Opinion: Eby gave up everything by abandoning his plan to revise DRIPA after threats from Indigenous leaders
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VICTORIA — A beaten Premier David Eby met with reporters at the legislature Monday afternoon following his latest backdown to threats from the province’s Indigenous leaders.
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He started by reading a joint statement describing how the government had abandoned every detail of his plan to revise DRIPA, the Declaration Act that makes every B.C. law subject to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
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In return for Eby agreeing to leave DRIPA as is, the Indigenous leaders agreed to “work together on a path forward to discuss and consider the government’s stated concerns.”
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Work together? On a path? To discuss and consider? That’s some trade off. The premier gave up everything, the Indigenous leaders merely agreed to talk.
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One wag joked afterward that Eby reminded him of a guy emerging from a hostage-taking and reading a statement prepared by his captors.
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Pressed, the premier half-acknowledged the backdown.
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“It is possible to move off confidently in the wrong direction,” he conceded.
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That David Eby is increasingly familiar to British Columbians.
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The premier who defended decriminalization and safer supply until he abandoned both. The premier who branded critics of the carbon tax as climate change deniers until he repealed it.
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It seems Eby is never more confident than when heading off in the wrong direction.
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“I would like to have been right the first time,” he said.
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How about the second, third, fourth or fifth time? For he has changed direction on this issue a half dozen times at least.
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After a Court of Appeal decisions that the Declaration Act had an immediate effect on all other provincial laws, Eby said the legislation had to be amended. Then suspended. Then, nothing.
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His position was non-negotiable. Then it was entirely open to negotiation — indeed, abject surrender. It would be a confidence motion until it wasn’t.
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He had the votes to get it through, then one MLA defected and the math changed.
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On Monday, he went back to claiming he still had the votes.
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But his rah-rah defence of the backdown during question period did not provoke a spontaneous outpouring of affection from the NDP benches.
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While others indulged in perfunctory applause, I was struck by the sight of former solicitor general Garry Begg, who Eby dumped from cabinet this time last year. He sat with his hands jammed into his armpits, making a show of not making a show of support for Eby.
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Early Sunday afternoon, Eby was still preparing to introduce legislation to suspend the Declaration Act. When he abandoned the plan late Sunday afternoon, one NDP cabinet minister got the news from a reporter.
