Premier David Eby is joined by fellow MLAs in solidarity as he speaks during a press conference following the throne speech at the legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Feb. 12.CHAD HIPOLITO/The Canadian Press
Jody Wilson-Raybould is the former minister of justice and attorney general of Canada. Her forthcoming book is The Inbetween Leader: Cultivating Courage and Unity in a Complex World.
In 2016, when I was the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, I gave a talk to the Assembly of First Nations that addressed proposals to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) through legislation. My message to the chiefs was clear and unequivocal: “…simplistic approaches, such as adopting the Declaration as being Canadian law, are unworkable and, respectfully, a political distraction to undertaking the hard work to actually implement it.”
I imagine many of you today – Indigenous and non-Indigenous – may agree with that statement. But this was not the case in 2016; I was attacked by many, both within and outside government.
As the political and legal controversy rages over DRIPA, the UNDRIP legislation that passed in B.C. in 2019, it is not too late to heed earlier warnings. Principled and pragmatic pathways forward remain available.
DRIPA – and the federal UNDRIP Act (UNDA), which passed in 2021 and is effectively identical – is high-level and unclear in how it was to be implemented. Both laws lack transparent and effective legislative mechanisms around how UNDRIP – which is important as a framework for reconciliation – would be translated into stepwise shifts in laws, policies and practices within the Canadian context.
While Ottawa’s and B.C.’s proposals importantly acknowledged the long overdue work of upholding Indigenous rights in legislation, they did not provide process or guidance on the how.
After 150-plus years of Indigenous peoples and their rights being excluded from the development of laws, it was magical thinking to believe that laws could be aligned without a principled and pragmatic implementation framework for governments, Indigenous peoples and the public.
B.C. and Canada knew that passing such legislation without additional guidance or clear, co-developed plans for implementation could lead to a confusing mess. They were specifically told – by experts at the time, by some public commentators, and by me. Now, here we are – in the unsurprising outcome that DRIPA has become a massive political distraction, with the real, urgent and essential work of reconciliation becoming harder.
Over decades, a clear understanding and consensus was built for the vast majority of Canadians: that if we wanted to secure a growing economy, a healthy environment, and a prosperous future for generations to come, then the work of reconciliation would have to significantly advance. I believe this consensus holds, in the name of securing our shared future.
Our challenge, collectively, is that our political leaders are not honouring that consensus. They either don’t understand why reconciliation is important and how to move it forward, or they don’t care. And by not doing the legislative work properly, they are also causing confusion and complexities for the courts.
It is now apparent that B.C. Premier David Eby operates without a clear vision of reconciliation or of the principles needed to advance it. The end result is shifting positions, flip-flops on amending DRIPA or suspending it (or not), and an appearance of simply blowing in the political winds.
B.C. Premier backs down on amending Indigenous rights legislation
The B.C. Conservatives and their leadership candidates are no better. They pander to loud, often fringe, voices who try to cause confusion – about our history, law and constitution; about each other; and about how our economy demands progress in reconciliation in order to thrive. This is damaging and will come back to bite the party, as well as the so-called leaders who support this ignorant and costly approach.
We need to get on with true reconciliation – which each and every one of us has a role in. This includes dealing with the DRIPA challenge by building transparent, principled and practical mechanisms that should have been in place from the outset, such as a separate implementation act for aligning laws that goes beyond UNDA and DRIPA’s action plans.
In another speech, in 2014, I closed with a vision of the urgent work that was still needed. “[T]he nation-to nation relationship and the resurgence of Aboriginal governance … will, over the next generation, change, for the better, the way Canada is governed. ... And as Indigenous peoples take back control of their lives and the federation is strengthened – we are helping to ensure we have a Canada that I think all Canadians aspire to live in. A country based on shared values and principles that we have spent years as a nation fostering – creating a fair, caring and compassionate society that confirms our place on this planet as a favoured Nation and one of the best countries in which to live.”
The leader who embraces this work will build that shared future and an ever stronger Canada.