When the BC NDP government passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) into law in 2019, it went out of its way to say, repeatedly and explicitly, that it should not be used by a future court one day to strike down other provincial laws.

“There will be no immediate effect on laws,” said then-Indigenous relations minister Scott Fraser.

“We are not creating a bill here that is designed to have our laws struck down."

Still, there was much confusion on the issue. New Democrats admitted they would not be able to control what judges might do when a First Nation used DRIPA as a tool to challenge other laws in court.

"Bill 41 is not bestowing any new laws. … The legislation does not create any new rights. … It does not bring the UN Declaration into legal force and effect,” were just some of the phrases Fraser used, as he shepherded what was then Bill 41 through the house.

Fast forward almost seven years, and the thing New Democrats said wouldn’t happen has in fact happened.

The BC Court of Appeal last week struck down the Mineral Tenures Act, because it said a lack of consultation and accommodation with First Nations over a new online mineral claims-staking system violated DRIPA.

All of B.C.’s laws are now “justiciable” over whether they violate the........

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