Exploring Theme: "Problems with BC UNDRIP Bill"

Permits for the extractive project in the Garnet Valley were approved in August by ‘B.C.,’ amid rejections from local governments and community groups First People’s Law Report: IndigiNews – syilx Okanagan leaders are rejecting a proposed gravel pit mine in their homelands, as one expert says the province is violating its own Declaration on the...

Lots of acknowledgment but little implementation, leaders say, at start of gathering with provincial officials CBC Indigenous: First Nations leaders from across British Columbia are in Vancouver for two days to participate in hundreds of relationship-building meetings with government officials, four years after the province was the first jurisdiction in North America to pass legislation to...

BC Supreme Court found Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act is more of a ‘interpretive aid’ than a law NationTalk: Vancouver is Awesome – The Gitxaala First Nation is appealing a recent BC Supreme Court decision that found, among other things, that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) has...

In the B.C. Supreme Court, Gitxaała Nation and Ehattesaht First Nation argue the mineral rights process sidesteps the duty to consult The Narwhal: A new mineral claim was made in the heart of Gitxaała territory this month in a sacred area the First Nation is trying to protect. For Gitxaała Hereditary Chief Sm’ooygit Nees Hiwaas,...

NationTalk: Canada’s National Observer – Over most of the past month, the B.C. Supreme Court has heard a challenge brought by the Gitxaała and Ehattesaht First Nations against the province’s decision to award multiple mineral claims in their unceded territories. This judicial review is essential to reforming the colonial-era Mineral Tenure Act (MTA), which permits mineral claims...

Hearings in Gitxaała Nation’s landmark legal case began last week. Gitxaała hereditary and elected leaders, elders, and supporters walked into the courthouse on April 3, united “with one voice and in the Spirit of being of one heart,” as elected Chief Councillor Linda Innes described. “We owe it to our children, to those yet to...

FNEMC – “The Indigenous Sovereignty: Implementing Consent for Mining on Indigenous Lands” is a new report prepared by the BC First Nations Energy and Mining Council (FNEMC) setting out 25 recommendations which, if implemented, would compel mining companies and prospectors to secure the approval of First Nation governments in order to obtain consent-based access to...

Union of BC Indian Chiefs – UBCIC marks the 24th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s ground-breaking Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa decision, which confirmed the continuing existence of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan Title and Rights, contrary to provincial claims that their Title, if it had existed, had been extinguished. On December 11, 1997 the six members of...

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw submits response to BC’s DRIPA Draft Action Plan. The Nation’s submission noted, however, that the Draft Action Plan can and should do more to center co-development and move away from simply engaging or consulting. It provided feedback around four key principles so that the aspirational goals of DRIPA can be better translated into...

Government of BC – The Act requires the Province to develop and implement an action plan, in consultation and co-operation with Indigenous peoples, to meet the objectives of the UN Declaration. The provincial government is committed to implementing these human rights in the Province’s institutions, laws, policies and practices to advance reconciliation and address the...

First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) – On 1st anniversary of the unanimous passage of Bill 41, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act), on November 26, 2019, the FNLC has stated: “Instead of aligning its actions and laws with the Act, we have seen the Province push forward in recent months...