Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Eight years before landmark Cowichan legal decision, lawyers debated alerting private property owners From the outset of its landmark claim for Aboriginal title, the Quw’utsun (Cowichan) Nation claimed its beef was not with private property owners. In May 2017, lawyers for the Quw'utsun, the federal Crown, B.C and Richmond spent two days in a Victoria courtroom debating the merits of notifying more than 100 Richmond landowners about the legal battle that would see a judge grant Aboriginal title over their land eight years later ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Canada’s top court needs to quickly decide whether Aboriginal title overrides private property rights, or risk freezing British Columbia’s economy under years of uncertainty. That’s the pitch from Opposition BC Conservative Leader John Rustad in a letter Tuesday appealing to the federal attorney general to intervene in the recent Cowichan Nation court case and send the issue as a reference question to the Supreme Court of Canada. “This is a matter of significant national concern, with particular resonance in British Columbia,” Rustad wrote to Attorney General Sean Fraser ... CLICK HERE for the full story