APTN: Russ Diabo, is a member of the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake. He has worked for Indigenous rights for more than 40 years and has served at the Assembly of First Nations as an advisor to two national chiefs. As a writer and editor of the First Nations Strategic Bulletin he has been covering the development of Indigenous policy in Canada for the past 20 years and is recognized as one of the foremost Indigenous policy analysts in Canada.
In an “Opinion” piece, Ross Diabo outlines the many reasons from his perspective as to why Indigenous people should not support Bill C-15 “The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Act”.

Among his beliefs:

• The Assembly of First Nations is not the legitimate representative of “Indigenous rights holders—the actual Indigenous Peoples from across the country”
• The preamble is in fact not legally binding so courts will focus on the main deeply flawed sections one to seven
• If passed, Bill C-15 will be used by the government of Canada to reinforce the status quo because the Bill makes it clear that existing national laws—many of which violate Indigenous rights—will prevail over UNDRIP;
• The main sections of Bill C-15, particularly section 2, maintain the common law interpretation of section 35(1) and section 35(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982, which is heavily based on the colonial Doctrine of Discovery, which strips Indigenous people of their land ownership and land rights;
• The primacy of the Doctrine of Discovery means Canadian courts will continue to adjudicate using existing case law based on section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, and these rulings have caused major harm to the daily life for Indigenous Peoples and Nations including:
  • The imposition of Crown sovereignty over Indigenous peoples, including self-government rights;
  • Disregarding Indigenous laws and legal traditions;
  • Establishing that the Crown has “ultimate title” to land
  • The burden of proof imposed on Indigenous Peoples and Nations to establish their rights in Canadian courts;
  • The ability for the Crown to infringe Aboriginal rights based on the “Sparrow test” that allows infringement of Aboriginal rights under all sorts of circumstances;
  • The erosion of the duty to consult and accommodate to nothing more than a procedural right that is reviewable based on administrative law principles.

If Bill C-15 becomes law, all 46 Articles of the UN declaration will be interpreted and implemented through the colonial Canadian constitutional framework, instead of respecting international law regarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples. For example, the international Indigenous right of self-determination (UNDRIP-Article 3) will be interpreted and implemented through the federal so-called ‘Inherent Right’ to self-government policy, which is not based on the international right of self-determination.
In fact, the federal ‘Inherent Right’ Policy states “The inherent right of self-government does not include a right of sovereignty in the international law sense…implementation of self-government should enhance the participation of Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian federation [as fourth level “Indigenous governments”]”. [emphasis added] So UNDRIP will be used to justify the removal of Indigenous right to self-determination and with that all of the other promised rights of the UNDRIP – regarding restoration of stolen lands, territories and resources, or restitution for stolen lands and the articles requiring Free, Prior Informed Consent for developments on lands of Indigenous People’s would be meaningless.

In other words, by placing UNDRIP beneath existing Canadian law, they domesticate it out of existence.
https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/undrip-bill-c-15-federal-government-soverignty-russ-diabo/