B.C. to amend Indigenous rights act after court ruling on mineral claims

British Columbia’s NDP government will amend its landmark reconciliation law, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, in response to a BC Court of Appeal decision that found the province’s mineral claims regime is “inconsistent” with the requirements of DRIPA.

The court’s judgment on Friday establishes a new benchmark for the implementation of the declaration, which was passed unanimously by the B.C. legislature in 2019, creating a binding obligation on government to abide by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP.