By Bruce Pardy, published by the Western Standard
On October 26, BC indigenous chiefs drew a line in the sand. They warned new BC Premier Lorne Doerkson not to repeal the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA). Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said that repealing DRIPA would constitute a “declaration of war.” He promised that the chiefs would not “stand idly by” if the new BC government rips it up. Which is exactly what Doerkson promised, during the BC election campaign, to do. [Continue reading at the publisher’s website here]
In Brief
Prof. Bruce Pardy argues that British Columbia’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) has done real damage.
By embedding the sweeping, non-binding UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into provincial law, it has transferred wealth, land control, and decision-making power from ordinary British Columbians and their democratic government to unaccountable Indigenous authorities. The result has been eroded private property security, stalled resource development, and diminished democratic rights. Pardy says the province must fully repeal and repudiate DRIPA—not water it down—and unwind the agreements it produced where possible.
UNDRIP is an aspirational UN resolution. DRIPA turned it into BC law. That experiment has failed. As Pardy puts it: if the chiefs want to call necessary repeal a declaration of war, so be it.
Bruce Pardy is executive director of Rights Probe and professor of law at Queen’s University.
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