BC NDP undermining British Columbians’ rights to their own land – IRSRG

October 20, 2025

The BC NDP government has crafted an internal strategy to radically reshape the province’s land policies, undermining British Columbians’ interests in public and private lands, all in the name of addressing so-called “colonial” legacies.

Recently, NDP ministers have been outspoken about Indigenous peoples as the “rightful owners of the land,” seemingly disregarding Canadian constitutional law on Aboriginal title. This is not an oversight; it is entirely intentional.

In 2019, the BC NDP government incorporated the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into provincial legislation known as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA). Although UNDRIP is a non-binding international declaration, it has been interpreted and applied within provincial policy in a way that challenges existing legal norms.