Un-DRIPA

BC NDP resorting to age-old tropes of First Nations intransigence as cover for plan to pause

Premier David Eby Press Conference, Province of BC Flickr, used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Word is circulating that tomorrow the BC NDP government will introduce legislation to suspend critical provisions of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

DRIPA passed in 2019 with the unanimous support of every MLA in the chamber, including me. BC was the first commonwealth jurisdiction to commit in law to aligning provincial legislation with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The First Nations Leadership Council issued an open letter to every MLA. It deserves to be read in full.

The letter makes three things clear.

First, the legal risk BC faces is not created by DRIPA, but rather the decision to undermine it.

Second, using legislation to engineer a preferred court outcome limits First Nations’ access to justice in a way that echoes the 1927 prohibition on First Nations hiring lawyers at all.

Third, no matter how hard Premier David Eby tries to sell it, First Nations were not intransigent.

First Nation leaders have brought concrete proposals. For example, Huy wu qw, Laxele’wuts’aat, Shana Thomas Hereditary Chief of Lyackson First Nation suggested,

1. An independent, co-governed UNDRIP Consistency Review Office to provide expert, early review of legislation and policy; similar to a tribunal.

2. Mandatory UNDRIP consistency statements for all bills and regulations, similar to Charter compliance assessments; and

3. A limited stated-case or reference process to allow advisory judicial guidance as a last resort, avoiding protracted litigation.. The proposals rejected, and suspension declared “non-negotiable”, by the Premier.

Other proposals outlined in the FNLC letter are: “a DRIPA Implementation Act, an an independent oversight body, a joint Cabinet Committee on DRIPA implementation and a proposed process to identify a workable “off-ramp” to avoid amendments or suspension of DRIPA.”

The characterization that First Nations won’t compromise is not accurate. It is a familiar and tired trope that flows from the earliest decades of British Columbia’s Crown-Indigenous relations policy.

MLAs should think carefully before voting to suspend human rights. There is still another path. The FNLC letter points to it plainly.

Write your MLA. Share on your social media. Demand they stand up for Indigenous human rights in British Columbia! HÍSW̱ḴE.