BC’s Odious Premier
And the ravenous claims of 200 BC Indian bands
Woke Watch Canada is a reader-supported publication. Please consider becoming a paying subscriber or making a one-time or recurring donation to show your support.
By Barry Kirkham
In a recent National Post article, BC's Odious Prime Land Giveaway, Caroline Elliott discusses the current giveaway of large swaths of Victoria to a few Indian bands.
Premier Eby is intent on giving as much of BC away to Indian bands as fast as he possibly can. Let’s start with recognizing the beneficiaries of his largesse. The beneficiaries are the 200 plus bands of status Indians in BC. Status Indians constitute 2% of the population of BC. Half live on reserves. A good number of these people deny they are “British Columbians”. As a result, Eby has advised civil servants not to use the term British Columbians when referring to Indian bands.
The 200 bands have overlapping claims to most of the province.
Eby’s vendetta on behalf of the 2% against the 98% has been waged for a long time. It started before he went into politics. He organized a campaign to have the award of the Winter Olympics to BC cancelled because in his shrill invective the Olympics should not take place on “stolen lands”. That was his position then and while he hid it to get elected it is evident he still believes that to be true.
Eby was a strong member of Horgan’s govt which enacted DRIPA in 2019. Horgan claimed DRIPA was merely aspirational. The Liberal opposition shamefully believed him and voted for it. BC was the first jurisdiction in the world to do so. Since then Trudeau also enacted it (called UNDA, in 2021). Originally the opposition in Ottawa rejected it but they capitulated in the light of Casimir’s false claim of having found a mass grave of murdered children near the Kamloops IRS. Then in 2023, the NWT became the only other jurisdiction in the world to have enacted such a nation killing piece of garbage.
After getting DRIPA on the books as “aspirational” Eby took stops to ensure it was mandatory. As Attorney General he tabled a bill that amended the Interpretation Act to provide that all the laws of BC “must” comply with DRIPA ie that UNDRIP superseded all other legislation in the province. A strong indication of Eby’s views towards democracy was his response to questions in the Legislature about his pet bill. He refused to answer questions and prohibited debate. It was rammed through the Legislature. The BC court of appeal recently held that “must” means “must” and invalidated the mining legislation of the province (which had existed since the 19th century) because it was not compliant with UNDRIP’s proclamation of Indian entitlement.
When he became premier Eby launched his crusade to turn the province over to the 200 bands. He started with the Haida Gwaii agreement. He granted the Haida aboriginal title over all of Haida Gwaii, including the substantial portions which were in fee simple ownership. The Haida could have proven Aboriginal Title (AT) to only a small area but Eby gave away the whole archipelago. And Eby did not even require the Haida grant a release of their claim for damages for all benefits ever taken from the area. Can anyone ever imagine a greater sell out than that? And the damage claim can now be made in respect to the entire area, not simply the small area where they may have had a good claim to AT.
Eby proclaimed the total giveaway to the Haida as his proudest moment in public life and a precedent which he wants to emulate throughout the province.
And that is exactly what he is doing, day by day. Caroline’s article describes the latest chapter in this unfolding horror story. The Post editor penned an apt headline for her piece, BC’s Odious Prime Land Giveaway. As Caroline notes, Eby never asks the Indian bands to whom he surrenders our land to give up anything. They are expressly granted the right to claim more later. The current giveaway is merely the first installment. In the recent treaties he even builds in a clause which states the agreement will forever be interpreted consistent with DRIPA. This ensures that if DRIPA is ultimately repealed (which every candidate for leadership of the Conservative Party promised to do) DRIPA will live forever, in constitutionally protected sell-out agreements Eby is ramming down our throats.
As he did in the Cowichan case, Eby prohibits the lawyers representing BC, who should be representing our interests, from arguing extinguishment, which is our best defence against the ravenous claims from the 200 bands to aboriginal title to the whole province, including our private titles.
In response to the fateful Cowichan decision, Eby claimed he would “always” defend private property. This is a fraud and a farce. He has never defended private property and never will. Because he believes we live on stolen land. When that is your core belief, you have to give it back. We have given him the power to do exactly that and he is taking full advantage.
Thanks for reading. For more on this topic, read Nina Green’s Does Terry Teegee have the legal right to 'get in a room' with the BC government to negotiate DRIPA and co-govern the province?
Follow Woke Watch Canada on X - @WokeWatchCanada
Or, by contributing to our Donor Box:
He goes with what the chiefs say. Always. The chiefs are the problems across the nation. Anyone who visits a few reserves knows this. Look at the clean water issue in several
Reserves.
All set up, people trained to use and repair the machinery — and the chiefs let it fall to pieces, blaming (always) the Fed Govt.
The other problem is that the Feds are responsible, according to various documents, to the FNs for duties that are provincial or municipal — for all other Cdns.
It does not work.
Period.
Must be changed.
Or this will go on forever.
Yes, with help from folks like Eby, we will lose this nation.
has anyone ever explained to the natives that it might be in their interest to have large resource industries that they participate in, through jobs and investment?