FNLC and BCCLA Celebrate Landmark Decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal

December 5, 2025

(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.) The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) and the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) congratulate and uplift the Gitxaala and Ehattesaht Nations on today’s landmark victory at the British Columbia Court of Appeal (BCCA). FNLC and BCCLA jointly intervened in the case.

The decision breathes new life into the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act) and affirms the substantive legal effect of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration). It places the provincial government’s de-prioritization of UN Declaration implementation into serious question, specifically not following its own Interim Approach for the development and passing of several key pieces of streamlining legislation, notably the Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act and the Infrastructure Projects Act.

The BCCA reversed the lower court’s “unduly narrow approach to the legal effect of the Declaration Act” and held that the Declaration Act incorporates the UN Declaration into British Columbia’s (B.C.) positive law. Further, the BCCA confirmed that the provincial government must consult and cooperate with First Nations to address inconsistencies between the UN Declaration and the laws of B.C., and that the question of whether a law of B.C. is consistent with the UN Declaration is justiciable. The provincial government cannot continue its ad hoc and discretionary approach to creating new law that is inconsistent with the UN Declaration.

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