CBABC president Patricia Blair said the province's reform could cut off access to the courts
The British Columbia government’s plan to reform the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act has been met with pushback from the Canadian Bar Association’s BC branch.
According to CBABC president Patricia Blair, the amendment restricts the contribution of courts to BC’s reconciliation efforts, potentially cutting off people’s access to independent courts in the event of disputes.
Premier David Eby announced the DRIPA reform plan on Tuesday January 20 at the Natural Resources Forum in Prince George. He said in a statement published by CBC News that of late, court rulings had “created real confusion about what the Declaration Act is about and what reconciliation means in practice.”
“Reconciliation is the business of government-to-government relationships between the provincial government, the federal government and First Nations governments. It is not for the courts to take over. That's why we're going to amend the Declaration Act in spring to make that intent explicit,” Eby said in a statement published by CBC News.
Last month, the BC Court of Appeal found that DRIPA was not compatible with BC’s existing mineral right grant system. Conservatives also called for the law to be repealed after a BC Supreme Court judgment designated 300-325 hectares of land as Quw'utsun (Cowichan) Nation land, affecting about 150 pieces of private property in Richmond.
Blair said in a CBABC statement that British Columbians “should be concerned about any attempt to restrict access to our independent courts as a means of resolving disputes.”
“In a democracy like ours, the courts provide a fair and impartial forum where anyone can raise their concerns or object to decisions made by government, including legislation created and passed by the legislature. A government that plans to limit the courts' role because it disagrees with judicial decisions should alarm us all,” Blair said.
She emphasized that the government was “not above the law” and that eliminating the right to seek court resolution “undermines public confidence in democratic institutions and compromises fundamental checks on government power.”
