I think this article goes to far doing the same thing but taking the opposite conclusion, that this decision has absolutely no effect on private property holders. The fact I keep returning to that makes this so murky for me is that Musqueam and Tsawwassen also assert competing Aboriginal title rights that appear to be awarded to the Cowichan alliance instead of other nearby bands.
The court made a decision (I won’t accuse them of brashness or extremism as this is after years of deliberation and fact-finding) that awards the Cowichan these rights, which although an analysis I read says it covers only Crown and lower level government owned land, the Aboriginal title system supersedes in some respects the fee simple one, and exists along it or in other ways needs reconcilition in others.
People will naturally have questions and concerns about what this means about private property ownership in the area, just like the appealing Indigenous groups wondering about the effect of this decision on their own treaty claims. Seizures under owners’ noses won’t happen, but it’s like if your house or apartment is now ordered by a court to be part of a Homeowners’ Association that you didn’t sign up for, because of ill guarantees made by the Government a long time ago that you never heard about. It will affect property owners in some way in the process of requiring negotiation to reconcile competing guarantees the Crown has made. Even if nothing on paper changes to Land Title Act entitlements, the fact that Aboriginal title needs to be reconciled does affect what those entitlements are ultimately worth.
It’s true that there is plenty of alarmism when it comes to the potential outcomes of this decision, and I’ve uttered my criticism to one such piece shared to Lemmy.
I think this article goes to far doing the same thing but taking the opposite conclusion, that this decision has absolutely no effect on private property holders. The fact I keep returning to that makes this so murky for me is that Musqueam and Tsawwassen also assert competing Aboriginal title rights that appear to be awarded to the Cowichan alliance instead of other nearby bands.
The court made a decision (I won’t accuse them of brashness or extremism as this is after years of deliberation and fact-finding) that awards the Cowichan these rights, which although an analysis I read says it covers only Crown and lower level government owned land, the Aboriginal title system supersedes in some respects the fee simple one, and exists along it or in other ways needs reconcilition in others.
People will naturally have questions and concerns about what this means about private property ownership in the area, just like the appealing Indigenous groups wondering about the effect of this decision on their own treaty claims. Seizures under owners’ noses won’t happen, but it’s like if your house or apartment is now ordered by a court to be part of a Homeowners’ Association that you didn’t sign up for, because of ill guarantees made by the Government a long time ago that you never heard about. It will affect property owners in some way in the process of requiring negotiation to reconcile competing guarantees the Crown has made. Even if nothing on paper changes to Land Title Act entitlements, the fact that Aboriginal title needs to be reconciled does affect what those entitlements are ultimately worth.