From the Fraser Institute

By Bruce Pardy

Recently, millions participated in “No Kings” protests across the United States and elsewhere, including the Vancouver Art Gallery where people gathered to resist authoritarianism and protect democracy. But inexplicably, they were there to protest Donald Trump. The politician dismantling their rights is British Columbia Premier David Eby.

It’s quintessentially Canadian. Vancouver’s best are outraged about the state of democracy in America, but oblivious to the autocracy of their own governments.

Quietly, Eby is transforming B.C. In early 2024, his government proposed to amend the province’s Land Act, which governs the use of Crown land in the province. It planned to give B.C.’s hundreds of First Nations a veto over mining, hydro projects, farming, forestry, docks and communication towers. The government tried to consult quietly, but the backlash was immediate and vociferous. It withdrew the proposals, promising to be more transparent. But it did not shelve its objectives or plans. And did not deliver on its promise. Instead, it sought to make agreements over specific territories with specific Aboriginal groups, often negotiated covertly and announced after the fact.

In April 2024, the Eby government recognized Aboriginal title to Haida Gwaii, the archipelago on Canada’s west coast. Around 5,000 people live on Haida Gwaii, about half Haida, who voted overwhelmingly in favour of the deal. But non-Haida residents had no say. Two classes of citizens now live on Haida Gwaii; one with political status and the other without. The Haida agreement says private property will be honoured, but private property is incompatible with Aboriginal title, which is communal. If Haida Gwaii really is subject to Aboriginal title, then no one can own parts of it privately.

Eby has said that the Haida agreement is to serve as a “template.” In January 2025, his government revealed that it had made an agreement for Indigenous management of land and resources with the shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. Aboriginal title is in the works. The agreement was made in August 2024 on the eve of the provincial election but kept hidden for five months. Residents were in the dark until the government revealed the finished deal.

Even before that agreement was negotiated, shíshálh Nation and the government had developed a “Dock Management Plan” to impose various new and onerous rules on private property owners in Pender Harbour, including red “no go” zones and rules that made many existing docks and boat houses non-compliant. Residents with long-standing docks in full legal compliance had no right to negotiate, to be consulted or to be grandfathered.

In June 2025, the government gave the Tŝilhqot’in Nation a veto over mining projects in the Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) area. In an agreement with the Squamish Nation, it established 33 cultural sites off limits to development. The government has also allowed First Nations to close provincial parks to the non-Aboriginal public.

Much of this can be traced to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and to the B.C. statute that incorporates UNDRIP into B.C. law. That statute, known as DRIPA, was passed unanimously by the B.C. legislature in 2019. It calls upon the B.C. government to “take all measures necessary to ensure the laws of British Columbia are consistent with the Declaration.” UNDRIP says, literally, that the land belongs to Indigenous peoples. To be charitable, not all members of the legislature may have understood what they were doing. Next up for DRIPA transformation appears to be the B.C. Heritage Conservation Act.

Courts have been doing their part. Recently, the City of Richmond sent out a letter to property owners. “For those whose property is in the area outlined in black,” the letter reads, “the Court has declared aboriginal title to your property which may compromise the status and validity of your ownership… The entire area outlined in green has been claimed on appeal by the Cowichan First Nations.”

The Richmond letter is a consequence of a recent decision of the B.C. Supreme Court, which awarded the Cowichan First Nation Aboriginal title over 800 acres of land in Richmond. Wherever Aboriginal title is found to exist, said the court, it is a “prior and senior right” to other property interests, whether the land is public or private.

Governments and the courts work together on this project, too. In September, the Eby government, along with the federal government and the Haida Council, applied for a consent order declaring Aboriginal title to Haida Gwaii. The B.C. Supreme Court obliged. The effect of that declaration is to incorporate the Haida agreement’s recognition of Aboriginal title into a constitutional right under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. No future government can reverse it.

B.C. is home to the most famous ostrich farm in the world, but it’s the people who have their heads in the sand. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” said abolitionist Wendell Phillips in 1852, “power is ever stealing from the many to the few.” Assume good faith on the part of governments at your peril. Especially in British Columbia, where the premier is mounting an existential threat to the future of his own province.

Bruce Pardy

Professor of Law, Queen’s University

MxM News

In a 91-page report released Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee accused Joe Biden’s inner circle of executing and concealing presidential actions without his knowledge, declaring that any orders signed through the autopen were “null and void.” The Republican-led panel, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), said it uncovered evidence that senior aides used the mechanical signature device to authorize pardons, commutations, and executive directives while Biden’s mental and physical decline worsened — all to preserve “the illusion of presidential authority.”

Joe Biden WAS NOT running the show.

Our new report EXPOSES how Biden's decline was real and his aides covered it up.

Aides didn't even know WHO was operating the autopen to sign official documents and pardons.

Watch the truth they tried to bury 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/WkQsy5k6uC

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) October 28, 2025

“The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history,” the report stated. “As Americans saw President Biden’s decline with their own eyes, his inner circle sought to deceive the public, cover up his condition, and took unauthorized executive actions that are now invalid.” The committee urged the Justice Department to launch a full criminal investigation into what it called a “cover-up of historic proportions,” naming several aides who invoked the Fifth Amendment when questioned about their roles. It also demanded the D.C. Board of Medicine investigate Biden’s physician for allegedly hiding his true medical state.

According to the report, internal emails and documentation revealed a “haphazard process” surrounding clemency and other executive actions, with no reliable record confirming Biden’s personal approval. Comer said the findings raise profound constitutional concerns. “If unelected aides were using the autopen to execute presidential powers without Joe Biden’s knowledge or consent, that is an assault on the Constitution itself,” he said.

The White House has not yet responded.