The consensus was that DRIPA had no power to change laws. The courts disagreed
When governments sign a document committing to obtain the free and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before approving projects affecting their lands or resources, do they mean it?
That is the question at the heart of the controversy that has plagued the B.C. government for months.
The document is the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, or UNDRIP. The question is to what extent it has the power to shape laws in Canada.
The controversy over B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, or DRIPA, can essentially be understood as the tension between two competing viewpoints.
One view, which has largely carried the day, is that UNDRIP – and the federal and provincial laws implementing it – are aspirational; legislative north stars meant to act as interpretive aids, but not capable of conferring rights or upending the status quo.
The other is that it means something tangible, that it creates actionable rights for Indigenous people that could affect how resources are used and how wealth is apportioned in this province.
And when this view prevails, as it did in two recent court rulings, it became an issue that shook the government to its core.
So how did we get here?
The story begins in 1851, when the colonial government set up a system of selling “Crown land” to non-Indigenous interests before B.C. joined confederation.
However, Indigenous nations in what is now B.C. never signed treaties. This means Indigenous rights and title to all land in the province did not ever disappear.
This particular chapter starts in 2007, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People as a means of establishing an international set of standards “for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous Peoples of the world.”
B.C.’s Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister at the time, Scott Fraser, repeatedly assured MLAs that the act was aspirational in nature, meant only to provide guidance.
Read more at CBC: How DRIPA drove the B.C. government to a crisis point