Richmond company wants to be part of litigation to fight Cowichan land claim

A vast piece of industrial land in Richmond, B.C., including distribution centres for Canadian Tire, Wayfair and Coca-Cola, is part of the Supreme Court decision granting title to the Cowichan Nation in a landmark ruling in August.

The owner of Montrose Properties is now asking to be included in the litigation, as part of an appeal launched by the City of Richmond, the B.C. government and the federal government.

“The trial went on for more than 500 days and neither our client or other private property owners were involved in the case,” Robin Junger, the lawyer for Montrose Properties told Global News.

“The breadth of the ruling is surprising to the company, and many other British Columbians.”

The B.C. Cattleman’s Association, representing ranchers across B.C., has also sent Premier David Eby a letter asking for greater clarity on the government’s stance on ongoing land negotiations.

“The uncertainty is killing us right now,” Werner Stump with the B.C. Cattleman’s Association said.

“We have seen this for a whole, but it is really heightened right now.”

The BC Conservatives are also calling on the province to pause Aboriginal title deals, saying there needs to be clarity from the courts before any conservations take place, adding discussions about treaty and title need to take place in public.

“We are saying no more secrecy, we are saying bring the public along,” BC Conservative Leader John Rustad said.

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The Cowichan Tribes have repeatedly stated they are not targeting private property and First Nations leaders are warning that a termination of dialogue between the Crown and First Nations would cause irreparable damage.

“It is imperative to continue with treaty negotiations because it is the only way we get to certainty, and British Columbians want certainty,” Huy’wu’qw Shana Thomas (Laxele’wuts’aat), the hereditary Chief of Lyackson First Nation, told Global News.

However, a leading expert on Aboriginal land issues says private property owners in B.C. should be concerned about the Cowichan land title court ruling.

“A precedent that will flow from this case is that sections 23 and 25 of the Land Title Act do not apply to Aboriginal title,” Tom Isaac with Cassels Aboriginal Law Group told Global News.

“Those are not my words — those are the judge’s words, paragraph 3,551. So anyone suggesting this is about 800 acres, it’s simply not the full story on the decision.”

The case could also set a precedent for Indigenous land claims in other parts of Canada: an Algonquin First Nation filed a similar title claim in Quebec Superior Court in October.

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