OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is hitting back against what Liberals call “disinformation” about the state of private property rights in British Columbia amid Indigenous land title claims.
Carney said in question period on Wednesday that he “fundamentally disagrees” with last summer’s B.C. Supreme Court decision granting the Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title to between 300 and 324 hectares of land in Richmond, B.C.
“We immediately appealed that decision alongside the government of B.C., the City of Richmond and other First Nations,” said Carney.
Carney said he’d “always advance viable legal arguments to protect private property.”
He was responding to a question from Richmond Liberal MP Parm Bains, who asked him to dispel “disinformation” surrounding the Cowichan decision and the federal government’s Feb. 20 agreement with the Lower Mainland’s Musqueam Indian Band.
Carney’s remarks come after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on him to adopt a more aggressive legal strategy in defending B.C. property owners from Aboriginal title claims.
Poilievre said the Liberals set themselves up to lose the Cowichan decision by failing to argue directly that fee simple private ownership has priority over all other titles.
He’s calling on Carney to reverse a 2018 litigation directive discouraging federal lawyers from using the so-called “extinguishment” argument asserting that the creation of private land permanently eliminates Aboriginal title.
Last week, Poilievre announced the creation of a Conservative task force on property rights led by Lower Mainland MP Tako van Popta. He also appointed Richmond Conservative MP Chak Au to chair a separate committee focused on Pacific economic engagement.
Van Popta, who worked as a real estate and land development lawyer before entering politics, told National Post it could already be too late in the appeals process for the federal government to change its legal strategy.
“And here’s the question: can that argument (extinguishment) now be raised in the Court of Appeal, since Canada had abandoned it?”
He added that Carney’s belated defence of property rights in Wednesday’s question period rang hollow.
“Carney’s words are empty and hypocritical as long as the Liberal government refuses to argue for the supremacy of fee simple title and the property rights of British Columbia property owners in front of the courts,” said van Popta.
Van Popta said it was too early to give any details on the Conservative property rights committee’s composition but stressed he would consult extensively with Au on this matter.
“Chak Au’s someone I’ll be talking to because the subject lands fall squarely within his riding,” said van Popta.
Van Popta also said he’d be consulting with Indigenous Conservative MPs Ellis Ross and Billy Morin.
Au was on Richmond’s city council at the time of the Cowichan decision and has been a vocal critic of how the case was handled by both federal and provincial government lawyers.
He told National Post that the City of Richmond has been left in a position of largely having to fend for itself.
“The leadership on the appeal right now is being provided by the City of Richmond. They’ve been arguing for extinguishment right from the beginning, and insisting that this argument can be brought forward in the Court of Appeal,” said Au.
The Cowichan decision and broader Aboriginal title controversies are a focal point of the ongoing B.C. Conservative leadership race. Leadership candidate Caroline Elliott called this week for a ban on land acknowledgements in schools and the public service, saying they threaten private property by “bolster(ing) the idea” that B.C. is on “stolen land.”
Elliott is being advised by Poilievre’s former communications director and her longtime friend, Katy Merrifield.
Vancouver-based pollster Mario Canseco said Poilievre should think twice before following the lead of Elliott and other B.C. Conservative leadership candidates calling for a reversal of reconciliation policies, noting that overheated rhetoric could blunt his appeal with winnable Indigenous voters.
“Poilievre’s been trying to build this blue-collar message of, hey, let’s get some boots on the ground and build things. And I think that’s a message that works in resource communities with a high proportion of First Nations,” said Canseco.
Canseco said there’s little evidence that Aboriginal title controversies are hurting Carney in B.C., noting that he’s the most popular politician in the province by a healthy margin.
A spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty said the federal government won’t be commenting publicly on its legal strategy in the Cowichan appeal.
National Post
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