A must-watch for property owners, policymakers, and anyone trying to understand the legal stakes shaping BC’s future.
Kelowna Now’s Jim Csek sits down for an exclusive, in-depth interview with Geoff Moyse KC, one of British Columbia’s most experienced legal minds in Aboriginal and treaty law. Geoff breaks down what Aboriginal title actually is, why it does not legally exist until a court declares it, and how two statements in the Tsilhqot’in decision have opened the door to sweeping interpretations that were never proven in evidence.
Geoff explains how UNDRIP’s Article 26 goes even further, asserting ownership and jurisdiction over entire traditional territories, and how that interpretation is now colliding with the reality of private land ownership in BC. He outlines why true reconciliation depends on rejecting these over-extended readings of UNDRIP and returning to the BC Treaty Process, where private lands are off the table and long-term certainty is possible.
The conversation dives into the growing tension between treaties and the push by some groups to leverage cross-territory land and financial demands through UNDRIP instead, assuming a level of territorial title that neither Canadian law nor the courts have actually established. Geoff closes by explaining what treaties achieve, why they remain the gold standard for reconciliation in Canada, and why the Supreme Court of Canada has consistently supported treaty-based solutions over unilateral territorial claims.