Alberta has ‘long way to go’ in implementing UNDRIP: lawyer – Northern Journal

August 3, 2015

While indigenous people across Alberta are cheering recent moves by Premier Rachel Notley’s NDP government towards implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), one lawyer says she has her work cut out for her in dismantling the decades spent constructing an industry-biased consultation regime.

Lawyer Larry Innes of Olthuis-Kleer-Townshend has represented Alberta First Nations in their fight against oilsands projects, typically in cases versus the government alleging inadequate consultation.

He said the province’s current approach to Aboriginal consultation is combative, framing First Nations as adversaries rather than treaty partners – a paradigm reinforced over 40 years of Progressive Conservative rule in the province, in which the Crown views land issues more like a divorce settlement than a marriage.

Read More: http://norj.ca/2015/08/alberta-has-long-way-to-go-in-implementing-undrip/