University of British Columbia

Midterm Essay

Human Rights and UNDRIP

Mati Arsoniadis

Indigenous Studies 495

Dr. Corinna Netherton

February 28, 2023

 Indigenous peoples have been marginalized for far too long in political decision-making

and the administration of their own economic, social, and cultural affairs. Nothing has changed

even though the Constitution Act of 1982 has three sections outlining Aboriginal peoples' rights,

freedoms, and protections. Even after Bill C-15's implementation at the end of 2020, the

government is still perceived as having authority over Indigenous Peoples and their lands. The

Gilseyhu (Big Frog), Laksilyu (Small Frog), Gitdumden (Wolf/Bear), Laksamshu (Fireweed), and

Tsayu (Beaver Clan) are the five clans that make up the Wet'suwet'en (Stueck & Jang, 2020).

The traditional home of the Wet'suwet'en Peoples is near the Bulkley River in northwest British

Columbia (B.C.) and consists of about 3,195 members (Haldane, n.d.). In 2014 the British

Columbia Environmental Assessment Office (BCEAO) passed the Coastal GasLink project to

transport liquefied natural gas from northeast B.C. to Kitimat. The natural gas pipeline would

pass directly through Wet'suwet'en land, and the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en Nation

have openly opposed the project. It is a horrible mistake to think of this issue as just about

stopping a natural gas pipeline, but rather the deeper underlying issue that lies at the roots of

this problem. The project's problems started long before the BCEAO approved it, and the

process was criticized from the beginning for its flawed consultation process. The United

Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which is enforced through legislation at a

provincial (Bill-41) and federal (Bill C-15) level, is the way forward for the Wet'suwet'en Peoples

to assert their human rights within their land, community, and waters to work toward preventing

the pipeline and further issues that have not been rectified within the realm of reconciliation. 

The Wet'suwet'en peoples have officially established that they have the rights to their

land. In a case involving the Wet'suwet'en Peoples, the Supreme Court of Canada was asked to

rule on their Aboriginal title in 1997 (Gunn, 2020). The court determined that the Wet'suwet'en

hereditary chiefs were the rightful owners of their unceded territories and that the community's

Aboriginal title had not been extinguished (Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, 1997). After the

Coastal GasLink project was authorized, B.C. adopted UNDRIP by passing Bill-41's legislation.
Premier Horgan of B.C. stated that the legislation would not apply to the approval of the Coastal

GasLink project as it was not retroactive; however, this should not be the case (Woodside,

2021). Article 32 of UNDRIP outlines the government's responsibility to acquire Indigenous

people's "free, prior, and informed consent" (Kestler-D'Amours, 2020);(U.N. General Assembly,

2007). One of the most critical aspects of "free, prior, and informed consent" is the concept of

"free," which refers to the absence of coercion and the right to participate per their own

government institutions and choose for themselves who represents them (U.N. General

Assembly, 2007).

Furthermore, a special rapporteur representing the rights of indigenous peoples noticed

an extreme increase in the number of attacks and violence against indigenous people,

especially during large company projects such as the Coastal Gas Link Project (OHCHR, 2018).

In 2018, the special rapporteur Victoria Tauli Corpuz prepared a thematic report to discuss her

findings that the leading cause of severe abuses of the human rights of indigenous peoples,

such as violence, criminalization, and forced displacement, is extractive activities within their

lands and territories that are carried out without appropriate consultation or consent (Tauli-

Corpuz, 2018). Significant projects must be presented to Indigenous nations so that they can

share their knowledge and voices; the implementation of UNDRIP in B.C. as legislation clarifies

this problem. However, even though UNDRIP has established Wet'suwet'en rights within their

community, it is struggling to be enforced.

