Did Anyone Read the Cowichan Tribes Ruling?
terminal despair is not your friend, pearl clutching solves nothing, land acknowledgments were always leading to this, and no Canadian is an uninvited guest in or a settler on the land of their birth
image credit: The Whip, Act 3 Scene 5, the train crash, Hamilton, Henry, 1853?-1918, 1906
A film still of a train crash at the end of the line at the train depot. In front of and behind the engine are piles of splintered wood. people lie on and near the tracks as others look on or move forward to help them. via University of Wisconsin-Madison
Fun fact: Rustad was the Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Minister in 2014 when the “… Cowichan Tribes, Stz’uminus, Penelakut, and Halalt, also on behalf of Lyackson — filed an Aboriginal title lawsuit claiming approximately 1,900 acres of Crown land on Lulu Island in Richmond, BC.” Rustad held that ministerial position until 2017. The trial began in 2019. Rustad had 3 years to act on this land claim lawsuit. Rustad voted against the Land Acknowledgement Prohibition Act recently tabled in the BC Legislature by OneBC, so, I’m not sure what he’s been smoking, that he acts surprised and outraged about the inevitable consequences of the BC government mandating land acknowledgments and deliberately ignoring the land claim lawsuit in 2014 when Cowichan filed it.
Put down that bullsh1t sandwich.
I got tired of the political theatre of rage baiting drama queens and decided to pull up the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (Attorney General), 2025 BCSC 1490 in CanLii and read the relevant parts (i.e. pertaining to Aboriginal title and fee simple interests) myself. It’s not rocket science and I urge all Canadian readers to seek out the court ruling and read what it says about this issue of third-party owned private property. Please do this, rather than eat the bullsh1t sandwiches raging baiting drama queens want to serve you.
Reader, have you examined the Haida Nation Recognition Act? Section 4.3 states that fee simple estates, as well as “interest in or right in relation to land that derives from, burdens or otherwise relates to an estate in fee simple” will continue. It’s there in English. Go read that. You can read the agreement for yourself, B.C. and Haida Nation Release Haida Title Lands Agreement.
The Draft Agreement does not extinguish Haida Nation’s Aboriginal title to allow fee simple ownership to continue, and British Columbia does not have the constitutional authority to extinguish Aboriginal title.5 Rather, British Columbia and Haida Nation have agreed for Haida Nation’s Aboriginal title and fee simple lands to coexist. Haida Nation’s Aboriginal title will exist underneath fee simple lands. The Land Title Act and all other B.C. laws will continue to apply to private property on Haida Gwaii.
A legal precedent exists in BC for the coexistence of Aboriginal Title and fee simple interests. What part of this remains unclear to the reader? Perhaps a comprehension problem afflicts some people? I note that the same people who want me to believe Nazis were socialists want me to believe the Cowichan Tribe ruling has extinguished private property rights. I’m unmoved, frankly. Unmoved and bored. Also highly irritated at the gullibility of those easily seduced into fear and terminal despair by the cult of rage-baiting and fear mongering.
As you can see by the results of an Angus Reid survey (below), British Columbians seem divided on the issue of returning land to First Nations. Perhaps in BC we need honest, genuine, morally intelligent and courageous leader to unite us?
Angus Reid Survey, June, 2024
“There are corporate interests that are part of what we’re disputing. Corporations, or the governments who have privately held land as a corporation or as a government, I think that’s a different issue.” —Robert Morales, chief negotiator for Cowichan Tribes and the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group. (via Canadian Mortgage Professional)
“We welcome and anticipate supporting individual landowners making any respectful claims they may have against British Columbia,” said Quw’utsun Nation Chief Pam Jack (Chakeenakwaut) of Penelakut Tribe. (via Cowichan Tribes statement)
So, how did the city of Richmond respond? Well, first of all, the Richmond residents living on the land impacted by the ruling only found out about this land claim and how it affects them when Judge Young’s decision became public in August. For 11 years, levels of government have known about this case, have prepared for and argued in this case, and they didn’t bother to inform the private citizens about this matter. Malcolm Brodie passed the buck and said the responsibility lay with the plaintiff, that’s the Cowichan Tribes. Really, the mayor of Richmond thinks the Cowichan Tribes leadership should see to informing his people? Why? And why does John Rustad think he can shoot his mouth off about this case, when he was the minister responsible at the time the Cowichan filed the lawsuit? That’s disingenuous and manipulative, at best.
“…the Court has declared aboriginal title to your property which may compromise the status and validity of your ownership…” — Malcolm Brodie, mayor, City of Richmond
And how did the Cowichan Tribes react?
“Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, Premier David Eby, and other politicians have recently made public statements about the Quw’utsun (Cowichan) Nation’s Aboriginal title case and the effect of the B.C. Supreme Court’s judgement on individual private property owners. These statements are, at best, misleading, and at worst, deliberately inflammatory.” (via Cowichan Tribes statement)
I agree with the Cowichan that “Richmond and British Columbia’s negative and erroneous messaging is provoking unnecessary fears. Their approach is inconsistent with the Court’s decision and is contrary to reconciliation.” Why does the government force us to participate in the performative lip service of reciting land acknowledgments like some kind of religious creed when they’re not willing to negotiate the land claims to which they pay service?
We have heard members of the governing BC NDP calling British Columbians settlers and uninvited guests, we have indigenous people pulling the that’s racist card in response to the valid concerns expressed by non indigenous people about land acknowledgements and labels of settler places on them in a projected guilt scenario, we have the BC government attaching a land acknowledgment to their website, and then we have the same NDP government saying “I want the court to look in the eyes … of the people who will be directly affected by this decision, and understand the impact on certainty for business, for prosperity and for our negotiations with Indigenous people.” (David Eby, interview with Mike Smyth, CKNW).
audio clip via Caroline Elliot on X
In the Cowichan Tribes ruling the court rejected the Bona Fide Purchaser defence for the City of Richmond and the Crown. The Province of B.C. tried to invoke the Bona Fide Purchaser defence on behalf of private property owners and the court rejected that defence because private property owners weren’t parties to the litigation. Nothing says that private property owners couldn’t successfully plead a Bona Fide Purchaser defence. Through her ruling Justice Young forced the government to negotiate with First Nations in order to reconcile the potentially competing interests.
No one is going anywhere, so we best stop inflaming the situation and grow the fcuk up, get on our bikes and get on with the negotiations. In her ruling Justice Young gave parties 18 months to negotiate. The government has appealed the ruling, injecting perhaps more uncertainty into the mix. To be honest I think the moral panic drives the uncertainty impacting the housing market and mortgage lender response to this ruling, and I think it’s massively irresponsible and a form of psychological abuse to stoke fear in reaction to this ruling. It reveals a grave lack of integrity on everyone’s part.
In the meantime the government will negotiate with the Cowichan Tribes to reconcile the terms of Aboriginal title and fee simple interests for private property owners. Assuming they haven’t prejudiced the process with their irresponsible and reckless emotional reactions to a case they’ve know about for 11 years.
So, I don’t understand the moral panic around the Cowichan Tribe ruling, it looks and feels like the cult of terminal despair inflaming a sensitive situation that’s fraught with uncomfortable and frightening uncertainty. Freaking out solves nothing. I also don’t understand why the province conducted this land claim process with First Nations in such a clandestine manner. Secrecy betrays the trust of British Columbians have for their government, a thing already broken. It also creates suspicion. Why would the government keep their policy work a secret, unless they’re trying to hide something from the public? How can any government conduct reconciliation with First Nations on behalf of the public, when the government has failed to consult the public on the issue? Why does the government think it can operate independently of the people whom it represents?
Aside from the impacted property owners themselves—who have every right to feel angry and frightened—I don’t really understand the freaking out and pearl clutching and I don’t understand the inflammatory rhetoric. Shouldn’t we want unity? Why don’t we act like it? It’s almost like the cult of terminal despair revels in the division and demoralisation. At what point do we acknowledge that the compulsion to self-aggrandise erodes the capacity of a politician or media personality to operate with integrity?
I don’t see much integrity in Canada — not in government, not in the opposition parties, not in the media, that includes both mainstream and independent media. The fact remains, the rage baiters who argue Nazis are socialists are going up against the liars who argue puberty is a disease and men are women. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe the country was always fake and weak and corrupt and dishonest like this and I didn’t notice. And maybe not.
I just know that this isn’t 1972 Uganda, it’s not an Idi Amin situation, where we’ve all been told we have 90 days to GTFO of Canada and leave our wealth and property behind. Anyone who thinks this is that needs to get psychiatric help.
Fun fact. The Tsawassens intervened against the Cowichan, for perfectly respectable reasons, mainly a worry about fishing rights implications. The fun part: nobody in Delta is worried about their private property because the Tsawassens concluded a treaty a few years ago. They relinquished their title underlying private property, and all the flags are still flying on government buildings in Delta, and people get on with their lives. It'sthe British and Canadian way of settling tgese matters. There is no "unceded land" to argue about.