FLETCHER: BC's indigenous rights crisis — how Premier Eby voted for a law he can now neither fix nor escape

Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.VICTORIA - Events are moving so quickly in the battle over indigenous and property rights in BC that it is proving difficult for the provincial government to keep up.Two recent court decisions have shaken Premier David Eby’s team. One case by the BC Supreme Court has threatened private property rights in a case involving Richmond lands near Vancouver International Airport. The other, at the BC Court of Appeal, opens the province to lawsuits to force it to conform all of its laws to the terms of his own Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).Eby responded by promising amendments to the law he helped create, but that was overwhelmingly rejected by indigenous leaders when he gave them an advance look.Now Eby intends to suspend parts of the law for three years, to give the Supreme Court of Canada time to rule on the BC Court of Appeal’s finding that the province must implement DRIPA across all of the province’s laws. That would potentially bring the United Nations concept of “free, prior, and informed consent” into effect for up to 200 indigenous communities..A leaked transcript of Eby’s conference call with as many as 100 indigenous leaders gives some clues to his thinking. According to a Canadian Press report on the meeting, Eby pleaded for time to implement DRIPA on all laws, because the government lacks the staff and “political capital” to do that immediately.His opponents argue that they would simply repeal DRIPA, a position that has the BC Conservatives leading in opinion polls despite having an interim leader and a divisive leadership contest underway. The NDP government’s “political capital” is evaporating, along with the province’s credit rating.One indigenous leader, former BC Green Party MLA and now Tsartlip First Nation treaty negotiator Adam Olsen, summed up the situation. Eby can’t just amend the legislation he and 86 other MLAs voted unanimously to pass in 2019, because he doesn’t have “consent” to do so. The law requires consent, and all those promises that it didn’t convey a veto to indigenous people were just talk.A glimmer of hope was provided this week by George Abbott, a former BC Liberal minister of indigenous relations. Abbott has been promoted to chief commissioner of the BC Treaty Commission, and he said he expects that three more modern treaties are likely to be completed this year..That would be a big breakthrough, considering that in its 35 years of existence, the commission has completed only seven treaties. Even that total is inflated, since four of those communities negotiated a joint treaty covering a relatively small area on Vancouver Island.One of those nearing completion is with five other Vancouver Island communities in the Victoria region, the Te’mexw Treaty Association. The federal Department of National Defence has contributed Hatley Park, including the former military college now known as Royal Roads University, as treaty lands for the Songhees Nation. This is 560 acres of waterfront, forest, and buildings, including the historic grounds of Hatley Castle.This week, another Te’mexw member, the Esquimalt First Nation, filed a lawsuit against Canada’s attorney general, claiming Hatley Park is also its traditional territory and objecting to the Songhees receiving it. The Esquimalt consists of 384 people, with an Indian Act reserve of about 45 acres on Esquimalt Harbour, whose leadership signed on to the Te’mexw treaty group a decade ago.Eby’s main objection to repealing DRIPA is that it would lead to more legal actions against the Crown. He’s trying to reach negotiated settlements instead, in secret. These “share decision-making” deals are not treaties, which would at least provide definition and finality to land and monetary compensation.He has painted himself into a corner, and at this stage, it’s not at all clear that even the repeal of DRIPA would provide BC with a path out of it.Tom Fletcher has covered BC politics and business as a journalist since 1984.tomfletcherbc@gmail.comX: @tomfletcherbc

FLETCHER: BC's indigenous rights crisis — how Premier Eby voted for a law he can now neither fix nor escape

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