CANADIAN NEWS ALERT · NFNM PRESS RELEASE · FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The repeal was the winning party’s top campaign priority in Saturday’s election. North Frontenac News Media calls on every federal party leader to say whether a threat of war is an acceptable answer to a vote.
PLEVNA, Ontario, October 27, 2026. On Saturday, British Columbia elected a Conservative majority government that campaigned on repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA). In a Global News report published Monday, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, warned of the response if the incoming government keeps its promise.
“We’re not going to stand idly by while the government-elect does, in fact, rip it up,” Phillip said. “That’s a declaration of war.”
He also said: “Is British Columbia going to become a war zone, or are we going to continue the challenging work of reconciliation?” And: “We face off with Colonel Doerkson and his crew. We’ll see where we end up, but we’re not about to roll over.”
Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson said the day after the election that his party is committed to repealing DRIPA, which the legislature passed unanimously in 2019. “The reality is it hasn’t solved anything,” he said, pointing to court cases “all over British Columbia” over docks at Pender Harbour and mining.
NFNM’s position
A provincial statute was put to the voters and the voters decided. The response from the president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs was the language of war, aimed at an incoming premier and, through him, at every person in the province who voted. NFNM holds that this is a threat, not a metaphor, and that it is as serious coming from a Grand Chief as it would be coming from a premier.
Confrontational language from First Nations leaders is not new. In June 2025, on the federal Bill C-5, Scott McLeod, Lake Huron regional chief of the Anishinabek Nation, said in a CBC News report: “First Nations have the ability to shut down the economy” and “we’re going to fight.” On June 4, 2025, the day Ontario passed Bill 5, Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said, as reported by The Canadian Press: “This fight is not over, but we will meet you on the ground.” In August 2024, Ganeda Clan chief Watakhayetsxw Deborah Good said at a blockade of a pipeline work-camp road on Gitanyow lands: “[If] the time comes, we’ll shut down Highway 37.” In July 2025, at a news conference in Ottawa of Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 chiefs from Alberta after the First Nations Major Projects Summit, carried by CPAC, Chief Joey Pete of Sunchild First Nation, Treaty 6, said of Prime Minister Carney: “He’s not the crown. He cannot override treaty. He cannot impose any laws on us. We have our own sovereign laws. We are sovereign nations.” Then: “our people are getting educated and we’re fighting back. We can’t allow Canada to continue to push us around.” And: “We will stand tall. We will gather together if we have to stop this. And we will enforce treaty if they won’t.” Asked at the close what could be done as a next step if the federal government did not change its approach, Pete answered that they would come together as their ancestors had with the Red Paper and march up to the building together: “Unity amongst all nations. There’s many of us. 644 nations. Can you imagine how loud that knock will be? And who will listen? Who will open that door” to fix the wrongs with “Bill C-5 and every other imposed bill on our people?” NFNM’s clip of his answer runs with this release.
Each of those answered a bill or a project. Phillip’s answered a promise to repeal a law, made by a party the voters had just chosen. The people of British Columbia voted, the count is in, and the word for what the winner promised them, from the president of the UBCIC, is war.
Pete says Canada cannot impose a law on First Nations. Phillip says that for British Columbia to repeal a law First Nations want kept is a declaration of war. Same act, different hand on the pen.
“Every Canadian who votes has the right to be governed by the result, not threatened over it,” said Donald Morton, Editor-in-Chief of NFNM. “A politician who called an Indigenous leader’s position a declaration of war would be out of office by the weekend. A Grand Chief said it about an incoming premier and it ran as a two-minute news item. Reconciliation cannot be run under the threat of war. Grand Chief Phillip should withdraw the word, and every federal party leader should say today whether they accept it.”
NFNM asks
- That Grand Chief Stewart Phillip withdraw the words “declaration of war” and “war zone” and state, specifically, what his organization intends to do if DRIPA is repealed.
- That the Prime Minister and every federal party leader state, on the record, whether a threat of war is an acceptable response to a provincial election result.
- That national news organizations carry the quotation in full, as spoken, and put question 2 to their leaders.
Sources
Global News, October 26, 2026, Amy Judd and Angela Jung, “B.C. First Nations chief warns ripping up DRIPA is a ‘declaration of war’”: https://globalnews.ca/news/12121663/bc-first-nations-chief-warns-ripping-dripa-declaration-war/
CBC News, June 2025, “First Nations urge Governor General to delay, or even reject, Bill C-5”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/first-nations-urge-governor-general-intervention-bill-c5-1.7564839
The Canadian Press via CP24, June 4, 2025, “Ontario passes mining law, First Nations warn of protests”: https://www.cp24.com/politics/queens-park/2025/06/04/ontario-passes-controversial-mining-law-as-doug-ford-warns-against-blockades/
The Narwhal, August 24, 2024, Matt Simmons, “Indigenous leaders burn PRGT pipeline agreement, blockade B.C. road”: https://thenarwhal.ca/gitanyow-hereditary-chiefs-burn-prgt-agreement/
CPAC, July 17, 2025, “Treaty 6 and 8 chiefs comment after First Nations Major Projects Summit”, full program (57:48): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0EvEbkShKQ ; episode page: https://www.cpac.ca/headline-politics/episode/treaty-6-and-8-chiefs-comment-after-major-projects-summit--july-17-2025?id=0487329a-ef38-4163-91a3-0731cdbfd02f . The answer NFNM clipped runs from 30:55 to 38:33; at 55:48 a reporter addresses “Chief Joey Pete” and recites two of its lines, and the answer that follows begins at 56:07.
NFNM-TV, “Treaty Chiefs Claim ‘Trillions in Trust’ and Vow to ‘Enforce Treaty’ | Ottawa, July 2025” (the 30:55 to 38:33 answer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwLwXZghj4
The Global News, CBC, Canadian Press and Narwhal quotations were checked word for word against the published page text; the Pete quotations against the recording’s captions, CPAC’s full program, and an independent transcription of CPAC’s audio.
About NFNM
North Frontenac News Media is an independent news organization based in Plevna, Ontario, covering Frontenac County and the national decisions that reach it. nfnm.tv
Media contact: Donald Morton, Editor-in-Chief, [email protected]