Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit will recall the great “battle of the five armies” that waged war over the dragon’s treasure of land, riches and resources. Right now, the political version of this epic campaign is unfolding in real time in B.C., with armies assembling and battle lines being drawn over the fate of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
At issue is the existential question of what should be done with this now infamous provincial legislation that commits to incorporating the aspirational principles of a United Nations declaration into British Columbia law. The battle, at its core, is over who owns and controls B.C.’s land and resources – that is the treasure.
Originally presented by the late John Horgan’s government in 2019 as a framework for “reconciliation” that would conform to Canadian constitutional law, DRIPA has become something else entirely under Premier David Eby’s watch. Eby’s government has been wielding DRIPA, and more problematically, UNDRIP, like an activist cudgel to go far beyond any previous court decisions.
Then last November, the BC Court of Appeal went further than even the Eby government had, when it ruled the B.C. government was in violation of its own law.
In Gitxaala v. British Columbia,the court stated that DRIPA and its companion legislation, the 2021 Interpretation Act—which instructs all B.C. laws and regulations to be consistent with DRIPA—are not just symbolic, but legally enforceable law, and that all laws must align with the principles of the UN declaration.
Outraged at the “overreaching” and “toxic” court decision, Premier David Eby vowed to craft amendments to restrict the judiciary from being able to apply DRIPA as a law. His government has also filed an appeal of the decision.
As this war begins, the premier and his officials are now clearly hunkered down in the first of the so-called “five army” camps. Alongside them are Aboriginal law experts who believe “the B.C. government has been doing a good job of balancing constitutional rights and risks with the need for certainty and security for all of us.”
‘The tectonic shift… we imagined’
The Eby camp is scrambling to develop modifications that will allow the government to retain DRIPA while restricting the courts from interpreting it counter to the BC NDP’s “reconciliation” agenda. For the BC NDP government, DRIPA is a crowning achievement and the primary vehicle to implement “radical ideology” that aims to create the “turbulent transition” society needs to correct the “original colonial mistake,” and ultimately redistribute control over land, resources and wealth in the province and maybe even Canada.
In a recent social media post, Aboriginal law litigator Merle Alexander wrote: “Equality of jurisdiction for Tahltan and BC…is the ‘tectonic’ shift that First Nations and BC imagined when DRIPA was passed.” Alexander then recalled the “FN Leadership Council [FNLC] and NDP Cabinet meeting where the word ‘tectonic’ was used with courage, not fear and we all hoped this day would occur throughout the province.”
So what is the “tectonic” shift the NDP and the First Nations leadership elite imagined while huddled together secretly and inappropriately in cabinet chambers setting the stage for this metaphoric war?
What exactly did they “courageously” and jointly intend DRIPA to deliver onto some 5 million-plus unaware British Columbians?
The answer is simple.
Without seeking a public mandate, this small group of top elected officials and First Nations leaders secretly agreed to a plan that would lead to the B.C. government and 204 Indigenous groups co-governing the entire land base of the province.
Never mind the Indigenous groups have no duty to citizens outside their membership, usually in the mere hundreds, and most hold no legal land authority over anything beyond their reserve lands. Which leaves the spectre of some 97 per cent of British Columbians being governed by essentially private groups they didn’t elect, who may have vested interests and be pursuing agendas counter to the public good.
This tectonic shift appears very much driven by David Eby and his stated belief that British Columbia sits on “stolen land.” Two of the clearest manifestations of this shift towards the end goal of co-governance and co-ownership of provincial lands have been cited by Premier Eby’s as among his proudest achievements.
Constitutional legal tests no longer apply
The Rising Tide Haida land agreement was negotiated between the BC government and Haida in secret, and confers Aboriginal title over the whole Haida Gwaii archipelago. Recognition of Aboriginal title spans more than one million hectares of land.
For the first time, the B.C. government took it upon itself to recognize Aboriginal title without Haida Nation having to meet the onerous legal test for proving Aboriginal title, as required under Canadian law. In another precedent-setting move, it conferred Aboriginal title over private property more than a year before the BC Supreme Court did much the same in the Cowichan case, when it recognized Aboriginal title over private property in Richmond.
Up until that landmark Haida agreement and Cowichan court ruling, First Nation territorial claims for Aboriginal title had to meet the test built up through decades of constitutional case law. The Haida would’ve had to prove regular historical occupation of every square hectare of that enormous claimed land area. And there’s not a chance that would have happened.
The second seismic advancement towards co-governance began under John Horgan’s government in 2021 when the province signed the consent-based decision-making agreement (aka a veto) with Tahltan Nation for the development of Eskay Creek gold and silver mine. But the revenue-sharing agreement with the province allocating 37.5 per cent of mineral taxes to the Tahltan was signed in January 2026 by Eby.
And it was because of the veto that the mining proponent was basically held hostage to Tahltan demands ,in return for their consent, resulting in an estimated nearly $2 billion in cash and partially tax exempt benefits to a single Indigenous group with a registered population of 2,240 people over the 25-year life of the mine. While almost six million B.C. taxpayers will reportedly get $1.19 billion in the same time frame.
Presumably, this is part of that envisioned ‘tectonic shift?”
