Richmond, B.C., Mayor Malcolm Brodie is putting pressure on the Cowichan Nation to put its intentions in writing following the controversial land title court ruling.
B.C.’s Supreme Court decided last year that the Cowichan Nation has title over a portion of southeast Richmond.
The federal and provincial governments are appealing the B.C. Supreme Court’s ruling in favour of the Quw’utsun Nation, or Cowichan Nation, that found it had “established Aboriginal title” to more than 5.7 square kilometres of land on the Fraser River in Richmond, south of Vancouver.
The City of Richmond has also joined the appeal.
The ruling declared Crown and city titles on the land are “defective and invalid,” and the granting of private titles on it by the government unjustifiably infringed on the Cowichan title.
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That has created confusion and anger among homeowners in the affected area, despite the Cowichan Tribes insisting it has no intention of stripping private title holders of their property.
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Brodie says that while statements by the nation are appreciated, they don’t go far enough to ease the growing uncertainty.
In a letter to four Cowichan chiefs, cc’d to the provincial government, Brodie asks the Cowichan Nation to “renounce in a form that is legally binding any claim to private property in Richmond arising out of the recent Court ruling regarding Aboriginal title.”
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“Why can’t we have it in a form that’s legally binding, because we know that things change, and what’s good today may not be good tomorrow or next year or five years from now, so why not give the people of Richmond the satisfaction and the confidence that they are not gonna lose their homes,” Brodie told Global News.
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B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said in question period on Thursday that they are working through the issue.
“Not only with the City of Richmond,” she said, “in the courts, with the Cowichan and for, on behalf of protecting property rights here in British Columbia, and we’ll keep doing that work.”
Global News reached out to the Cowichan First Nation but did not receive a response.
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