Two years after B.C. legislated the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act

(DRIPA) through Bill-41 to enforce UNDRIP, groups of RCMP officers arrived on Wet'suwet'en

territory in northwest B.C. and distrupted the rights of their community. The RCMP enforced a

civil injunction against Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs' land defenders who opposed the Coastal

GasLink pipeline on unceded Indigenous land (Simmons, 2021). Although BC has pledged to

work towards reconciliation through Bill-41, recent events have placed a dark cloud on the

province's celebration of the introduction of DRIPA on November 26, 2019 (Abbas, 2020). The
Wet'suwet'en Peoples have the right to "not be forcibly removed from their lands" according to

Article 10 of UNDRIP; both laws, Bill-41 and C-15, mandate that the provincial and federal

government must take "all measures necessary" to implement UNDRIP (U.N. General

Assembly, 2007);(Bill 41, 2019);(Bill C-15, 2021). The RCMP, employees of the federal

government, forcibly removed the Wet'suwet'en Peoples from their own land, which directly

violated both laws which can be enforced in B.C. Recently, Twelve Wet'suwet'en defendants

signed an application to the court alleging an "abuse of process" that highlighted the RCMP's

"disproportionate and excessive use of force" against peaceful land defenders throughout a

series of raids by the Community-Industry Response Group of the Coastal Gaslink project in

November 2021 (Paradis, 2023). Molly Wickham, Gidimt'en Checkpoint spokesperson,

expresses that the act of violence and racist verbal abuse against "unarmed [I]ndigenous

peoples" was unacceptable and that it will be up to "the court's hands" to allow this to continue

in 2023 (Paradis, 2023). This is another clear example that we as a nation have a long way to

go to recognize and implement UNDRIP as the framework for both pieces of legislation, Bill-41

and C-15, to protect the rights of indigenous communities. It has become easy to verbalize and

write an action plan through the law, but it is a whole other challenge to implement it effectively

in Canadian society. The articles in UNDRIP need to become written legislation to be effectively

enforceable, and the Canadian government needs to be legally held liable for circumnavigating

these laws. 

Even after arresting the Wet'suwet'en Peoples for protecting their land and disrupting

their rights within their community, they were also arrested for protecting their waters. Article 29

of UNDRIP assures that the Wet'suwet'en Peoples have the "right to conservation and

protection of the environment" on their lands (U.N. General Assembly, 2007). Even with the

enforcement of this article in UNDRIP through DRIPA, the Supreme Court of Canada ignored

the legislation and proceeded with the injunction. The RCMP removed protesters trying to

prevent drilling beneath the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), a vital water source for the locals and
spawning habitat for the territory's critically endangered wild salmon (Scurr, 2021). Drilling under

the river not only went against the Wet'suwet'en Peoples' water rights under article 29 of

UNDRIP but also ignored their right to actively participate in "developing and determining their

health" mentioned in article 23 of UNDRIP (U.N. General Assembly, 2007). Indigenous peoples

have fundamental human rights to access clean and safe drinking water. A recent study has

found that Indigenous Peoples' access to clean and safe drinking water in Canada is "limited

and occurs on an opportunistic basis" (Bradford, 2016). The Morice River is a vital source of

Wet'suwet'en drinking water and directly violates their basic human rights.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court made history when it ruled that the province had

broken its treaty with the Blueberry River First Nations in northeast B.C. by allowing and

promoting widespread resource extraction to the point where community members could no

longer hunt and fish (Yahey v. British Columbia, 2021). Hunting and fishing are Indigenous

Peoples' rights that are constitutionally protected, and drilling into the Morice River directly

violated the constitutional rights of the Wet'suwet'en peoples (Collins, 2010). The salmon that

spawn in the Morice river are a vital source of their ecosystem that supports their hunting and

fishing practices. Implementing UNDRIP will solidify Indigenous Peoples' basic human rights

and inherent rights. It will create a new starting point for not challenging the court to gain their

right to clean and safe drinking water. The Canadian government is obligated to draft and

implement an action plan to achieve the goals of UNDRIP and to take all necessary measures

to ensure that Canadian and provincial law is consistent with the Declaration. 

In all three situations, UNDRIP has successfully determined that the Wet'suwet'en were

within their rights according to both provincial and federal legislation, respectively, Bill-41 and

Bill C-15. Dealing with projects on indigenous land is directly managed by the federal

government, and therefore, the federal government has a greater responsibility to enforce and

implement laws for Indigenous rights. The Wet'suwet'en should use UNDRIP as their stepping

stone to implementing their rights and work towards reconciliation and self-determination.
During this process, the Canadian and provincial government needs to effectively use UNDRIP

for guidance on creating written legislation to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples

effectively. UNDRIP is a new starting point to solidify that indigenous peoples have an inherent

right to their land and basic human rights. Eventually, all previous court cases will be thrown out

because implementing UNDRIP into legislation will overrule common law in court. Even though

at the moment, UNDRIP and many court rulings have established that the Wet'suwet'en

Peoples should undeniably have rights within their community, land, and waters, there is still a

long road to implementing these rights into Canadian law. 

