(Bloomberg) — An Indigenous group won claim to hundreds of acres of metropolitan Vancouver after a years-long trial and landmark judgment at British Columbia’s supreme court.
The Cowichan have aboriginal title to a section of riverbank in the city of Richmond, according to the 863-page ruling published Friday. Interests of the government of Canada and the city in the area alongside the Fraser River outlined in black on a map attached to the ruling “are defective and invalid,” the judge said.
The court found that in 1846, when the British Crown asserted sovereignty in what is now British Columbia, the Cowichan “sufficiently and exclusively” occupied a village, its surrounding lands and a strip of submerged lands in what is now Richmond.
Grants later made by the British to others “unjustifiably infringe” on the Cowichan land title, according to the ruling, which also recognizes the Cowichan descendants’ right to fish part of the Fraser River. The plaintiffs called it a “historic victory.”
Many Indigenous groups in what became Canada signed treaties with the British Crown, predominantly during the 18th and 19th centuries.
That isn’t the case in British Columbia, where the lower mainland has some of Canada’s most expensive land. Many areas of the province are subject to legal and political disputes.
“I fully expect it’ll become a very important precedent,” said David Rosenberg, senior litigation counsel for the plaintiffs, adding that he understood the land affected to be about 750 to 800 acres.
Owners’ rights for some 120 properties in the affected area will not change “except if they come to do something with the property that requires Crown authorization,” Rosenberg said by phone. Property sales by owners who have used the Crown land title system may end up requiring Cowichan consent, he said.
Rosenberg, who represented the Tsilhqot’in Nation in a 2014 Supreme Court case which reinforced Aboriginal rights, said he expects the case will be appealed and may not be resolved for years.
The Cowichan descendants’ claim was opposed in court by Canada, British Columbia, Richmond, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and two other Indigenous groups — the Tsawwassen First Nation and the Musqueam Indian Band.
Richmond said the decision is under legal review. The Musqueam said they are “devastated” in a statement, while the Tsawwassen First Nation said they are reviewing the decision with legal counsel. A Port Authority spokesman said the agency is reviewing the decision.
British Columbia Premier David Eby said his attorney general will consider grounds for possible appeal and the province will also seek resolution through out-of-court negotiations with the First Nations.
“Owning private property with clear title is key to borrowing for a mortgage, economic certainty, and the real estate market,” and the province remains committed to upholding that “this foundation of business and personal predictability, and our provincial economy, for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike,” Eby said.
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