely disruptive

and heckle and play loud music to drown out our gathering.

But, you know, nothing... nothing excessive.

Even with the polling numbers on their side,

it's clear from speaking to pro-Canada Albertans

that they're nervous about the voter turnout and what could come next.

We've talked directly about Alberta separatism today -

a poison, I think, that can divide families.

You look at the polls

and you'll see 70/30 support for staying in Canada,

80/20 support for staying in Canada.

But I think we're all very worried

that Alberta's politics could be consumed by this forever,

if it's a little close

and it looks like maybe there's a trend towards separatism.

We have important things to do as a country

and we're dealing with this, and that's heartbreaking.

I've seen what it did to the province of Quebec.

I've seen what it's done to UK with Brexit.

You know, UK right now is on their seventh Prime Minister in ten years.

The Brexit parallel is one that Prime Minister Mark Carney

has also made in his push for Canadian unity.

I saw first-hand what happened... what gets sold in these referenda.

And you see what's happened in the United Kingdom.

Supporters of a separate Alberta say fears of turmoil are unfounded.

To them, independence means more wealth, more prosperity,

and the freedom to chart their own path.

So we're just off to meet Chris Scott.

He is a prominent supporter of Alberta separatism.

He's also the owner of a truck stop,

and we're just looking to speak with him

about why he thinks that Alberta would be better

as an independent country than be part of Canada.

TRUCK HORN BLARES Ooh.

Somebody just drove by, honking.

I guess in support of the Alberta flags.

The Canadian flag represented the Canada that I grew up in.

Like, when I was a kid.

The Alberta flag - that represents what we could have here in Alberta,

which is the values that old Canada used to have.

We're largely a faith-based province.

Like, it's a... it's a very Christian province.

We believe in the foundational moral attributes

that made the West and freedom in general possible.

Whereas I think that's being abandoned in a lot of...

you know, a lot of the rest of the country.

For Chris, the turning point was Covid-19 pandemic restrictions

and government regulations,

which he says affected his business and his freedom.

TRUCK HORN HONKS

He was one of hundreds of truckers

who joined the so-called Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa

against vaccine mandates.

We had people actually yell and run up to the truck

with tears streaming down their face when we were fuelling up,

and these people would just, like, run up to us

and throw their arms around us

and say, you know, they had lost all hope in the country

and what was going on until they saw what the truckers were doing.

And the-the inevitable conclusion was that we needed sovereignty.

Quebec, Canada's French-speaking province,

has tried twice to separate in the past.

Scott uses those failed attempts as a guide.

Um, that changed a lot for Quebec. You know, that, er...

It gave Quebec some leverage and some negotiating power,

and they were able to do a lot of things that they wanted to do.

At the very least, maybe Alberta could do that.

And I'm probably not going to benefit much

from an independent Alberta, but my kids will.

Even if the majority vote to separate,

Alberta won't get a spot at the UN

or its own FIFA World Cup team any time soon -

a successful "yes" vote would only kick-start

a lengthy - and likely costly - legal battle for sovereignty.

On the front lines of that battle are indigenous Albertans,

who overwhelmingly oppose the idea of separation.

The treaty was signed September 22nd, 1877,

and it was just signed over there.

Indigenous people have lived on the land

long before Alberta became part of Canada.

Some have legally fought the idea of separation,

saying land treaties signed with the British Crown 150 years ago

cannot simply be set aside by a referendum.

If it wasn't for Treaty 7 being signed in this location...

Alberta and Canada would not exist in its current form

if it wasn't for this event and for our people.

There is no talk from the separatists,

no reach-out from any of the movements here

to talk with any First Nations, as far as I'm aware,

about what this new area of Alberta would look like

if we were to separate from Canada.

This is not their land. These aren't their resources.

These are ours.

Our future remains brightest if we stay in Canada.

Our future is more secure if we stay within Canada.

Despite opposition from First Nations,

the referendum question was put on the ballot

by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith,

a Conservative whose political base includes supporters of independence.

But Smith says she backs what she calls

"a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada".

I think this is an important time for us to be looking at the benefits

that come from being a part of Canada.

