Eby seeks to suspend Indigenous rights law

0:00Premier David Amy walked into room with First Nations leaders today and proposed suspending DRIPPA. That's the BC's declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples Act for up to three years. The response from First Nations leaders, well, complete opposition. Now, here's what DRIPPA actually is and why it matters. Back in 2019, BC became the first jurisdiction in Canada to put the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the law. Now, every party in the legislature voted for it. It was unanimous. It was historic, but there's a key point here. It lost in the debate. DRIPPA was always aspirational. It was a framework, a direction of travel, a commitment to work towards aligning provincial laws with Indigenous rights over time. It was never meant to be a legal sledgehammer. At least that's what the province thought. Then the courts got involved. Two decisions changed everything. One recognizing the Cowach and tribes Aboriginal title overland in Richmond. Land that includes private property, which we heard about yesterday from Malcolm Brody. Another found BC's entire mineral claims regime inconsistent

1:00with DRIPPA. Suddenly, what was meant to be an aspirational guiding document had real immediate and far reaching legal teeth. Now, Mr. E.B. says changing it is non-negotiable. He wants elected representatives making these calls not judges. First Nations say that's bad faith. They've been given five business days to respond to proposed amendments. Premier David E.B. spoke to a media earlier today. Let's listen to his comments. It's a hard conversation to sit down with Indigenous leaders and say we have no choice. We have to take action to protect the province from unlimited legal liability created by the court of appeal decision. This creates a process that I don't like that I know Indigenous leadership doesn't like. But one of the messages and really one of the pieces that is reality is that the work won't stop. The work will continue through this process. The Declaration Act set out the plan by which we would do the work. And we have committed that we're going to continue to work in

2:02partnership with First Nations going forward. That was a Premier David E.B. speaking about an hour ago. And I just want to let our listeners know that Premier David E.B. will be joining us live on this show at 430. We're joining us now to talk about everything that transpired at the legislature today is Alec Alayzen B, legislative reporter for the Vancouver Senate in the province. Alec thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me Jeff. Can you just describe not just a press conference but just how the day transpired how all of this occurred. You what you saw what you heard? Yeah so the Premier had a meeting with First Nations leaders this morning and we were aware that that was going to happen around 10 o'clock. Around 10 o'clock is also when the legislature starts. We got an indication from the Premier's office that the Premier would be standing up to speak about how the meeting went. We found out about half an hour to an hour later that that would occur around 1.30 before you know we were found out about that before the meeting was even over and then as soon as the meeting was over a bunch of us started hearing from concerned First Nations leaders about what was going on in terms of a potential pause of

3:07drippa and which is very different from the amendments that the Premier put forward but essentially what it does and he came out of confirmed that 1.30 is that for the next three years if the legislation if the amendments fast all sections of drippa outside of section 6 and 7 which allows the province to enter into agreements with First Nations would be paused so that would have prevent in EV's comments and eyes from that prevent drippa from being applied to potential laws and prevent courts from striking down provincial laws but they deem inconsistent with drippa has happened with the mineral tenure act back in December and have you had a sense of what the First Nations leaders are saying at this particular point I know what's very early but have you got a sense of what the response has been? Yes they're you know concerned with the changes they say that this is a step that that backwards for reconciliation I talked to Robert Phillips of the First Nations summit and he said that I also

4:07talked to Adam Olson who was the former Green Emily member of the Sartland First Nation and he said that you know they they had this proposal last week for amendments that the premier said yesterday as recently as yesterday were non-negotiable that would have limited what laws drippa applied to and he said that Olson said that First Nations leaders came into this meeting all prepared to respond to those amendments which they only got last Monday and were only given till Friday to respond to and then the premier comes into the meeting and after some introductions puts forward a completely different proposal about the pausing the vast majority of drippa for the next three years and giving First Nations leaders very little time to respond or think of you know what their position on it is and essentially giving them up until after Easter Easter break week to provide a response to what they want to do whether they want to move forward with the amendments or whether they want to move forward with the suspension of drippa and you know of some First Nations leaders

