Canada’s Bill C-5: Continuing the Legislative Trend of Undermining Indigenous Rights – JFK Law LLP
June 18, 2025
Earlier this month, Canada tabled Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act. The bill has passed its first reading and is well on its way to being passed into law.
The federal government has said they want it passed by June 20, 2025.[1] The speed at which the federal government is pushing this bill into law, despite very limited consultation on the draft bill and opposition from Indigenous groups and environmental leaders, forms a strong analogy to the bill itself. It is designed to fast-track approvals but doing so will very likely be at the expense of the duty to consult and environmental protections.[2]
Bill C-5 marks a tremendous shift in federal policy. In recent years, the federal government has expanded the legal framework around Indigenous rights by passing legislative tools like United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act and announced the UNDRIP Action Plan. The Impact Assessment Act improved how federal impact assessments consider section 35 rights and created new opportunities for Indigenous participation in federal assessments. Bill C-5 flips the federal policy by constraining and undermining Aboriginal and treaty rights, UNDRIP, and the duty to consult to prioritize major projects.
