08/16/2026
I have registered title to my home in BC. I own it.
That is true.
Indigenous people had rights to this land before B.C. or Canada existed. Those rights did not simply disappear when settlers arrived.
That is also true.
Two things can be true at the same time.
We understand this better than we think.
I own my property, but I may not own the minerals underneath it. I cannot build as high into the air as I want. Same property. Different rights.
Then there is jurisdiction: who has the legal power to do what.
My city has municipal jurisdiction. It decides many things I can build and do. If I don’t pay my property taxes, my property can eventually be sold.
B.C. has provincial jurisdiction, with large powers over property, land, forests, water and minerals. In rare cases, it can take my property for a public purpose, with rules about paying me for it.
Canada has federal jurisdiction. Its powers are different and it gets involved with my house even less often, but it too can take property for certain federal purposes.
My bank is not a government. But if I stop paying my mortgage, it can go to court and force a sale.
Notice something, ok?
My city can cause me to lose my house. BC, much more rarely, can take it. Canada, more rarely still, can take property. My bank can force its sale.
My local First Nation CANNOT simply take my house.
There is NO general power that lets a First Nation take my registered home because of Aboriginal title, UNDRIP or B.C.’s DRIPA.
Yet with all those other powers over my house, I still say: I own it.
Ownership has never meant no other right or government power can exist in the same place.
Read that again, eh?
Indigenous peoples were here before my city, BC and Canada. Their rights did not begin when Canadian governments recognized them. Aboriginal and treaty rights are protected by Canada’s Constitution. Aboriginal title can exist. Indigenous Nations can have their own laws and jurisdiction.
My registered title does not make those rights unreal. Their rights do not make my title unreal.
Both things can be true.
UNDRIP is a United Nations declaration on Indigenous rights. Canada has a federal law to put it into practice. BC’s DRIPA requires the province to take steps to bring its laws in line with it. Neither gives a First Nation a general power to take my house.
The Cowichan case raises harder questions about how Aboriginal title, private property and government powers fit together. Some questions are not settled.
That does not mean someone is coming for my house. It also does not mean Indigenous people have nothing left to fight for.
Exaggeration hurts us.
Tell homeowners Indigenous people can take their houses and we create fear of Indigenous people.
Tell Indigenous people their land rights disappeared long ago and we repeat the ignorance that caused so much harm.
Election time can make that worse. Fear can win votes. But this is bigger than an election.
We still have to live together.
My property rights are real. Indigenous rights are real.
Conflict may help us understand where each begins and ends.
We don’t make homeowners safer by making Indigenous people smaller. We don’t make Indigenous rights stronger by making homeowners afraid.
Both things can be true. Understanding that can make our togetherness stronger.
