Geoffrey Moyse, KC, writes in the Hub for the Aristotle Foundation:
Last August, the British Columbia Supreme Court determined Aboriginal title exists for the Cowichan Tribe in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver. The Court held that Aboriginal title in Canadian law is “senior and prior” to a fee simple property interest, the most common form of private property right in Canada. That was the now-infamous Cowichan decision.
This obviously raises a fundamental question: does this ruling mean that where they can convince a court of the existence of Aboriginal title over your private property title, those First Nations who do so can then, after another court application, simply assume ownership of your property? That issue remains unclear after this judgment.
In response to the ruling, all parties to that litigation have plans to appeal the decision. But both the federal and B.C. governments effectively tied their own legal hands behind their backs in 2018. They did so by establishing litigation guidelines that prohibit government lawyers from arguing that fee simple interests effectively extinguish Aboriginal title claims (which would have the effect of “going to the wall” in protecting private property, as B.C.’s Premier David Eby has claimed he intends to do).
Read the full article at the Hub: https://thehub.ca/2026/09/07/aboriginal-land-disputes-continue-in-b-c-and-federal-and-provincial-governments-are-crippling-their-own-cases/