Premier David Eby has offered a concession to First Nations leaders on changes to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), proposing a three-year suspension of parts of the law until an appeal of a related court case plays out.
Eby presented the plan to First Nations leaders in a video call on Thursday (April 2) morning.
This is the latest in several meetings between provincial officials and Indigenous leaders, who, for the most part, have called for the B.C. government to halt any efforts to amend DRIPA or the related Interpretation Act.
DRIPA is a 2019 B.C. law that formally commits the province to aligning its laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). This foundational document affirms the right to self-determination for Indigenous peoples worldwide.
The 2021 Interpretation Act takes this a step further by codifying that “Every act and regulation must be construed as being consistent with the declaration.”
The province’s efforts to amend these laws follow a court decision that invalidated part of the Mineral Tenure Act because it failed to align with UNDRIP. Eby has said he wants to eliminate similar “legal liability” facing the province and rewrite the law to clarify that aligning laws with UNDRIP is the government’s job, not the court’s.
More to come.