Who really owns the land?

Canada is in a structural political tailspin, and Justin Trudeau was travelling the world, canvassing for votes to get a seat on the UN Security Council!

Cities across Western Canada have adopted disclaimers, they often include as a pre-amble in some of their public statements and documents. Words to the effect that ‘we recognize we are on unceded lands’ are fairly common.

Those statements are a reflection of the many agreements that have been signed over the years, and more recent Supreme Court rulings, that effectively have rescinded the concept of title ‘fee simple’ and instead awarded temporary stewardships, for an indefinite period of time.

Virtually all these were negotiated by elected chiefs who were recognized as having a mandate to represent their people. That is why a special forum never was created to provide a separate venue for hereditary chiefs to be consulted. It was assumed they already were participating in all those public consultations and forums that have been conducted over the years.

Should the courts arbitrarily decide to provide an avenue for all those hereditary chiefs to be consulted on another lengthy one-on-one or group basis, it could easily precipitate an economic recession, because our entire resource sector is already under severe duress.

Another issue is slowly working its way onto the front pages, and that is the bigger question of who really owns the land. If the courts arbitrarily award stewardship of all lands not ceded today, there may not be much unceded land left, and that could represent a huge problem in B.C., where the combined claims for lands are projected to be bigger than the total land area of the province. 

It’s very important to keep in mind that in order to secure financing to build our homes, as well as all our multibillion-dollar public and private sector infrastructure like schools, hospitals, industrial plants, etc., we need hard assets as collateral for our loans, and that has traditionally included title ‘fee simple’ to the lands we are proposing to build on.

What will the banks' reaction be when they realize ‘landowners’ big and small no longer have title to the lands that were tendered as collateral?

According to recent statistics, there are about two million Indigenous Canadians in Canada today, about 8.5 million immigrants in various stages of becoming citizens, and about 26.5 million multi-generational Canadians who were born and raised here, and who all rightfully call Canada home.

For 35 million Canadians who built their homes and broke the land in good faith while they were told we are all equal under the law, those disclaimers read like an eviction notice.

By rebranding First Nations as well as immigrants over time, and redefining the concept of title, our politicians and the courts have created a huge monster. What rights or mandate do they have to arbitrarily change the rules – for anybody, including the original occupants of Canada?

Andy Thomsen, Kelowna