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If you own residential, industrial or commercial property in Canada, pay attention. Your ownership is now "endangered" by this new precedent-setting Indigenous land claim ruling, currently under appeal to a higher court. Trillions in real estate assets are at risk as this ruling created enormous uncertainty for all existing owners and future property purchasers. This will take years to wind its way through appeals courts, leaving many wondering when is "Indigenous Reconciliation" over and at what cost to Canada? In British Columbia, as much as 110% of the land is under competing, overlapping Indigenous land claims with decades of negotiations that have led to few actual treaties.
Read the alarming letter Richmond Mayor sent to hundreds of impacted homes and businesses telling them their ownership rights are in jeopardy and the informed legal expert opinion, Dr. Bruce Pardy (Queen's University Law). "The Eby government has sought to put title and control of B.C. into Aboriginal hands," writes Dr. Pardy. For 11 years during this court battle, why did no one in government or the Cowichan Band inform impacted private property owners? Since then, new title claims on more than half of New Brunswick, the entire city of Kamloops, BC and public lands in Coquitlam, BC have come forward.
While people were enjoying the last days of summer, the Supreme Court of British Columbia dropped this highly controversial landmark decision (August 2025) in the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (Attorney General). Aboriginal title is now seen to supersede private fee simple land ownership, leaving all private and public property rights at risk.
Although the provincial government is appealing the ruling, legal scholars point out that both the federal and provincial governments instructed their lawyers NOT to argue that Aboriginal title was ever extinguished at the time of Confederation or when private land title was created. That's like going into court with one hand tied behind your back and blinders on.
Geoffrey S. Moyse, a retired senior lawyer who served as legal counsel to the Province of BC, advising six successive governments on Aboriginal law over more than 30 years, says what's being done by the BC NDP to non-Indigenous Canadian property owners is both intentional and unconstitutional.
Video features Dr. Bruce Pardy, a property and constitutional law professor at Queen's University. Bruce Hallsor, K.C. is a lawyer specializing in corporate and commercial law, real estate, tax and more.
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This 800-page court decision -- the longest trial in Canadian history at 513 days -- focused on a competing land claim around Richmond’s south arm of the Fraser River and includes oral historical recollections. The Aboriginal title land in question encompasses $100 billion in infrastructure, impacting the City of Richmond, Crown-owned land and private property, plus ports and warehouses for Amazon, Wayfair, Canadian Tire, UPS, the Vancouver Airport Fuel Authority, and a golf course among others. The Musqueam and Tsawwassen First Nations, the federal and provincial governments, the City of Richmond, and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority opposed the Cowichan claim whose trial began in 2019.
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The Cowichan Tribes were awarded constitutionally protected rights to those lands and waters, with the court placing Indigenous ownership above British Columbia’s private land title agreements. Of note, private property rights have no such protection in the 1982 Constitution and were declared by this BC Judge as "defective and invalid". Legal pundits argue we have enabled this conclusion following the Province of BC's enshrining into law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIPA), unanimously approved by all BC's provincial parties in 2019.
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Private land owners can be evicted from their own property, wrote Geoffrey Moyse, KC (veteran Indigenous affairs lawyer). He also noted "The BC NDP government’s “reconciliation agreements” have taken a myriad of forms – which the public has largely learned about after-the-fact, if at all – from majority ownership in resource development projects to joint or sole decision-making and title over Crown and private land." Recent public park closures by First Nations and the BC government are additional examples of decisions made with zero public input.
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Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said: “The court’s decision to undermine established fee simple ownership of the properties under the B.C. Land Title Act within the identified area is unprecedented and compromises the entire land title system in British Columbia,” in Castanet News.
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The Northern Beat quoted: BC Conservative leader John Rustad, a former BC Liberal minister of Aboriginal affairs and reconciliation, advising that Indigenous title and private property rights can’t co-exist overtop one another. “Losing private property rights on your home, your land… is wrong – reconciliation cannot be achieved by taking rights away from one group and giving them to another.”
