Support the Quw’utsun Nation land claims victory

Since time immemorial the people of Quw’utsun (Cowichan) Nation returned every summer to their village of Tl’uqtinus in what is now Richmond BC. Unbeknownst to them the arrival of Colonel Richard Moody in command of a detachment of Royal Engineers in 1858 was going to disrupt their traditions and their ownership of their lands.

 

In 1859 Moody was appointed to be the first Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works in the Colony of British Columbia. His duties included surveying the land claimed by the crown and selling it off. He is also one of the very first property speculators in the lower mainland.

 

According to the Supreme Court of British Columbia decision this summer in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada, Moody was accused of “squandering money and awarding contracts for roads without public advertisement, of faulty administration of public lands, and of the setting aside of government reserves for the benefit of government officers.”

 

He would go on to disobey then Governor Douglas’ instructions to set aside from the colonial land grab those lands inhabited by or used by Indigenous nations. The Quw’utsun village of Tl’uqtinus and the surrounding lands appear in the surveys for the Crown, but Moody did not create an “Indian Reservation” for them. Thus leaving them as “Crown lands.”

 

BC’s first land speculator

 

A few years later just as he was leaving the colony to return to Britain, he arranged to purchase from the Crown two sections of waterfront property that rightfully belonged to Quw’utsun Nation. The purchase was solely for speculation; he never occupied the land. His land speculation continued after he left. He eventually accumulated over 3,000 acres in BC. The rest of the lands in and around Tl’uqtinus were sold off by the Crown during the late 1800s and early 1900s, often to other high-ranking government officials.

 

The occupation of Tl’uqtinus continued into the early 20th century. Since the land was sold to absent property speculators, the rightful owners, the Quw’utsun Nation, were initially unaware that their village and its surroundings had been stolen.

 

After they were pushed out by the colonial authorities, they never stopped trying to regain their land, including taking their case directly to the British King in 1906. In the meantime their land has been divided up between Crown lands, the City of Richmond, business owners and privately owned houses.

 

Reconciliation inaction

 

The BC government has steadfastly refused to negotiate a solution, forcing the Quw’utsun Nation to go to court. The trial at the Supreme Court of BC began in September 2019 and required a record setting 513 trial days and twenty more months to publish their decision. The resulting judgment is over 500 pages long. (You can find it listed as Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (Attorney General), 2025 BCSC 1490 on the Supreme Court of BC website. The executive summary is not very long and is fairly readable.)

 

In August the Supreme Court of British Columbia came to the perfectly reasonable conclusion that property rights don’t apply to stolen land. The court awarded the Quw’utsun Nation title to their lands and the right to their traditional fishing in the Fraser river.

 

The court has ruled that Indigenous title isn’t extinguished when the province steals their lands. The details in the court decision are quite clear. Governor James Douglas told the Quw’utsun that their lands were set aside from the process of settlement. Then ten years later Colonel Moody sold their land without their consent or knowledge. In the intervening 150 years, some land has remained as crown land, some has been sold to home owners, and some “belongs” to businesses. The court ruled that the Quw’utsun Nation have title to land “owned” by Canada and the city of Richmond. They also ruled that “BC owes a duty to the Cowichan to negotiate in good faith reconciliation” of the ownership of the land that has been sold to individuals and businesses.

 

This means that it is the responsibility of the BC government to find a negotiated settlement with the Quw’utsun nation to deal with the concerns of home and business owners.

 

Anti-Indigenous racism

 

Instead of celebrating this decision, both the far-right BC Conservatives and the governing BCNDP oppose it and are fanning the flames of anti-Indigenous racism. In a media release the Quw’utsun Nation referred to BC Premier Eby’s comments as, “at best, misleading, and at worst, deliberately inflammatory.”

 

The response from the alt-right BC conservatives, the mayor of Richmond and the BCNDP have all been to refuse to engage in good faith reconciliation, and instead they have chosen to whip up anti-Indigenous racism.

 

John Rustad the recent leader of the BC Conservatives published an open letter to the premier that makes no mention of the rights and concerns of the members of Quw’utsun nation. Instead it calls on the Premier to appeal the decision and in the meantime suspend land claim negotiations with all nations across the province.

 

The BC government has chosen not to negotiate, and is appealing the decision instead. “We’re committed to reconciliation,” said Eby. And then contradicted himself by saying “This decision upends a lot of our work and we need a fast decision (on appeal.)”.

 

On another occasion he said, “These are profound issues that are hard to consider in the absence of the real people … the homeowners, the business owners, who will be affected by this decision . . . I want the court to look into the eyes, metaphorically speaking, of the people who will be directly affected by this decision and understand the impact on certainty for business, for prosperity and for our negotiations with Indigenous people.” As the Union of BC Indian Chiefs pointed out, this amounts to considering the members of Quw’utsun nation as not “real people.” It also implies that the homes and businesses are at risk.

 

The Quw’utsun nation has tried to assure the people of Richmond, that, “the Quw’utsun Nation’s court case regarding their settlement lands at Tl’uqtinus in Richmond has not and does not challenge the effectiveness or validity of any title held by individual private landowners.” They point out that, “Generations of real Quw’utsun people, including our current membership, were denied the ability to exercise our way of life, and access to key food and trade systems, when our settlement lands at Tl’uqtinus were taken from us. We continue to experience the impacts today. However, we are a respectful people. We intentionally did not bring this case against any individual private landowners, and we did not seek to invalidate any of their land titles. The decision makes it clear that it is B.C.’s obligation to advance reconciliation in these circumstances,” said Quw’utsun Nation Chief Cindy Daniels (Sulsulxumaat) of Cowichan Tribes.

 

The court decision places the blame for individuals being sold stolen land where it belongs--squarely on the province. It also places the responsibility for resolving this squarely on the province by directing the province to negotiate in good faith with the Quw’utsun Nation to reconcile this situation.

 

Solidarity with Indigenous sovereignty!

 

A Premier and cabinet who believed in reconciliation would act very differently than Eby and his cabinet. They are misrepresenting the court’s decision and encouraging anti-Indigenous racism in their statements and in the action of appealing the decision. Instead the Premier should begin by taking responsibility for the criminal actions of Colonel Richard Moody, who covertly sold Quw’utsun land to himself to resell at a profit. He should begin good faith negations with Quw’utsun immediately. At the same time the province should also reassure home owners who are mistakenly worried about losing their homes by promising to pay the homeowners the value of their home on demand.

 

On housing, on the opioid crisis, on oil and gas pipelines, and now on reconciliation, when pushed to choose between the needs of business and the needs of anyone else, Premier Eby and his cabinet side with business. It’s up to all of us to build the solidarity movements that support Indigenous rights and push back this provincial government.