The courts delivered yet another wake-up call to the B.C. government and public last week by recognizing 100 per cent of the Nuchatlaht nation’s claim of Aboriginal title over Nootka Island.
The unanimous decision by three B.C. Court of Appeal judges recognized Aboriginal title over 210 square kilometres of the West Coast island, an almost 20-fold increase over the area granted in a 2024 B.C. Supreme Court finding.
“We got it all,” declared Kate Gower, a member of the winning legal team. “That’s going to have a big impact all over B.C.”
The decision makes the Nuchatlaht leaders in Canada when it comes to land claims, Gower told Stefan Labbé of Business In Vancouver.
Senior counsel Jack Woodward said the implications are far-reaching for government and Indigenous nations alike.
“We now know that the courts are the place to go for First Nations if they want some kind of restoration of their ancestral rights,” said Woodward. “The negotiating table seems to not work, whereas this did.”
Weighing in on the implications this week was Dwight Newman, a law professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
He noted that the Appeal Court took a broader view of the evidence sufficient to establish Aboriginal title.
“The trial judge accepted the claim only with respect to smaller areas of coastal land where there was more thorough proof of use of the land by the Nuchatlaht,” wrote Newman on his Law For Breakfast online site Tuesday.
“However, the Court of Appeal was ready to infer a related use of inland areas by a community that would have used some resources from that area, as well as to give some weight to a presence of culturally modified trees in parts of the inland area.
“There is a significant conclusion here in terms of a readiness to infer sufficient occupation based on a more limited evidentiary record.”
Read more at the Vancouver Sun: Vaughn Palmer: Another wake-up call as B.C. court awards claim of Aboriginal title over Nootka Island