That's what I've been advocating. It's why I'm voting to remain.

We still have some issues, of course.

In the months leading up to the referendum,

Smith and Prime Minister Carney struck a deal

to build a new oil pipeline from Alberta

to Canada's Pacific coast -

an attempt to answer one of the separatists' biggest grievances.

Talks of separation are made even more urgent

as Canada's relationship with the US -

its neighbour and long-time ally - deteriorates.

Donald Trump's tariffs

and repeated comments about Canada becoming "the 51st State"

have ignited a surge of patriotism and unity in Canada.

Some observers have accused the Trump administration

of stoking internal divisions

and fuelling the Alberta separatist movement.

I think we should let them come down into the US,

and Alberta's a natural partner for the US.

In eastern Canada, I wanted to find out -

how do people feel about Albertans who want to separate?

This happened, you know, with Quebec,

and they tried to leave.

I think, at the end of the day, we're all one country.

You know, we got to be more united, especially during these times

with everything that's happening in the world.

They do have some fair grievances,

but it doesn't justify leaving the entire country.

The beauty of BC and Alberta and out west

is all this natural landscape that we don't get here.

So I feel like they're a very equal and important part of the country.

They're not taking into consideration

the indigenous people from there, that we have treaties with them,

and it's their land, actually.

Going towards America, with Trump over there?

Like, I'm not the hugest of fans.

I just don't think it's necessary.

I haven't found Canada this cohesive in a long time.

I think we have one major problem, and that would be the United States

threatening and trying to coerce us into splitting up.

As a guy from Ontario, because I love Alberta.

Like, I love going there visiting,

like, Calgary Stampede in the summer too.

So ideally I'd want them to stay,

but I guess we'll see how it all plays out in October.

I would say to Albertans, don't waste your time.

Those who want independence see the vote as a chance

to rethink Alberta's place within Canada.

Even if the referendum fails,

the amount of support that it gets could dictate

much of Alberta's and Canada's political future.

I want to protect the freedoms and the rights and liberties

that I believed we had when I was a kid.

There are neighbours not trusting neighbours,

being suspicious that they're separatists.

This has to end. So I'm hoping that this will be a healing process

and ultimately will bring us all together.

Across the world, other indigenous communities are also grappling

with questions about their relationship to the land

that they call home.

Our next report takes us to the remote mountains of Papua,

where one of the world's most extraordinary natural wonders

is disappearing before our own eyes.

The region is home to the planet's only tropical glaciers,

but scientists warn that they could vanish within just a few years.

For generations, indigenous communities have lived

in the shadows of these peaks,

forging deep cultural and ancestral ties to a landscape

that is now facing profound change.

This report from BBC Indonesia

explores the human impact of that transformation,

as researchers race to document a vanishing landscape

before it's gone forever.

Deep in the remote mountains of central Papua

lies Carstensz Pyramid.

It is the highest peak in Oceania

and is home to one of the world's rarest natural wonders.

For thousands of years, its summit has been crowned by ice,

despite lying just four degrees south of the equator.

The so-called eternal snow has long shaped the culture

and traditions of the indigenous communities who live in its shadow.

Elfrida Natkime is from the Amungme community.

They know Carstensz by another name.

The Amungme people's access to Nemangkawi has been

profoundly altered by the development of mining in the area.

In 1936, Dutch geologist Jean Jacques Dozy

set foot on Ngga Pulu, a snow-covered peak near Carstensz.

There, Dozy discovered vast deposits of copper and gold.

In 1972, US mining giant Freeport

began extracting the minerals,

transforming the landscape of Amungme ancestral lands.

Elfrida is a descendant of the customary landowners

whose territory is now occupied by Freeport's mining operations.

Her grandfather, Tuareg Natkime, was a clan leader

who accepted Freeport's arrival on their ancestral lands.

They were moved to a new settlement further away.

Today, not everyone can freely enter what was once the homeland

of the Amungme people.

The area is heavily guarded by military and police personnel.

Adolfina Kum's parents and ancestors lived for generations

in the Singa Valley at the foot of Nemangkawi.

