{"id":596804,"date":"2026-04-11T10:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596804\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T10:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:21:31","slug":"first-nations-leaders-urge-b-c-to-uphold-dripa-we-will-not-back-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/596804\/","title":{"rendered":"First Nations leaders urge B.C. to uphold DRIPA: \u2018We will not back down\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Nations<\/a> Leadership Council is speaking out against the B.C. government\u2019s proposal to suspend key provisions of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), calling it a unilateral betrayal and an abandonment of the province\u2019s commitment to principled reconciliation, as well as serving to create a climate of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an historical moment for First Nations and we will not back down,\u201d Robert Phillips, First Nations Summit Political Executive, said at a press conference on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we will not tolerate misinformation, prejudice, racism that our First Nations are experiencing right now. And the premier is only adding fuel to the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t5:37
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tB.C. First Nations urge government to uphold DRIPA\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Act requires B.C. to align its laws with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Late last year, a B.C. Court of Appeal decision determined that DRIPA is legally enforceable, meaning laws that don\u2019t align with it can be struck down in court.<\/p>\n

In response, Premier David Eby proposed amendments to the Act but, following pushback from First Nations leaders, he\u2019s instead proposing a three-year pause on key sections of the Act<\/a> as the province deals with the fallout from last year\u2019s court rulings.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:05
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBC proposes suspending parts of DRIPA\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

On Friday, First Nations leaders repeated that DRIPA is not the problem.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey started by saying, because of the Cowichan Nation decision, they need to amend the legislation,\u201d Laxele\u2019wuts\u2019aat Huy\u2019wu\u2019qw (Chief) Shana Thomas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talked about threats to private land. And even though the Cowichan Nation Chiefs sent out a joint statement with the premier, assuring the public that the Cowichan Nation was not seeking to dispossess any individuals of private land, the fear-mongering persists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Eby was also heavily criticized.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the problem is Premier Eby himself and I think the NDP has a colossal leadership problem,\u201d \u0294a\u0294siw\u026c Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, said.<\/p>\n

In response, Eby said that the reality is that British Columbia was settled largely without treaty.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Politics
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst Nations rights and title exist, and any government has to grapple with those issues,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to do this work to mitigate the risk in the least invasive way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eby has said the bill to suspend parts of DRIPA will be a confidence vote, meaning the government could fall if it doesn\u2019t pass.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:21
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tForest industry conference deals with DRIPA controversy\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The proposed changes to DRIPA are set to be introduced in the House later next week when it resumes sitting.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

All eyes will be on Joan Phillip, who is a Vancouver MLA and is married to Phillip.<\/p>\n

He said he doesn\u2019t speak for his wife, but added that his wife does not support the suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does not support any tinkering or meddling with DRIPA,\u201d Phillip said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlongside myself, our family, we celebrated DRIPA in 2019. As for the other MLAs, they need to vote their conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eby said there is a wide diversity of voices and views in the BC NDP caucus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are stable. We are focused, and we are committed to delivering for British Columbians,\u201d Eby said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Joan is no exception. And of course, I will always defer to Joan to speak for Joan\u2019s own community and for herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 WGlith files from Global News\u2019 Andrea Macpherson and Keith Baldrey<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The First Nations Leadership Council is speaking out against the B.C. government\u2019s proposal to suspend key provisions of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,191000,32924,44,714],"class_list":["post-596804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dripa","tag-first-nations","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}