Lost in the noisy debate on SNC-Lavalin is the bill that never was. Former federal justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould had been working ever since she took office on legislation that would add precision to the legal haze surrounding Section 35 of the Constitution Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Last September, the bill was promised before Christmas. By November, it was clear that the bill had been deep-sixed by the Prime Minister鈥檚 Office as dangerous and controversial in an election year.
What a shame! No province needs legal certainty on important concepts such as consent, traditional territory or how to identify the proper rights-holders, more than sa国际传媒 No minister was ever more capable and prepared to deliver it than Wilson-Raybould.
For years, as a lawyer and the regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, she had plumbed the law in pursuit of practical routes toward Indigenous self-government. As a star Liberal candidate and minister, she brought unprecedented credibility to a file that most elected people avoided like the plague. I鈥檓 really going to miss her.
Harry Swain
Victoria
