Juno News - B.C.'s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Indigenous title over 800 acres in Richmond

00:00:00.000 I want to start by talking about an issue in the news and I'm going to bring this up with John in

00:00:04.420 a moment and that is a bombshell judgment that was released by BC's Supreme Court. So you might

00:00:09.800 have seen Carolyn Elliott on X posting on Friday bombshell judgment released by BC's Supreme Court

00:00:14.680 declaring aboriginal title over land enrichment including private property. If it stands it has

00:00:19.440 massive implications for private property across BC. She says read for it for yourself. I'm going

00:00:25.320 read a little bit from a Globe and Mail report. The headline says major land claims ruling says

00:00:30.780 BC Indigenous groups has claimed to a portion of the city's port land. So Vancouver First Nations

00:00:36.340 has won a major court victory with the judge declaring it has title to a portion of land in

00:00:41.060 the Vancouver area that includes currently active industrial operations on the Fraser River. Justice

00:00:46.240 Barbara Young of the BC Supreme Court declared that the Cowichan tribes have established Aboriginal

00:00:52.000 title to roughly 800 acres in the city of Richmond, as well as Aboriginal right to fish

00:00:58.320 and food. Her 863-page ruling from a trial that stretched 513 days over five years from 2021 to

00:01:07.120 2023 was issued Thursday and published online Friday. The court ruling in what was billed as

00:01:12.780 the longest trial in Canada's history, no kidding, represents a milestone in the country's continual

00:01:18.000 societal and legal reckoning of indigenous reconciliation the decision follows a line

00:01:23.200 of similarly important rulings and there will almost certainly be legal arguments and appellate

00:01:28.640 cases i hope so i hope that there are challenges to this case because it is truly disturbing and

00:01:34.720 unsettling folks you see the land back activists people demanding land back saying that this is

00:01:40.400 unseated land you know those land acknowledgements that we're forced to hear anytime there's a public

00:01:45.840 press conference now from politicians all saying that canada is basically an illegitimate country

00:01:50.880 and that the land actually belongs to the first nations well this court ruling

00:01:55.280 is legalizing that is putting precedent into that

Juno News - August 13, 2025