What the public needs to know about the First Nations Leadership Council, Stewart Phillip, and Terry Teegee
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By Nina Green
What the public needs to know about the First Nations Leadership Council is that it is not a legal entity, and thus has no legal right to represent BC Indian Bands in negotiations with the BC government, nor does the BC government have any duty to consult with it. Because of that, the BC government had no reason to cave to the First Nations Leadership Council’s demands in its open letter to BC MLAs (see attachment).
The First Nations Leadership Council is an Indian activist lobby group comprised of individuals appointed by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the BC Assembly of First Nations, and the First Nations Summit (see attachment). The UBCIC and the BCAFN are merely societies formed under BC’s Societies Act, and the First Nations Summit isn’t even a society, although it is partnered with a society with a similar name which handles its legal and financial matters.
The BC government has thus been consulting with an Indian activist lobby group (the FNLC) comprised of three other Indian activist lobby groups (the UBCIC, the BCAFN, and the First Nations Summit), none of whom have legal status to represent any BC Indian Band.
It is the 203 BC Indian Bands themselves who are owed a duty to consult in specific circumstances under Section 35 of the Constitution and as the result of a line of Supreme Court of Canada cases, and the BC government has left them out of the current process.
From a legal expert:
The duty to consult is only owed by the Crown to specific Aboriginal bands or self-governing “nations” whose Aboriginal rights may be affected by a specific, proposed resource project. It is certainly not a duty owed to Aboriginals, generally, and especially a mere voluntary association of Aboriginal lobby groups. Also, as of yet there is no legal duty to consult owed by legislatures when they are considering and drafting legislation
That’s it in a nutshell. The BC government has been consulting with the wrong people, and has been consulting when it has no duty to consult because, when it comes to proposed legislation such as the amendment of DRIPA, the Supreme Court of Canada stated definitively in Mikisew Cree First Nation v Canada that governments have no duty to consult at any stage of the legislative process.
In short, the public needs to know that when it comes to proposed legislation, according to Section 35 of the Constitution and a long line of decided Supreme Court of Canada cases, its elected MLAs in the BC government have every right to legislate without the interference of unelected individuals such as Stewart Phillip or Terry Teegee or any unelected Indian activist lobby group.
Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Khelsilem has let the cat out of the bag.
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May I add that Grand Chief Stewart Phillip has served as the President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) since 1998. He is a prominent Okanagan Aboriginal leader who has been re-elected multiple times, recently entering his tenth three-year term. He has been in power longer than Putin and no one knows his salary. He is the mafia boss. He and his NDP/MLA wife direct Premier David Eby behind the scenes.
See how DRIPPA is a scam? See how it lets the Provincial government into Crown land and "assume" jurisdiction without any checks & balances?