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“Owning private property with clear title is key to borrowing for a mortgage, economic certainty and the real estate market,” Premier David Eby said shortly after the decision (in the Vancouver Sun.) Recall that the BC NDP had long reassured the public that reconciliation with B.C.’s 200 Indigenous nations would not infringe upon private property rights. The BC Supreme Court judge Barb Young wrote in her decision: “what remains of fee simple title after Aboriginal title is recognized in the same lands?” Good question the public deserves to know.
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BC NDP Attorney General Niki Sharma admitted in BIV News: “The ruling could have significant unintended consequences for fee simple private property rights in B.C."
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Vancouver Sun BC legislative reporter/columnist Vaughn Palmer blasted the BC NDP for its secretive deals that lack transparency for property owners around both the Cowichan case and the recent Haida Gwaii decision that awarded the Haida Nation governance over private land, which Premier Eby promised is a "template" for future deals.
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Worse, the BC Government has entrenched this, preventing it from revocation by a subsequent government, all without any public notice or approval. A legal and constitutional expert Dwight Newman added in the Vancouver Sun: “A constitutional entrenchment of a very significant agreement is done behind closed doors, with almost no transparency until a journalist managed to get a hold of a copy of the transcript.”
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Private property impacts are sweeping, from homeowners who can't renew mortgages or insurance to investors, developers, and commercial businesses who lack certainty around land use permissions and sales, taxation, and governance. Some are questioning how much in compensation will be paid either by homeowners directly to Indigenous title holders or — by governments that are already broke — on their behalf.
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Trillions of dollars are tied up in real estate of all kinds in Canada. Why isn't Premier David Eby being honest with the public by announcing his vision and execution plan for reconciliation? How about a reconciliation report card? How is it going: are we 10%, or 20 or 80% through his plan?
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Federal spending (taxpayer funds) on Indigenous priorities has now topped 200 Billion over the last ten years, not including provincial land claim settlements, or municipal or regional government spending. This is paying all the legal fees for these court cases that are stripping away any private property rights and even giving Indigenous bands a veto on natural resources projects, contrary to what Canadians and British Columbians were initially told by political leaders.
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For example, the Cowichan land claim decision alone involved 86 lawyers for all levels of government and the bands. Where did the taxpayer money go? Many Nations still lack potable drinking water or affordable housing.
政府问责
Caroline Elliott, a Simon Fraser University professor specializing in Canadian liberal democracy, explains.
In her thoughtful column, she argues that the BC NDP, led by Premier David Eby, is pushing a deeply ideological and radical “reconciliation” agenda — guided by unelected advisors Doug White and Roshan Danesh who view Canada’s founding as an “original sin” needing redemption. This view demands “turbulence, rupture, sacrifice, pain, and the utter transformation of human affairs” to atone for colonialism hundreds of years ago.
Fundamental aspects of property law and societal structures are being discarded, often through secret deals, that are economically risky, legally uncertain, and socially divisive. Much of this harmful policy is derived from BC's enabling legislation Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), taken from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Despite all the built infrastructure and improvements made to British Columbia and our nation by centuries of immigration, the BC NDP believe "non-Indigenous British Columbians are “settlers,” “colonizers,” and “uninvited guests" living on "stolen land".
Take Action
Email Premier David Eby, Prime Minister Mark Carney and provincial and federal Opposition Leaders with your thoughts. Should these decisions be subject to a referendum? Constitutional changes? Should Canada and BC repeal the United Nations legislation around Indigenous peoples that was enshrined into legislation without what appears to be any understanding of the consequences? Have these deals been done with enough transparent public input? Is it time for an audit? Why is the federal government silent?
Emails: premier@gov.bc.ca, (Premier Eby, BC NDP Party) pm@pm.gc.ca (Prime Minister Mark Carney, Liberal Party of Canada).
