Property owners sue after court casts doubt on B.C. land rights

A class-action lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court claims that unresolved Indigenous land claims, known to the provincial and federal governments for years, threaten property ownership.

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A class-action lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court claims that unresolved Indigenous land claims, known to the provincial and federal governments for years, threaten property ownership throughout the province.

The claim, filed this week in New Westminster, says the court’s recent decision recognizing the Cowichan Tribes’ Aboriginal title over a swath of land in Richmond has caused economic and “psychological harm” to members of the proposed class.

True North obtained a copy of the class-action lawsuit filing.

According to their claim, “the Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants, despite having long-standing internal knowledge of material risks to land security given unresolved Indigenous claims to title- continued to assure the public that the title registered under the Land Title Act was safe, marketable and free from material qualification.”

“By maintaining these representations and collecting taxes, fees and charges based on inflated or misinformed property values, the Defendants caused economic and psychological harm to the Plaintiffs and class members.’

The lawsuit is a response by B.C. citizens to an 863-page ruling released in August. In that ruling, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Young affirmed the Cowichan Tribes’ Aboriginal title to roughly 300 acres on Lulu Island, rendering fee-simple private property owners’ titles “defective and invalid.”

The decision drew broad attention after the court declared that some historic grants of fee-simple title in British Columbia were “defective and invalid,” raising questions for property owners and lenders about land security, financing and future transactions.

The plaintiffs in the new action argue the implications reach far beyond Richmond. The notice of civil claim says all properties in B.C. — not only those addressed in the Cowichan case — are now vulnerable to assertions of pre-existing Aboriginal title, creating uncertainty about ownership.

B.C. Conservative MLAs Teresa Wat and Steve Kooner previously told True North that “120 per cent of the province of British Columbia” is subject to one or more Aboriginal title claims, a figure they attributed to substantial overlap between claims filed by different First Nations.

One proposed representative plaintiff, Jasjeet Grewal, says he owns property in B.C. and believes the ruling has cast doubt on his title because “all properties in British Columbia are now subject to claims of pre-existing Aboriginal title.” The second proposed representative plaintiff, identified as John Doe, is described as a Richmond property owner whose land lies within the area addressed in the Cowichan decision.

At a recent town hall hosted by Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, another property owner in the affected area told True North his lender had declined to renew his mortgage following the ruling.

True North contacted several banks, credit unions and mortgage brokers — all of whom said they would not even consider lending on properties directly covered by the Cowichan Tribes decision.