5:12they're saying it's basically a you know a fair complete by the premier what do you think has changed from the amendments to the pa to the pause I mean what do you think transpired it was it just legal recommendations legal conversation that that forced Mr. Eby and his government to do this or is this sort of seen through a political lens here that these amendments weren't going to work out my understanding is that this is more from a political lens or at least that's my sense of how this all transpired you know the premier told reporters just a couple hours ago that you know he had heard loud and clear from First Nations that the amendments as proposed were unacceptable and he came up with this is a different option and he also has three members of his caucus who are indigenous and you know you've got Deborah topperowski you've got Joan Phillips who is the wife of Stuart Phillips of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and you've got Tamara Davidson out and fight it why and so I'm

6:17also wondering if there was some talk within caucus but whether those three members could vote for these amendments now whether they can vote or the suspension as well as unclear and he brushed aside questions about that today but at the same time you know the premier said today that this is a confidence vote and he only has a one-seat majority and so it'll be very interesting to see how this plays out so when does this get introduced into the legislature do you think I'm not gonna hold you to it I know it's a bit of a guesstimate but I'm just curious because the the the conversation around a confidence vote not having the potential support of some members of his caucus it does put a lot of sense to jeopardy any sense of when this will be introduced no sense yet outside of the fact that it didn't come in today so that means that it will come in after the Easter break the house isn't sitting next week and then we've got six more sitting weeks until we break for summer and the premier said that it will be brought in in the spring legislative

7:18session so it's got to be some time if not the first week after we get back from the Easter break week it's got to be the next week after that because otherwise he doesn't leave and himself and his government a whole lot of time to debate this legislation and push it through the house and have we heard from the green party who has been supportive mostly of NDP legislation although there been disagreements what is their position on this we haven't heard from the green party as of yet this is still all very new but I imagine they will be opposing this suspension of DRIPPA they oppose the amendment to DRIPPA and I imagine this suspension of DRIPPA won't be any different how much I'm not sure if the question was asked today but how much of this is mystery be in his governments maybe a fault doesn't the right word perhaps it is the right word that this is at the end of the day self-inflicted yesterday was a vote in 2019 that I understand but the way they've handled this how much of this is just also what you know how much of this is just about a government that has you

8:21know sort of not defended this and the somewhat described as self-inflicted wounds and then it it certainly appears that way because the solution that they brought forward it pleases no one it doesn't please first nation leaders it doesn't please the opposition who want to see a full repeal of DRIPPA I imagine the back and forth over whether they're amending the legislation whether they're suspending it also create some uncertainty and I think you know who people just want to see certainty around what's going on here and I I'm not sure we're seeing that at this point I mean you you said you were mentioning that you know there's obviously going to be looking at this through a political lens I mean the latest poll from Angus Research Institute that just came out the other day does speak to British Columbians and their concerns over First Nations issues DRIPPA and the impact on private property rights is it fair to say that played a maybe not that particular poll but just the polling numbers are

9:23playing to a certain degree a role in regards to Mr. Eby and his government's decisions I think certainly the political this is a decision driven by political calculations about what they need to do to keep support and now that's hard because I sort of feel like the government is stuck between a rock and a hard place with a lot of these changes and as I said previously the suspension I imagine Lisa's no one and so it's going to be interesting to see how they handle this but yeah it's it's a very interesting thing like First Nations are upset not just about the changes but also the lack of consultation you've got Richmond which is wanting to clear answer although these changes aren't in relation to DRIPPA as much as it is the Mineral Tenure Act it will be interesting to see how they how they handle this moving forward. Alex as always thank you so much for your time really

10:24appreciate it. Thank you so much. Hello there. Thursday's on global. I'm Madeline Matlock. She's the lawyer with a legendary name. Don't underestimate this Matlock. This one is a shark. You know it baby. The one you can trust even if she has to bend the rules. Things aren't always as black and white as they seem to crack a case. This is how I get things done. Emmy winning actress Kathy Bates is Madlock. All new Thursday's at 90's turn on global. Stream on Stack TV.