Nearly 80% of B.C. locked in active Aboriginal land grab battles
Episode Stats
Words per minute
146.5318
Summary
Nearly all of British Columbia is tied up in competing Indigenous land claims, with just 5% of the province covered by settled treaties. At the same time, major court rulings are expanding recognizing aboriginal title in specific regions, and in some cases those rulings now overlap with private lands, government property, and major infrastructure.
Transcript
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Nearly all of British Columbia is tied up in competing Indigenous land claims with just
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5% of the province covered by settled treaties. A Juno News analysis of Indigenous land claims
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looked at the scale of the issue across British Columbia. The analysis showed that only about 5%
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of the land is covered by historical treaties. Contemporary treaty efforts have made limited
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progress with just eight agreements completed in more than 30 years at the same time major
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court rulings are expanding recognizing aboriginal title in specific regions and in some cases those
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rulings now overlap with private lands government property and major infrastructure and there are
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also overlapping claims between first nations and that means that multiple groups are asserting
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rights over the same area. And the result of all this is a province where land ownership and
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control remain legally and politically unsettled. And this, as most of British Columbia, is still
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being negotiated, challenged, and redefined in real time. For Juno News, I'm Melanie Bennett.