On this edition of Journal, we try to untangle the evermore confusing issues surrounding aboriginal title in British Columbia and what it means for private property owners.
My head is spinning with all the contradictory information that is out there. Private property is not affected, says our premier. Oh, maybe it is, says a judge.
One pattern is emerging – decisions are being made by governments in negotiations with First Nations in private, then grandly announced as a fait accompli to the broader public, businesses, and property owners. That’s no way to build support or buy-in.
To whit, the proposed-then-withdrawn Land Act giving First Nations a 50% say on all the province’s Crown land, the Haida title agreement, the dispute on the Sunshine Coast, the Cowichan court case, and then the federal signing of a deal with the Musqueam claiming vast sections of Metro Vancouver and surrounding municipalities as their hereditary land.
It is a fact that when you lose trust, you lose trust. So now, when any of these players say, “Oh, trust us. We won’t touch private property,” it’s a hard sell, especially since the judge in the Cowichan case said her decision may give rise to some uncertainty for private property owners. Indeed.
A final irony is that some of the agreements are now being challenged by other First Nations: the Musqueam and Tsawwassen First Nations are appealing the Cowichan decision, Squamish First Nation said it wasn’t consulted on the Musqueam decision, and even the Cowichan First Nation is appealing its own successful court case because they only were awarded half of what they asked for!
Thomas Isaac, one of Canada’s top lawyers in the field of aboriginal law, joins us to say what worries him about the BC situation.
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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.
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Article from Bruce Pardy, Queen's University Law Professor here:
Polly's work involved a very extreme global approach to 'climate justice'.
I don't share the concerns this lawyer was promoting ... I believe eco-fascism is far more dangerous to our world than people - like Polly - could ever imagine. https://plantsneedco2.org/ and because Polly considered carbon a pollutant and Shell to be an 'offender' she was on the wrong side of history in my opinion. We may not like the fact that oil companies are profitable but they do provide a resource that improves the lives of millions of people every day on planet earth. So many people working to save the planet are actually working to make it a less hospitable place to live if they deny access to and use of affordable, plentiful, reliable fossil fuels energies .. its just that simple .. but living in a comfortable first world nation makes us blind sometimes to this simple fact, the fact its a struggle for so many people every single day to survive in a hostile climate.
"In March 2010 international barrister and award winning author Polly Higgins proposed to the United Nations that Ecocide be made the fifth Crime Against Peace. There are currently four Crimes Against Peace, prosecutable at the International Criminal Court: genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity. Ecocide is the missing fifth crime – it is a crime against humanity, against current and future generations, and against all life on Earth.
It is time it was recognised as a criminal offence."