BC MLA Opposition:
John Rustad John.Rustad.MLA@leg.bc.ca (Conservative Party BC), Dallas Brodie (One BC Party) Dallas.Brodie.MLA@leg.bc.ca, Rob Botterell (Green Party of BC) Rob.Botterell.MLA@leg.bc.ca, Elenore Sturko (Independent) Elenore.Sturko.MLA@leg.bc.ca
Federal Opposition: Pierre Poilievre (Conservative Party of Canada) pierre.poilievre@parl.gc.ca
Yves-François Blanchet, Leader, Bloc Québécois Yves-Francois.Blanchet@parl.gc.ca
Interim Leader, Don Davies, MP, NDP Party of Canada don.davies@parl.gc.ca
All BC Legislature (MLAs) can be found here if you wish to include your local MLA: https://www.leg.bc.ca/members/mla-by-community
All House of Commons Members of Parliament here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search
Experts & Opinion Leaders on Court Ruling
Additional reading from legal firms and constitutional experts and media coverage:
Angus Reid Institute: BC–Haida Gwaii Reconciliation and Public Poll on Cowichan
https://angusreid.org/bc-haida-gwaii-reconciliation/
https://angusreid.org/cowichan-ruling-bc-reconciliation/
BIV (Business in Vancouver): Rob Shaw: Behind closed doors, BC NDP sounds a lot different on Aboriginal title
https://biv.com/news/commentary/rob-shaw-behind-closed-doors-bc-ndp-sounds-a-lot-different-on-aboriginal-title-11413668
BIV (Business in Vancouver): Rob Shaw: BC Has Only Itself to Blame for Eroding Faith in Reconciliation
BLG (Borden Ladner Gervais LLP): Reconciling Title: Aboriginal Title and the Future of Fee Simple Tenure in British Columbia
https://blg.com/en/insights/2025/09/reconciling-title-aboriginal-title-and-the-future-of-fee-simple-tenure-in-british-columbia
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP: Aboriginal Title Supersedes Fee Simple: Landmark Ruling in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada
https://cassels.com/insights/aboriginal-title-supersedes-fee-simple-landmark-ruling-in-cowichan-tribes-v-canada-attorney-general-creates-significant-uncertainty-for-private-landowners-in-bc/
C2C Journal: Manufactured Judgements: How Canada’s Courts Promote Indigenous Radicalism
https://c2cjournal.ca/2025/09/manufactured-judgements-how-canadas-courts-promote-indigenous-radicalism/
CBC News: Multimillion-Dollar Mansions, Cowichan Title, and Richmond
https://cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/multimillion-mansions-cowichan-title-richmond-1.7607542
CBC News: Proposed class action claims government misled property owners in light of Cowichan Tribes decision
Claim accuses feds, province of misrepresenting security of land title in B.C.
CTV News: Richmond Councillor Calls on Province to Do More as Homeowner's Ability To Renew Mortgage, Insurance Impacted
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/richmond-councillor-calls-on-province-to-do-more-as-angry-property-owner-speaks-out-over-cowichan-decision/
Daily Hive Vancouver: BC Government in Secret Negotiations with Cities and First Nations
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-government-secret-negotiations-talks-cities-first-nations-proposed-legislation
Daily Mail (UK): Richmond, B.C. Cowichan Tribes Home Eviction
https://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15208713/richmond-british-columbia-cowichan-tribes-home-eviction.html
Daily Mail (UK): Richmond Homes May Revert to Native Tribes’ Ownership
https://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15212477/Richmond-Canada-homes-native-tribes-ownership-residents-mayor.html
Gowling WLG: Aboriginal Title in Metro Vancouver
https://gowlingwlg.com/en-gb/insights-resources/articles/2025/aboriginal-title-in-metro-vancouver
Hawkeye Wealth: Fee Simple Under Fire: The High Stakes of Aboriginal Title in British Columbia
Hymie Substack: BC First Nation Wins Lawsuit Over Land Title
https://hymie.substack.com/p/bc-first-nation-wins-lawsuit-over
JFK Law Corporation: Landmark Cowichan Tribes Decision: Coexistence of Aboriginal Title and Private Property
https://jfklaw.ca/in-landmark-cowichan-tribes-decision-bc-supreme-court-addresses-coexistence-of-aboriginal-title-and-private-property/
Juno News: BC Homeowners Warned Their Land May Be Affected by Cowichan Ruling
https://junonews.com/p/bc-homeowners-warned-their-land-may
Lyackson First Nation: Reconciliation on Hold as BC Blocks Cowichan Land Win
https://lyackson.bc.ca/reconciliation-on-hold-as-bc-blocks-cowichan-land-win/
MLT Aikins LLP: Cowichan Decision Raises Questions Around Fee Simple Titles
https://mltaikins.com/insights/cowichan-decision-raises-questions-around-fee-simple-titles/
MLT Aikins LLP: What Is the Cowichan Decision—and Why Is Everyone So Worked Up?