References

Abbas, F. (2020, March 30). What Canadians should know about the wet'suwet'en

nation's struggle. INKspire. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://inkspire.org/post/what-

canadians-should-know-about-the-wetsuweten-nations-struggle/-M2R80RtqjuC-63LBrof

Bill 41, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, First Reading, 41st

Parliament, British Columbia, 2019

 Bill C-15, An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples, As Passed, House of Commons, 2021

Bradford, L. E., Bharadwaj, L. A., Okpalauwaekwe, U., & Waldner, C. L. (2016). Drinking

water quality in indigenous communities in Canada and Health Outcomes: A scoping review.

International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 75(1), 32336. https://doi.org/10.3402/ijch.v75.32336

Collins, L. M., & Murtha, M. (2010). Indigenous environmental rights in Canada: The

right to conservation implicit in treaty and Aboriginal rights to hunt, fish and trap. SSRN

Electronic Journal, 47. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1665456

Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, Supreme Court Judgments (SUPREME COURT OF

CANADA December 11, 1997). Retrieved February 26, 2023, from

https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1569/index.do.

Gunn, K., & McIvor, B. (2020, February 13). https://www.firstpeopleslaw.com/public-

education/blog/the-wetsuweten-aboriginal-title-and-the-rule-of-law-an-explainer. First Peoples

Law. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from

https://www.firstpeopleslaw.com/public-education/blog/the-wetsuweten-aboriginal-title-and-the-

rule-of-law-an-explainer

Haldane, C. (n.d.). Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs. Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs | BC

Treaty Commission. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://www.bctreaty.ca/wetsuweten-

hereditary-chiefs
 Kestler-D'Amours, J. (2020, March 1). Understanding the Wet'suwet'en Struggle in

Canada. Indigenous Rights News | Al Jazeera. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/3/1/understanding-the-wetsuweten-struggle-in-canada

OHCHR. (n.d.). A/HRC/39/17: Report of the special rapporteur on the Rights of

Indigenous Peoples. OHCHR. Retrieved March 4, 2023, from

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc3917-report-special-rapporteur-

rights-indigenous-peoples

Paradis, D. (2023, February 28). Wet'suwet'en defendants applied to BC Supreme-

Court. APTN News. Retrieved March 4, 2023, from

https://www.aptnnews.ca/featured/wetsuweten-defendants-applied-to-bc-supreme-court/

Scurr, T. (2021, December 1). Canada: Act now to respect indigenous rights on

wet'suwet'en territory. Amnesty International Canada. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from

https://www.amnesty.ca/blog/resource-development-in-canada/canada-act-now-to-respect-

indigenous-rights-on-wetsuweten-territory/

Simmons, M. (2021, December 13). Two years after B.C. passed its landmark

Indigenous Rights Act, has anything changed? The Narwhal. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from

https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-undrip-two-years/

Stueck, W., & Jang, B. (2020, February 12). Beyond bloodlines: How the wet'suwet'en

hereditary system at the heart of the Coastal Gaslink Conflict Works. The Globe and Mail.

Retrieved February 26, 2023, from

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/british-columbia/article-wetsuweten-hereditary-

system-coastal-gaslink-pipeline-protests-bc/

Tauli-Corpuz, V. (2019, September 18). Statement of Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special

Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the Human Rights Council 42nd Session.

OHCHR. Retrieved March 4, 2023, from

https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2019/09/statement-ms-victoria-tauli-corpuz-special-

rapporteur-rights-indigenous-peoples

Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia, Supreme Court Judgments (SUPREME COURT

OF CANADA July 26, 2014). Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-

csc/scc-csc/en/item/14246/index.do?q=tsilhqot%27in.

UN General Assembly, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:

resolution / adopted by the General Assembly, 2 October 2007

Woodside, J. (2021, December 20). Canada's Supreme Court recognizes wet'suwet'en

law. so how is coastal gaslink moving ahead? Canada's National Observer. Retrieved February

26, 2023, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/12/02/news/canadas-supreme-court-

recognizes-wetsuweten-law-coastal-gaslink.

Yahey v. British Columbia, BC Courts (SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

June 2021, 29AD). Retrieved from

https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/21/12/2021BCSC1287.htm.