Landmark Court Decision for Cowichan Nation
At the end of last week, a critical court decision came down from the B.C. Supreme Court. This case will be appealed, so we won’t know for a time whether the ruling will stand and which parts will be upheld. I will write more about this later on, but for now it is important to note a number of important points.
These kinds of decisions are being settled in courts (this was the longest trial in Canadian history) because of a failure to resolve land claims in an expedient way through the treaty process or through resolving the whole in the middle of the constitution (Section 35) where there should be an agreement for how the land is shared and how these disputes are settled. (for more on this read my Substack article on this topic).
While the headlines have talked a lot about private land being threatened by this decision it is important to note that Cowichan, to date, has brought no legal action against private land owners, nor have they indicated that they intend to do so.
The attorney general of BC in an interview said that there is a need to sit down and talk about these issues rather than to decide them in court. I would say, now is the time for us to be having these conversations with host nations and creating a shared understanding. First Nations have not blocked the way to these kinds of conversations. It is time, perhaps past time, to talk about land back.
Check out the article here.
Cowichan First Nation’s claimed area in southeast Richmond (Google Maps)