Ep 606 - DRIPA and its legal consequences

Guest: Robin Junger

By Stuart McNish

The news in British Columbia is all about DRIPA – the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. The premier of the province David Eby, in response to the December 2025 BC Court of Appeal Ruling of a case known as Gitxaala, raced to amend the act. His attempts to do so have become a headspinning spectacle.

The original case began in 2023 with a challenge to the Mineral Tenure Act, which allowed mineral explorers to strike a mineral claim without acquiring agreement and consent by the historical First Nation to the area.

The case upheld the miners’ position that consent was not required during exploration. It was the first challenge to DRIPA. It was immediately appealed and in December of 2025, the Court of Appeal of BC overturned the lower court ruling by stating, “The Declaration Act gives a statutory mandate and duty to take all measures necessary to bring British Columbia’s law into alignment with UNDRIP.”

“In other words,” says Indigenous legal authority,  Robin Junger, “the BC government must, as stated in its own words, follow the law it wrote and the court has no option.”

I invited Robin Junger of McMillan LLP to join us for a Conversation That Matters to outline exactly what DRIPA is and the legal ramifications of amending the legislation.

You can see the interview here https://www.conversationsthatmatter.ca/