Indigenous rights are human rights. I’ll say it again: Indigenous rights are human rights.

Today I spoke in favour of Bill 41, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People’s Act. For over a 150 years Canadian and British Columbian governments have used “our” laws in an attempt to strip away Indigenous culture, land, language and a way of being.

I’m so proud to be a part of a government that will be the first in Canada to pass legislation to affirm what we already know and we’ve been told time and time again by Indigenous people and the courts – Indigenous rights are inherent and we must uphold them.