The First Nations Leadership Council is speaking out against the B.C. government’s proposal to suspend key provisions of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), calling it a unilateral betrayal and an abandonment of the province’s commitment to principled reconciliation, as well as serving to create a climate of uncertainty.
“This is an historical moment for First Nations and we will not back down,” Robert Phillips, First Nations Summit Political Executive, said at a press conference on Friday.
“But we will not tolerate misinformation, prejudice, racism that our First Nations are experiencing right now. And the premier is only adding fuel to the fire.”
The Act requires B.C. to align its laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Late last year, a B.C. Court of Appeal decision determined that DRIPA is legally enforceable, meaning laws that don’t align with it can be struck down in court.
In response, Premier David Eby proposed amendments to the Act but, following pushback from First Nations leaders, he’s instead proposing a three-year pause on key sections of the Act as the province deals with the fallout from last year’s court rulings.
On Friday, First Nations leaders repeated that DRIPA is not the problem.
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“They started by saying, because of the Cowichan Nation decision, they need to amend the legislation,” Laxele’wuts’aat Huy’wu’qw (Chief) Shana Thomas said.
“They talked about threats to private land. And even though the Cowichan Nation Chiefs sent out a joint statement with the premier, assuring the public that the Cowichan Nation was not seeking to dispossess any individuals of private land, the fear-mongering persists.”
Eby was also heavily criticized.
“I think the problem is Premier Eby himself and I think the NDP has a colossal leadership problem,” ʔaʔsiwɬ Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, said.
In response, Eby said that the reality is that British Columbia was settled largely without treaty.
“First Nations rights and title exist, and any government has to grapple with those issues,” he said. “We want to do this work to mitigate the risk in the least invasive way possible.”
Eby has said the bill to suspend parts of DRIPA will be a confidence vote, meaning the government could fall if it doesn’t pass.
The proposed changes to DRIPA are set to be introduced in the House later next week when it resumes sitting.
All eyes will be on Joan Phillip, who is a Vancouver MLA and is married to Phillip.
He said he doesn’t speak for his wife, but added that his wife does not support the suspension.
“She does not support any tinkering or meddling with DRIPA,” Phillip said.
“Alongside myself, our family, we celebrated DRIPA in 2019. As for the other MLAs, they need to vote their conscience.”
Eby said there is a wide diversity of voices and views in the BC NDP caucus.
“We are stable. We are focused, and we are committed to delivering for British Columbians,” Eby said.
“And Joan is no exception. And of course, I will always defer to Joan to speak for Joan’s own community and for herself.”
— WGlith files from Global News’ Andrea Macpherson and Keith Baldrey
Hide the cheques under their workboots
Eby will jellyfish, he is NDP.He has all the fortitude of a wet napkin
Yet again; we cannot alter history( all versions of participants) but we can move onto the future. Time to drain the money trough.
Things are going to get spicy when FN starts moving into Brown Guys territory.
They may be Canadians but they definitely play a different game than us Old Stock Whiteys.
It may be the only good thing we received from Trudeau
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who gives a rats ass what the united nations says, not ruled by them
This is what happens when our elbows up retards don’t pay attention. We end having retards being elected to positions they are obviously not qualified for. Being a ”bleeding heart” or having ”suicidal empathy” is no way to deliver policy.
JV – ever hear the expression possession is 9/10ths of the law!
What if one has paid 100s of 1000s of dollars for that land?
Private property is owned now. Sorry Crown land is own by the taxpayers. Sorry
Yeah sorry we took it and you let us but you didn’t have a choice.
Legislation based on race in racist. Repeal DRIPA and have true equality for all humans in BC.
They want all the benefits of living on Indigenous land..
but melt down the second Indigenous ownership gets mentioned.
That’s the part they never want to talk about.
Living here does not make it yours.
Building here does not erase how it was taken.
Benefiting from stolen land does not turn theft into ownership.
A lot of settlers were taught to confuse access with entitlement.
And that confusion is exactly why so many people get defensive when Land Back comes up.
Because deep down, they know those are not the same thing.
Living on stolen land does not make it yours.
Here is some misinformation. “The Act requires B.C. to align its laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” No it’s doesn’t. When UNDRIP was adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2007, it was a legally non-binding resolution.
It was initially fully rejected by the Conservative Federal Government in 2007 and then later adopted by Justin Trudeau govt 2016.
I’ve said it once I’ll say it again. What is voted in can be voted out. Laws, constitutions and charters are amended and changed all of the time. Just takes the will of the voter to be acted on.
Yeah well, we don’t plan to back down either at this point either. There must be over a million home owners in BC who don’t want any kind of additional claims what so ever on private or public land. This also includes any restitution payments or compensation for land of any kind. That would be just an additional payment covered by our taxes for land that we already own or is a public asset meant for our benefit. It would be just another rent type tax.
You see we live in what’s called a democracy. End of the day what the majority of voters want they get:
Even Eby has understood this which is why DRIPA is being amended or suspended.
I would say the pendulum is swinging back now.
“We will not tolerate misinformation”? And who exactly started this misinformation by claiming “mass graves” of 215 indigenous children murdered by priests and nuns of the Catholic Church? Mass graves that do NOT exist! No, tree roots don’t count as human remains!
How many millions of taxpayers’ dollars have the indigenous SWINDLED for this false claim?
And if you don’t want to “dispossess” us of what is now OUR land, why do you bother with literally claiming this land as yours?
Racism? For all your lies, all you’ve done to disrupt Canadians lives, you deserve it.
“we will not tolerate racism” – but natives come first.
“we will not back down” – And Canadians and British Columbians will not back down.
‘We will not tolerate misinformation” – but insist that natives have rights and titles. – they get that when the sign treaties.
“We want to work to mitigate risks of invasiveness” – but we insist on taking land that is not ours.
“DRIPA is not the problem” – no insisting that DRIPA gives you rights you do not have is the problem.- it is the BC Court of Appeal that thinks DRIPA is enforceable, when we did not approve it or ask to change our laws to include it.
It is perfectly reasonable to remove the nasty DRIPA act. The citizens approve it.
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