Dear Editor, I feel compelled to comment after reading your February 8th, 2024 editorial about the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Please recall that infamous phrase from the World Economic Forum “you will own nothing and you will be happy”. The UNDRIP, together with Canada’s Bill C-15, is one of the key strategies being employed to dispossess us of our lands. It is a massive land-grab masquerading as reconciliation and restitution.
Perhaps we should be more careful about making public declarations which “acknowledge that we are on the unceded territory of — fill in the blank — peoples.” If the well-meaning and kind people who make these declarations think that this is just a symbolic gesture and that these public statements have no bearing on our own private properties, or on any of our activities on the land, think again.
I would encourage you to put the name Ron Vaillant together with the term UNDRIP into your search engine and learn more about the real ramifications of this trojan horse.
Monika Schaefer
McBride, BC
