FLETCHER: Collateral damage as Crown title is surrendered in B.C.

Tom Fletcher grew up in the Peace River region and has covered B.C. politics and business as a journalist since 1984.For many years, 'nation to nation' seemed like one of those nice symbolic terms used by politicians to indicate their sincerity in forging a “new relationship” with indigenous people.Not anymore. With little notice in recent years, policies have been developed to move around the Supreme Court of Canada’s often-stated position that the Crown remains the ultimate decision-maker for public land that makes up 95% of B.C.’s total area.The B.C. government is moving forward to implement what it calls “shared decision-making” for use of Crown land across not only Indian Act reserves and proven indigenous territory, but asserted territory. With more than 200 recognized First Nations in B.C., most without a treaty defining their often overlapping traditional lands, that potentially means most of the province..FLETCHER: Canada’s mining push starts with B.C. going backwards.My June 11 Western Standard commentary described early steps in B.C. Premier David Eby’s joint decision-making project, billed as “land-use planning” in two significant mining regions. After much fanfare from both the B.C. and federal governments about fast-tracking major resource projects, B.C. announced slow-tracking moratoriums on mineral exploration for the vast northwest B.C. region known as the “Golden Triangle,” and a section of the Cariboo-Chilcotin with a known significant gold deposit. .These “land use planning” agreements have started emerging quietly, at least partly as done deals. In late June the forests ministry announced the latest agreement with the Squamish Nation, specifying 33 cultural sites where timber harvesting and new roads are banned. More than 5,000 hectares of designated old growth forest are set aside, along with a similar-sized portion deemed to consist of “special cultural management areas” in the Squamish region.“The next step will be to complete a ministerial order, which will include consultation with First Nations, and engagement with the public,” the government news release states. The “public” is just another “stakeholder” now, invited to comment once the deal is largely done.The roots of this move to negotiate rather than litigate go back a long way. University of Calgary professor Tom Flanagan touched on it in his July 25 commentary for Western Standard, noting that former federal justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould issued a “practice directive” to federal lawyers to prefer negotiation over litigation. .FLANAGAN: Indigenous 'reconciliation' isn’t working... but here’s what might.Flanagan says this amounts to an instruction to “no longer vigorously defend the Government of Canada’s legal position in court, but essentially to surrender.”.The B.C. NDP government of John Horgan adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in 2019, vowing to make all provincial laws conform to the UN declaration, while insisting that “free, prior and informed consent” is not a veto. Justin Trudeau’s federal government followed suit two years later, in the wake of still-unproven claims of children buried in secret graves. The B.C. Liberal government of Gordon Campbell attempted something similar back in 2009, with legislation to recognize aboriginal rights and title across the province.It was to affect laws going all the way back to the 1859 proclamation establishing B.C. as a Crown colony. There was to be a Council of Indigenous Nations with representation from the roughly 30 historical linguistic groups that existed before European contact..Then-NDP leader Carole James, a Métis member, said the B.C. Treaty Commission that former premier Mike Harcourt established in the 1980s was proving too slow, and poverty persisted in indigenous communities. “We still live as two very unequal peoples on stolen land,” James said.This plan came unglued as Campbell’s government approached the 2009 election. Some indigenous leaders didn’t like the historical map, with its 25 “sovereign indigenous nations.” Some said aboriginal rights and title cover private property as well as Crown land. One chief said a provincial deal isn’t good enough, because his nation’s relationship has always been with the federal Crown.Eby’s plan to amend the Land Act for “shared decision-making” was similarly pulled back from the legislature early last year, as another election neared. Eby has noted that public “anxiety” about the sweeping change drove protests across the province, leading to the current approach of land-use planning agreements by region.There are stories emerging about private property rights being taken away, just as provincial parks are being closed to non-indigenous people. And there is another big problem with indigenous co-management of Crown lands, and the permit authority that implies, that I’ll attempt to describe in a future column.Tom Fletcher grew up in the Peace River region and has covered B.C. politics and business as a journalist since 1984. He lives in Victoria. tomfletcherbc@gmail.com X: @tomfletcherbc

FLETCHER: Collateral damage as Crown title is surrendered in B.C.

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