Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says ‘heartsick’ MLA wife doesn’t support DRIPA pause

VANCOUVER — A First Nations leader whose wife is a B.C. government legislator says she doesn’t support Premier David Eby’s plan to suspend parts of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and is “heartsick” over the issue.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, who was among B.C. Indigenous leaders who condemned the suspension plan at a Vancouver news conference on Friday, said Eby has “sidelined” his caucus during DRIPA negotiations and the NDP has a “leadership issue.”

He said that when the B.C. legislature unanimously passed DRIPA in 2019, the government seemed committed to reconciliation with First Nations.

“Since that time, regrettably, under the leadership of Premier David Eby, the province has steadily backtracked on those commitments,” he said.

Eby announced last week that portions of the legislation — which is based on the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — would need to be suspended as his government gets “clarity” from the Supreme Court of Canada.

He said the suspension was needed after the B.C. Court of Appeal ruing on mining rights created legal uncertainty for the province.

Phillip, who is president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and whose wife is MLA Joan Phillip, said she “does not support any tinkering or meddling with DRIPA,” and other legislators should vote with their conscience.

Joan Phillip — who is suffering an undisclosed illness — is one of three Indigenous members of Eby’s caucus, which holds a one-seat majority in the legislature.

Eby has said passing legislation to pause sections of DRIPA will be a confidence vote, and if it fails his government would fall.

Indigenous leaders questioned why members of the legislature who helped pass DRIPA seem to be staying silent.

Adam Olsen, a lead negotiator for Tsartlip First Nation and former MLA with the B.C. Green Party, called on his former colleagues to stand with First Nations that oppose pausing parts of the legislation.

“Will you stand with the suspension of the declaration act that we celebrated? Or will you stand with the First Nations people who you were proud to stand with in 2019?” Olsen asked. “Where are you?”

The leaders said Eby’s plan has hurt their confidence in his leadership and that he and his government are not coming to the negotiating table to address First Nations’ concerns with the proposed suspension.

“A strategy of deny, delay, denounce is not a strategy that is going to be successful in the province of British Columbia,” said Shana Thomas, a hereditary chief of Lyackson First Nation and a member of the First Nations Summit.

“Now is a time for reconciliation, not unilateral decisions, as the premier has continued to do,” she said.

Speaking to reporters in Vancouver on Friday, Eby reaffirmed his position that the DRIPA pause could stave off the litigation risk for the province posed in the so-called Gitxaala ruling.

That ruling says DRIPA should be “properly interpreted” to incorporate the UN declaration into B.C. laws “with immediate legal effect.”

“The court has told us that their interpretation of the law is that the entirety of the declaration act has become B.C. law overnight. That was never the plan,” he said.

Eby said the ruling means every provincial law can be challenged for being inconsistent with the UN declaration.

He added the government has no plans to get rid of DRIPA, because it’s “underpinning literally billions of dollars of investment in the province,” citing projects like the Eskay Creek and Red Chris mines.

But Chief George Lampreau of the Simpcw First Nation cautioned that Eby’s actions could make it more difficult to work with First Nations on future projects.

“If you can unilaterally suspend our rights until the courts make their decisions, what happens if we, as First Nations, start suspending our approvals of referrals of major projects in our territories until these decisions are made?” he asked.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.

Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press