Born and raised far from her ancestral homeland,

Adolfina knew Nemangkawi only through stories told by her parents.

Since 2013, she has been advocating for the rights

of the Amungme people.

Through her activism,

Adolfina has developed a deeper understanding of the relationship

between the Amungme people and the mountain,

including the loss of access to Nemangkawi itself.

The snow-capped peaks of Nemangkawi have attracted

the attention of outsiders since the early 20th century.

Some came to exploit its mineral wealth,

others came to climb one of the world's most remote peaks.

Justinus Sondegau is from the Moni Indigenous community.

In 2008, he joined an expedition searching for an alternative route

to gain access to Carstensz,

known to the Muni people as Mbainggela.

It became known as the Suwanggama route

and was soon a popular way to climb Carstensz Pyramid.

From then on, Justinus worked as a guide for Carstensz expeditions,

supported by villagers who carried equipment and supplies.

But soon after,

the Suwanggama route was closed by the government for security reasons.

Now Carstensz faces a new crisis.

Asia's last tropical glaciers lie near its summit.

Since the 19th century, they have shrunk by more than 99%.

The World Meteorological Organisation predicts

they could vanish completely as early as next year.

For the scientific community,

it is a visible indicator of the climate crisis.

When you look at the ice on a mountain,

you think that's a static and a constant experience

and it should be there.

The eternity glaciers are just about to disappear.

And seeing that recession, being eyewitness to that

in our lifetime should be a real eye-opener.

Glaciers preserve a record

of how Earth's climate has changed over time.

Klaus Thymann arrived at Carstensz in late 2025

with a single goal - to document the melting glaciers

before they are gone.

When we flew in through the valley,

it's so many impressions, because you start in Timika

and you're boiling hot.

As you gain altitude, the air gets cooler.

But we fly over, you know, tropical jungle,

and then we gain altitude and there's less vegetation.

And then we pass this enormous mine

and actually fly over that and then get to the base camp.

My first impression was to look, the rock's really been shaped by

the ice, because it's round, it's not sharp.

It's been grinded for centuries, and you could really understand

how the ice used to be from just looking at the landscape.

Most people that go to Puncak Jaya, they want to go to the top,

the highest point in Oceania.

Because it's part of the seven summits.

Now you can say you've been to the highest point in Oceania,

which is pretty cool.

They just ignore the ice. Our focus is the ice.

Thymann deployed a drone and took hundreds of photographs

to build a precise three-dimensional model of the remaining ice.

We created this 3D model, and with that we can calculate

the glaciated area.

So we outlined those and we have those calculations.

There's almost no ice left. Those are the facts.

So the eternity glaciers are just about to disappear.

Of course, the glacier recession is a key indicator of climate change,

but there's much wider context.

That's why we share the data with other scientists,

with other groups, so they can use that in that context,

because then they can contextualise

what does this mean maybe for the weather patterns?

What does it mean for... How will it affect locally?

And those, that's not expertise that I have

or that we have with Project Pressure.

But that's why science has to be a collaborative effort,

because everybody's contributing from different perspectives.

And it's very important to have that holistic approach to science,

because if it's just siloed, you don't see the landscape, so to say.

For the indigenous communities who regard Carstensz as sacred,

time is running out to see Asia's last tropical glaciers

before they disappear.

Today, the mountain is mainly accessed by helicopter

through costly expeditions beyond the means of most people.

And nearby mining operations have transformed

the surrounding landscape and restricted access to the mountain

for the Muni and Amungme communities.

Here is some more World Service content

that made an impact this week.

BBC Afghan Forensics told the story

of an 11-year-old boy who risked his life

to save a child trapped in an abandoned well.

Using satellite and verified incident data,

they identified over 100 such accidents

in the last five years and examined how water scarcity

is making the problem worse.

BBC News Russian uncovered a secret multimillion-dollar project

to rebuild Vladimir Putin's Black Sea residence.

The investigation revealed how the work was being managed

by a company linked to a close Putin ally.

You can find both stories on the BBC News website.

Thanks for joining me in Canada. Global Eye will be back next week.

Goodbye.