Near the end of February, the federal government quietly signed a “Rights Recognition Agreement” with the Musqueam Indian Band in British Columbia.

The agreement sees the Musqueam awarded Aboriginal title on land covering large swathes of Metro Vancouver, an area home to more than two million Canadians of a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. 

John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, joined The Ezra Levant Show earlier this week, where he warned this latest land grab deal is effectively creating a race-based third order of government in Metro Vancouver.

“Racism is a growing problem in Canada,” John said, explaining that secret deals like this are creating problems Canada purportedly opposes.

And while the Musqueam chief has said there's no plans to collect rent or anything like that, “the agreement itself says that the Musqueam have Aboriginal title.”

Go Ad Free

This wording, backed by Supreme Court rulings, “means actual ownership of the land itself,” John warned. “You can't ignore what the agreement says and just hope that this non-binding promise” is kept.

What truly matters he said, “is the rights recognition agreement that has been signed by the federal government and the Musqueam.”

Secret agreements signed between federal authorities and Indian bands “sound pretty fishy to me,” remarked Ezra, asking what the JCCF president means by that language.

Secret agreements between private parties are one thing, replied John. But when it's the government “talking about recognizing Aboriginal title over lands where two million Canadians live, that is a matter of public interest.”

The deal effectively creates a new form of government “that is going to have jurisdiction along with the federal and provincial governments,” something he said that runs afoul of the Constitution.

“All powers in Canada are divided between the federal government and the provinces,” he said, noting “Indians and lands reserved for Indians” fall in the federal jurisdiction.