https://mltaikins.com/insights/what-is-the-cowichan-decision-and-why-is-everyone-so-worked-up/
MTP Law: Indigenous Title vs. Private Property: The Cowichan Tribes Decision Explained
https://mtplaw.com/legal-news/indigenous-title-vs-private-property-the-cowichan-tribes-decision-explained/
National Post: Adam Pankratz: The Cowichan Ruling Is Already Causing a Property Rights Panic in B.C.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/adam-pankratz-the-cowichan-ruling-is-already-causing-a-property-rights-panic-in-b-c
National Post: B.C. NDP Misled the Public to Further Its Reconciliation Agenda
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/b-c-ndp-mislead-the-public-to-further-its-shadowy-reconciliation-agenda
National Post: BC Government Laid the Groundwork for Aboriginal Title on Private Property
National Post: BC Attorney General Niki Sharma Defends Handling of Cowichan Haida Title Cases
National Post: B.C. Supreme Court Takes an Axe to Private Property Rights
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/b-c-supreme-court-takes-an-axe-to-private-property-rights
National Post: Canada wasn't stolen from Indigenous People by Dr. Mark Milke, doctorate in political science, University of Calgary, Tom Flanagan, former political science professor at the University of Calgary.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/opinion-canada-wasnt-stolen-from-indigenous-people
National Post: Cowichan Appeal Should Be Taken to the Supreme Court
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/cowichan-appeal-should-be-taken-to-the-supreme-court
National Post: David Eby Bringing B.C. to Its Knees with Aboriginal Land Deals
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/eby-bringing-b-c-to-its-knees-with-aboriginal-land-deals
National Post: Land Rights Confusion a Mess of Premier David Eby's Making
https://apple.news/AlkSC47kfTsKXILZxfEoZvg
National Post: The Pieces of Canada that Could Be Declared Stolen Land, Including Kamloops, BC, Gatineau, Quebec and Half of New Brunswick
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/first-reading-the-pieces-of-canada-that-could-be-declared-aboriginal-land-next
National Post: This Reconciliation is a Disaster for Canada
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/np-view-this-reconciliation-is-a-disaster-for-canada
Northern Beat: Explainer: Cowichan Aboriginal Title Decision
https://northernbeat.ca/opinion/explainer-cowichan-aboriginal-title-decision/
Northern Beat: Letting the Eby Government Negotiate Aboriginal Title Is Perilous
https://northernbeat.ca/opinion/letting-the-eby-government-negotiate-aboriginal-title-is-perilous/
Northern Beat: Northern B.C. Mining Projects Face Aboriginal Title Tangle
https://northernbeat.ca/opinion/northern-bc-mining-projects-face-aboriginal-title-tangle/
Northern Beat: Secret Reconciliation Land Deals Erode Support for BC NDP and DRIPA
https://northernbeat.ca/opinion/secret-reconciliation-land-deals-erode-support-for-bc-ndp-and-dripa/
Northern Beat: Covert Haida BC Government Court Action May Strip Landowner Protections
https://northernbeat.ca/opinion/covert-haida-bc-government-court-action-may-strip-landowner-protections/
Northern Beat: BC land title agreements breach public trust, override private title
https://northernbeat.ca/opinion/bc-land-title-agreements-breach-public-trust-override-private-title/
Public Land Use: Vaughn Palmer: BC NDP Evasion Continues on Haida Nation’s Aboriginal Land Title Case
https://publiclanduse.ca/news/b-c-ndp-evasion-continues-on-haida-nations-aboriginal-land-title-case-vaughn-palmer/
Subtack: Indigenous Report: Does the Cowichan case indicate that private property is on the table for reconciliation? "The word ‘negotiation’ in this context means that BC taxpayers must compensate either the Cowichan plaintiffs or the private property owners for the value of the private property owners’ lands in the area over which the court has declared Aboriginal title."
https://hymie.substack.com/p/does-the-cowichan-case-indicate-that
Substack: Does the Cowichan Case Mean Private Property Is on the Table?
https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/does-the-cowichan-case-indicate-that
The Globe and Mail: Title Bout Left Richmond Homeowners in Limbo
https://theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-title-bout-left-richmond-homeowners-in-limbo/
The Globe and Mail: Richmond properties impacted by Indigenous court ruling not "saleable". There's no value.
