"Horgan's acknowledgment of unceded Indigenous territory a milestone for B.C."
Justine Hunter
Victoria
October 22, 2017
October 22, 2017
It is now commonplace for social activists to acknowledge they are living upon unceded Indigenous territory in British Columbia. It is a milestone, however, for the premier of the province to adopt that language.
Premier John Horgan is reaching out to business leaders and investors to encourage economic development, but he says reconciliation with Indigenous peoples must be part of any future growth.
"B.C. is unique in Canada because of unceded territory," Mr. Horgan said in an interview last week. "I think it would be irresponsible not to take immediate steps to try to find a way to get through the morass. … And if we deny it's a problem, we won't resolve it."
That unique status – a province mostly built on territories that were never ceded through treaty, war or surrender by the original inhabitants – goes back more than 150 years. As a result, uncertainty has dogged economic development in the province, while the courts have been increasingly firm that the Crown in B.C. does not have clear title to the land and its resources.
In the rush to establish the colony of British Columbia, governor James Douglas skipped over the stage of negotiating treaties. In 1859, he issued a proclamation that declared all the lands and resources in British Columbia belong to the Crown. At that time, the colony had about 1,000 Europeans and an estimated 30,000 Indigenous people.
It was not until 2014 that the Supreme Court of Canada, in the Tsilhqot'in decision, ruled that Indigenous Canadians still own their ancestral lands unless they signed away their ownership in treaties with government. The province fought the Tsilhqot'in Nation, a small community of 400 people in the remote Nemaiah Valley west of Williams Lake, every inch of the way in the courts, but was finally forced to accept that aboriginal title exists.
Yet, that admission did not clear a path through the morass. B.C. has 203 First Nations today, many with overlapping land claims, and little progress to show from treaty negotiations.
A handful of treaties have been settled, but many more communities have abandoned the process.
For more.... click on this link to the full article in the Globe and Mail here: https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/horgans-acknowledgment-of-bcs-unceded-territory-part-of-a-path-forward/article36686705/?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com