The Provincial Executive of the Communist Party of BC condemns the escalating attacks on DRIPA by the major political parties in Victoria.
On Monday, December 8th, interim leader of the BC Conservatives, Trevor Halford, called on NDP Premier David Eby to reconvene the legislature to repeal the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) which was adopted by the Legislature in 2019. The call comes after a judgment by the BC Court of Appeals in favour of the Gitxaala and Ehattesaht First Nations. Overturning a ruling by a lower court, the Appeals Court confirmed that the province’s “online system allowing for automatic registration of mineral claims without requiring prior consultation and cooperation of affected Indigenous peoples is inconsistent with article 32(2) of UNDRIP.”
This decision reaffirms section 3 of DRIPA, that “the government must take all measures necessary to ensure the laws of British Columbia are consistent with [UNDRIP].” The ruling acknowledges the inconsistency between BC law and UNDRIP, and the necessity of working towards a substantive legal and economic reconciliation that upholds the internationally recognized rights of Indigenous peoples.
The First Nations Leadership Council, which represents BC Indigenous groups, states that “The decision breathes new life into the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act) and affirms the substantive legal effect of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration). It places the provincial government’s de-prioritization of UN Declaration implementation into serious question, specifically not following its own Interim Approach for the development and passing of several key pieces of streamlining legislation, notably the Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act and the Infrastructure Projects Act.”
As it turns out, DRIPA was acceptable to the ruling class only so long as it remained a purely symbolic gesture that didn’t interfere with plunder of Indigenous territories which began in the colonial era before Confederation.
The Conservative Party’s call to repeal DRIPA feeds into a rapidly advancing attack on reconciliation in BC. Both the NDP and the Conservatives have joined with the corporate media to spread fear and disinformation in response to a BC Supreme Court ruling in August that recognized the claims of the Cowichan First Nation to a swath of land that includes parts of the city of Richmond and land owned by the Vancouver Transit Authority. Meanwhile, the OneBC Party, a far right split from the BC Conservatives, have been touring the province to spread residential school denialist propaganda with the goal of undermining reconciliation and reversing the hard fought progress towards respecting the rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination over themselves and their lands.
Premier Eby’s response to the recent series of legal affirmations of Indigenous rights has been to attack the courts. His government and not the Court, Eby says, should “establish priorities for legislative work with First Nations partners.” In other words, Eby seems to believe that his government should be above the law and that the courts should be stripped of their independence if they threaten capitalist exploitation. Although the Premier hasn’t called for its complete abolition, Eby is calling for amendments to DRIPA in the name of protecting the economic interests of the ruling class, at the expense of First Nations’ whose land is being targeted for accelerated exploitation. This episode has fully unmasked the contradiction at the crux of reconciliation in Canada. Full reconciliation can only truly take place when land is returned to its original owners. But the capitalists will never voluntarily relinquish the land which is the source of their wealth. This is one reason why only socialism can achieve true reconciliation.
The NDP’s bills 14 and 15, bypassing environmental assessment, First Nations consent and public consultations, signalled this government’s intensifying attack on Indigenous rights. Both the provincial NDP and federal Liberals plan to transform BC by expanding the province’s role as supplier of raw materials to Silicon Valley and the arms industry. Forecasts still show that LNG will be oversaturating the globe by the time BC is able to compete on the world market. This is why Carney and Danielle Smith are pushing through their pipeline, threatening the tanker ban and doing their own work to set back reconciliation in BC by decades.
The Provincial Executive Committee of the Communist Party of BC calls for the protection and expansion of DRIPA and the full implementation of UNDRIP. Economic stability doesn’t need to come at the expense of reconciliation, workers’ rights and the environment. For the future of this country and its working people, we need a new constitution, drafted democratically by all nations living within the borders of the state. We need a transition to a sustainable economy that includes value-added manufacturing and full employment. In response to an escalating US annexationist drive, we need to delink our economic and political structures from US influence and wrest back sovereignty for all peoples living in Canada.