Below is the fifth of several outstanding opinion pieces about indigenous land claim issues in British Columbia that will be posted without a paywall over the next few weeks.
All are written by Geoffrey S. Moyse, K.C., a retired senior lawyer who served as legal counsel to the Province of B.C., advising six successive governments on Aboriginal law matters over more than 30 years.
His writings rebut the current NDP provincial government's indigenous land ownership and use policies.
The issues Moyse describes are relevant to similar land claim matters across Canada, but they are currently in overdrive in B.C. as the province faces a crucial provincial election on October 19.
With the recent implosion of the B.C. United Party (formerly the Liberal Party of B.C.), a change in government from the B.C. NDP to the B.C. Conservative Party is possible.
The NDP strongly champions the indigenous land claim issues discussed by Moyse, while the Conservative Party opposes them just as forcefully.
Only time will tell whether this opposition will translate into far-reaching legislative and regulatory changes and whether these will resonate elsewhere in the country.
Wake up folks! The NDP is putting British Columbia’s very existence at risk
Geoffrey Moyse
Troy Media
June 7, 2024
The hidden radical reconciliation agenda is a threat to the province’s land base and society
Wake up folks … before it is too late for you, your home and what you thought was your beloved province.
Do you know what is really being planned behind closed doors in Victoria to upend and remake the British Columbia land base and British Columbia society in the name of Indigenous “reconciliation”?
Let’s look at some possible clues:
A new and entirely radical reconciliation agenda that has been deliberately hidden from the general public.
A rogue provincial government, likely in violation of the Canadian constitution, unilaterally claiming to legislate Aboriginal title to entire claimed Indigenous territories (100 percent), when Canadian law distinctly says otherwise (five percent or less in two BC court declarations of Aboriginal title to date).
The likelihood of future unilateral provincial “recognition” of territorial Aboriginal title utilizing the Haida Gwaii 100 percent “template”, erasing Crown land throughout the province in the process, with no reference to Canadian law, and no involvement of the federal government.
Telling you and your children that you should not refer to yourselves as British Columbians anymore in case it might offend those who believe this province to be historically illegitimate. “Settlers” or “illegal occupiers” are now the preferred terms.
Preparing to transfer the entire provincial public land base (e.g. Crown land) into Aboriginal title lands under the ownership and control of less than six percent of the provincial population, who will not be elected by anyone outside of their internal communities.
Confirmation from senior government officials that Crown lands will no longer exist at all in BC within the next few years.
Pretending to protect private lands from the legal effects of their Aboriginal title declarations by using untried and likely ineffective legal theories, without talking to you, the public, or to private landowners.
It is time to ask yourselves why you, the public, are being so effectively excluded from the Indigenous reconciliation agenda in this province.
Your government appears to believe you, the public of British Columbia, are incapable of understanding such complex matters – much better that they tell you just how it is going to be.
So where is the mandate from the last election for the present government to make radical changes to its reconciliation approach?
Were you asked about their new reconciliation “template”? Ever? Are they asking you now?
When did you give them permission to give away the Crown land base of BC?
When did you give them permission to burden your private lands with Aboriginal title? Do you approve of the fact that their doing so will undoubtedly negatively affect your biggest investment?
When did you approve having to ask for Indigenous permission in the future to use lands which were formerly provincial public lands that have been transferred into Indigenous ownership?
Did you approve of unelected advisors pushing their personal ideological agendas within the corridors of government?
Did you approve of the concept of your government behaving as though both Canada and this province are historically “illegitimate”?
Do you approve of returning a successful Canadian province to largely Indigenous ownership, because of some ideological “virtue-signalling” by a government that seems to think it needs to say it’s sorry for Canada’s and British Columbia’s very existence?
Wake up folks — the clues are all there.
The core of your society is now under threat, as is the whole of your province.
It is time to let this arrogant government know that you are tired of being treated as pawns in their radical reconciliation agenda.
It’s time to stand up and be heard.
The Eby government is looking to be re-elected in October without coming clean on any of this in advance.
Once returned to power, it will act as if it has earned a mandate from you, the public, to continue with and fully implement its UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) based dismantling of this province.
Once re-elected, they will be free to entirely transform what you thought you knew as the province of British Columbia, forever and irrevocably.
Are your children being told in the classroom to identify themselves as “settlers” in an Indigenous-owned province? That is the very ideology driving this government’s reconciliation agenda, leaving your province teetering on the edge of the abyss.
Geoffrey S. Moyse KC is a retired senior lawyer who served as legal counsel to the Province of BC, advising six successive governments on Aboriginal law over 30 years.
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Eby adopts the same well meaning, but dim-witted, thought process that our Supreme Court employed in Delgamuukw and subsequent cases. Indians were not treated fairly, so they would fix the problem. Except that “fixing the problem” is the job of elected representatives and not unelected judges. BC is Exhibit A in a case that is going to get a lot worse. Once aboriginal title Indians get what they want, treaty Indians will demand the same. Once they get what they want Ontario, Quebec and Maritimes will not be spared.
Rustad understands he will war with Indigenous over their dishonest ask. B.C. must start the war by voting in Rustad.