An Indigenous group on British Columbia’s central coast is claiming ownership of private lands in a case that relies on a groundbreaking court decision from last summer that opened the door to Aboriginal claims on private property.
The Dzawada’enuxw First Nation is seeking a court declaration that almost 650 hectares of fee simple lands around Kingcome Inlet are rather “Indian settlement lands” that should never have been pre-empted by settlers more than a century ago. (Fee simple lands have long been known in Canadian law as the highest form of private land ownership.)
