Date/Time
Date(s) - October 20, 2026
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Location
Trinity Grace United Church
Categories No Categories
In 2019, British Columbia became the first jurisdiction in Canada to bring its laws into line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, passing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act — DRIPA.
Widely celebrated as precedent-setting, it marked an important step toward reconciliation: acknowledging the dispossession on which the province was built and finding a just way for settlers and First Nations to share these lands. In the wake of recent court rulings, a political push to suspend parts of DRIPA has made this a live and urgent question for everyone who lives here.
Much of that debate rests on a treaty most settlers have never heard of. Signed on June 15, 1846, between British and American representatives, the Oregon Treaty is usually remembered simply as the line that set the border west of the Rockies — but it became the colonial justification for the Crown’s claim of title to the lands we now call British Columbia.
Yet the treaty says not a word about the 100,000 or more Indigenous people already living on these lands. Understanding that history is essential to understanding what is really at stake in the fight over DRIPA today.
Join us for an evening of learning, reflection, and honest conversation about our shared responsibilities on this land.