The end result on the mining industry in the “golden triangle” area is a DRIPA section 7 agreement that creates a “pay to play” regime covering 11 per cent of the province’s land base, now effectively being controlled by one small Aboriginal community.
The end result on the mining industry in the “golden triangle” area is a… “pay to play” regime covering 11 per cent of the province’s land base, now effectively being controlled by one small Aboriginal community.”
In addition, it is this premier’s government that has conferred land-use planning authority, and thereby effective governance control, to several Indigenous groups, including Tahltan, over much of the province’s northwest under a “joint” land use planning regime.
B.C. government’s position seems to rely entirely on the UNDRIP and DRIPA-driven tenet that a First Nation’s claim to own land is equivalent to having proven it under Canadian law.
In the name of DRIPA, government is instead bypassing constitutional law to arbitrarily confer or accept without legal proof, Aboriginal right to govern over those same asserted territories. And on government’s whim, it can declare the whole process legally valid and enforceable under DRIPA, despite there being no basis under Canadian constitutional law—nor under DRIPA itself— for this territorial Aboriginal governance authority.
The don’t-touch-a-comma camp
Not surprisingly perhaps, the original co-collaborators who helped the BC government draft DRIPA are rising up against the premier’s intention to alter the legislation. Like those in the premier’s camp, this group agrees DRIPA is the path to the promised land of upheaval, societal transformation, and the righteous transfer of power and ownership to First Nations. But it believes any adulteration will weaken its powers and reverse their progress.
This army Is a loose alliance of select First Nations leaders and their political allies, some of whom can be found in the more extreme leftist and “mud hut” wings of the NDP.
These groups want DRIPA and UNDRIP to be law in B.C., no matter the economic consequence or subversion of our democratic systems. They have their eyes on attaining that tectonic shift in land ownership and governance of claimed territories (which cover more than 95 per cent of the province), without the onerous task of having to prove any of that under constitutional law.
They don’t want the government to place DRIPA outside the court’s reach or beyond legal challenge, and seek to preserve DRIPA at all costs, exactly as is. This army believes that UNDRIP must be the law in British Columbia.
The DRIPA-must-go army
Then there are those who view DRIPA as an agent of injustice and chaos that undermines private property rights and the democratic governance of British Columbia’s public lands and resources. The BC Conservative Opposition and Independent MLAs form the most vocal flank, but they are joined in purpose by members of the business community and industry. These factions worry that maintaining the current DRIPA trajectory will lead to deep societal divisions, and the destruction of private property rights and the economy as a whole.
This camp wants DRIPA repealed outright, with a more moderate and nuanced reconciliation strategy pursued in its place; one that balances respect of Indigenous rights, respect for the public interest and protection of private property.
The ‘rule of law’ camp
Next is the “rule of law” army, comprising the BC Trial Lawyers Association, the Law Society, the Canadian Bar Association and others in the legal profession who understand and support the role of the courts in a democratic society. This group was called to arms when the premier yet again criticized the judiciary, this time characterizing the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada and the Gitxaala court rulings as “such dramatic overreaching and unhelpful court decisions as we have seen over the last couple months is deeply troubling.”
Such blatant criticism of the courts for following to the letter, the laws DRIPA and the Interpretation Act, legislation the premier himself crafted when he was B.C.’s attorney general, raises a compelling question—when is a law not a law in the Eby government’s world?
“It’s hard to overstate the damage that can be done by exerting political pressure on judges to align their rulings with the government of the day,” wrote Canadian Bar Association of BC president, Patricia Blair.
This army believes no legislation should ever be drafted to avoid scrutiny of the courts – which was apparently and ironically the government’s original stated intention for DRIPA. A goal that has veered badly off the mark, judging by the number of DRIPA-related lawsuits stacking up in the courts.
The army of the increasingly-vocal-majority
Last of the five armies are the citizens across the province rising up against the looming threat to the biggest asset most people will ever own—their homes.
This massive camp is represented by a tiny group of “warriors” embodied by the Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association, who, like the Gitxaala Nation, are taking government to court over its implementation of DRIPA. But where the Gitxaala successfully challenged the legality of DRIPA as an “actionable” law B.C. must live up to, the Pender Harbour group are challenging the very constitutional and democratic legality of DRIPA, with the goal of getting it struck down by the courts entirely.
As the forces clash, the die will be cast
Such are the disparate forces assembling to fight as the BC NDP tries to save DRIPA, no matter that it undermines the rule of law set out under the Canadian constitution and enables an unauthorized “tectonic shift” in land ownership and governance of British Columbia.
At no time did the BC NDP lay out its intention to “rupture” societal and economic systems in its platform during the last two elections. And when exactly did voters give the Eby government permission to dismantle their democratically elected governance structure and replace it with co-governance by unaccountable Aboriginal groups?
Regardless, the first volleys have been fired and the DRIPA-induced “battle of the five armies” has begun.
In Tolkien’s world, various factions converged to fight each other for the dragon’s treasure until the arrival of common foes forced a reshaping of alliances. In the end, the losses were heavy; harmony prevailed; but the world was forever altered.
The real-life outcome in B.C. is uncertain.
Will our province and nation be guided by the justice system and Canadian constitutional law, or the whims and outlandish agenda of an activist government?
The armies are advancling, but the die is yet to be cast.