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Vaughn Palmer: David Eby's comments on what he knew — and when — on Musqueam deal strain credulity

Opinion: Despite being at signing ceremony last month, Eby insisted three times Monday he knew nothing about deal contents

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby failed this week to defend his botched handling and coverup of the recent Aboriginal rights agreement between the federal government and the Musqueam nation.

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Eby was front and centre when the deal was signed in Vancouver Feb. 20, a fact he neglected to mention three times in denying all knowledge of the contents to reporters in a news conference Monday.

Could the premier “clarify from his perspective exactly what the agreement actually means in real terms?” Eby was asked.

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“First of all, I haven’t been briefed yet on the content of the agreement,” he replied. “I look forward to learning more about what the federal government’s been doing here.”

Asked a second time, he conceded the importance of keeping the public informed in light of recent controversies regarding Indigenous reconciliation and Aboriginal title.

“There’s a heightened environment right now around Indigenous agreements generally as our provincial government is working hard to improve our own communications around our work with First Nations.”

Asked a third time, Eby continued to deny all regarding the agreement he had witnessed in person.

“To the best of my understanding, the provincial government was not briefed at the political level on this,” said the premier. “I can’t say whether or not at this stage any public service members had a line of sight to it. I certainly didn’t.”

That was literally untrue. Eby had an actual line of sight at the signing ceremony, as would become a matter of record soon after he spoke those words.

First came question period in the legislature. There, with the premier absent, Indigenous Relations Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert continued the denials regarding the Musqueam agreement.

“It was an agreement signed with the federal government, not the provincial government, so I did not sit at a negotiation table,” Chandra Herbert told the house. “I have not seen the text of the agreement.”

However, given the emerging controversy over an agreement that acknowledged Musqueam Aboriginal title over unspecified parts of Metro Vancouver, the province had asked for a copy.

“We have made a request for the federal government to share the agreement that they signed on a nation-to-nation basis with the Musqueam,” said the minister.

When Conservative MLA Scott McInnis pressed the issue, Chandra Herbert fired back that if he “wants an agreement tabled, he should take it up with his member of Parliament. We’ve made the request, as a responsible government would.”

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No mention of him asking for details from the premier. But in fairness to Chandra Herbert, he probably didn’t know about Eby’s presence at the signing ceremony. It would not be the first time that the minister of Indigenous relations was kept in the dark by his own government.

There matters stood — with Eby denying all and Chandra Herbert propping up the narrative – until a photo began to circulate over the internet showing Eby in the front row of the Feb. 20 signing ceremony.

The premier’s office then issued a pre-emptive statement to reporters regarding “additional information that has been left out of some of the commentary” on the Musqueam agreement.

Such as: “Musqueam held a signing event where local representatives were present including Premier David Eby as a local MLA.”

So Eby was present for the signing of an agreement about which he denied any knowledge?

An agreement that raised the issue of Aboriginal title over much of Metro Vancouver?  He sat next to the federal minister and didn’t ask for details?

With the premier’s credibility in shreds, the Opposition took up the issue in question period Tuesday.

This time Eby did acknowledge his presence at the signing.

“I was honoured and glad to be attending,” he told the house.  “I absolutely sat in the front row. I was glad to see the federal government working with the Musqueam people.”

So honoured and glad that the scene, which unfolded a mere 10 days ago, slipped his mind three times in the space of a single news conference.

Still, Eby continued to profess total ignorance of the contents of all three agreements signed Feb. 20.

“I didn’t know the content of the agreements until they were released publicly by the federal government,” he told the house. “I wish we had been briefed in advance because we would have been able to clarify some of the comments made.”

That was pretty much it for the premier on Tuesday.

He grudgingly acknowledged a role he could no longer deny. But he did not admit that he should have been curious about what was signed in light of current sensitivities about Aboriginal rights and title in B.C.

The Opposition tried a few more questions, Eby continued to deflect, and the Conservatives then let him off the hook.

I gather the premier now admits that he should have been upfront about his presence at the signing ceremony when first asked about the Musqueam agreement.

But that’s the problem with thinking yourself the “smartest guy in the room” in what is increasingly a one-man government.

When you screw up, there’s nobody else to blame.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

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