How do you balance Indigenous land rights with the interests of third parties, private landowners and local governments?

B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) continues to reshape the province’s legal and political landscape, and the questions it raises are playing out at both the legislative and municipal level.

McMillan LLP’s Robin Junger, former Provincial Chief Treaty Negotiator and former Deputy Minister of Energy, joined CKNW’s The Mike Smyth Show to discuss the constitutional challenges facing DRIPA and the looming legislative amendments, and was quoted in the Vancouver Sun on the District of Squamish and Squamish Nation’s new “Land Back” task force, one of the first initiatives of its kind in Canada.

Across both conversations, Robin addressed a central question emerging in B.C.: how do you balance the rights and expectations of Indigenous Peoples under frameworks like DRIPA with the interests of third parties, private landowners and local governments navigating new legal ground?

Listen to the full interview