The Globe and Mail: A land-claims nightmare is emerging in B.C.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-land-claims-nightmare-is-emerging-in-bc/
Troy Media: BC NDP undermining British Columbians’ rights to their own land
https://troymedia.com/viewpoint/ndp-aboriginal-land-policies-a-threat-to-british-columbians/
Vancouver CityNews: Richmond City Councillor Says Homeowners in Limbo Over Land Title
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/10/20/richmond-city-councillor-says-homeowners-in-limbo-over-land-title/
Vancouver Sun: Vaughn Palmer: Aboriginal Title, Richmond, and the Cowichan Decision
https://vancouversun.com/news/vaughn-palmer-aboriginal-title-richmond-cowichan-decision
Vancouver Sun: BC NDP Evasion Continues on Haida Nation’s Aboriginal Land Title Case
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/bc-ndp-evasion-continues-on-haida-nations-aboriginal-land-title-case
Vancouver Sun: Did Government Pull Its Punches in the Cowichan Tribes Court Case?
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/op-ed/opinion-did-government-pull-its-punches-in-the-cowichan-tribes-court-case
Vancouver Sun: Poll backstops B.C. NDP decision to fight Cowichan Tribes land ruling
Victoria Times Colonist: With 86 lawyers involved, you know that the monumental August decision on the 11-year-old case is not the end of the matter.
https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/les-leyne-cowichan-land-title-litigation-has-years-to-run-11416385
Westerly News: Private land owners told they'd have to pay taxes to Indigenous. What's not said is will this be on top of civic taxes to cities?
https://westerlynews.ca/2025/11/10/slow-burn-b-c-mining-case-sparks-more-indigenous-title-questions/
Western Standard: Best Judges Are Remaking Constitutional Law — and Canadians’ Property Rights Are the Collateral Damage
https://westernstandard.news/opinion/best-judges-are-remaking-constitutional-law-not-applying-it-and-canadians-property-rights-are-part-of-the-collateral-damage/68692
Western Standard: Cowichan Decision Threatens Private and Public Property (Crown land)
Western Standard: Mortgage brokers sound alarm over Cowichan Decision's impact on landowners
https://www.westernstandard.news/news/exclusive-mortgage-brokers-sound-alarm-over-cowichan-decisions-impact-on-landowners/68619
Western Standard: One man's land is another man's great, great, great grandfather's fishing village — so what?
"Throughout the history of the world, migration has been a constant," he explained. "That is true in North America, where some First Nations conquered others and took over their land. Nowhere else in the world can a tiny surviving group of original occupants claim legal title to lands that were taken over by incoming populations over 150 years ago. No where, that is, except Canada."
https://www.westernstandard.news/opinion/kirkham-one-mans-land-is-another-mans-great-great-great-grandfathers-fishing-village-so-what/68957
Winnipeg Sun: Klein: It’s Time to Face Facts About Land Rights in Canada
https://winnipegsun.com/opinion/klein-its-time-to-face-facts-about-land-rights-in-canada
Winnipeg Sun:INSIDE POLITICS: Indigenous land claims could ‘rip Canada apart’ — Panel slams government silence
https://apple.news/AUBhFaVdeQpiRHNFV3l0fBw
Yahoo! Canada News: What Happened to the Promise of Private Property in B.C.?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/happened-promise-private-property-b-233628211.html
Yahoo! Canada News: ‘Upset is Extreme’: Richmond Hold Public Meeting on Title Decision
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/upset-extreme-richmond-hold-public-215033719.html
YouTube: Cowichan Title Discussion Video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=E-EX3hhWwYI
YouTube: Cowichan Decision Explainer Video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yD1WIhYx9Jo
