Opinion: The public, kept in the dark much longer than necessary, isn’t likely to spare much sympathy for the premier

A timely leak lifted the lid this week on Premier David Eby’s secretive plan to amend the legislation governing how B.C. is reconciling its laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Eby targeted the Declaration Act for a makeover last December after a court ruling invoked it to overturn the province’s mineral claims staking regime.

The Act established a framework for the province and Indigenous leaders to work together on reconciliation with the UN Declaration, law-by-law over a period of years, said Eby. It was never intended to license the courts to begin overturning laws before the framework had been implemented.

He vowed to amend the Act in a way that would, in effect, tell the courts to butt out.

The government has been working on those amendments since the beginning of the year. It has lately shared the proposals with Indigenous leaders on a confidential basis, while telling the public next to nothing about its intentions.

Read the full article at the Vancouver Sun: Vaughn Palmer: Premier Eby has placed himself in a trap of his own making over Declaration Act