Commentary
The British Columbia Supreme Court recently ruled that the Cowichan v. Canada case—which in 2025 for the first time ever recognized aboriginal title over privately owned land—will not go to retrial, rejecting an application by Montrose Properties whose property title in Richmond (a suburb of Vancouver) was impacted by last year’s court finding.
The B.C. government and the Musqueam First Nation have both appealed the Cowichan decision. A retrial would have prevented those appeals from moving forward. If there’s a silver lining to the retrial rejection, it’s that those appeals could now be heard sooner. Until then, uncertainty about the security of property title in B.C. lingers….