Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie says a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling recognizing Aboriginal title over part of Vancouver Island could have negative implications for land titles in other regions of the province.

In a letter sent to hundreds of southeastern B.C. property owners, Brodie said the Cowichan Tribes decision “could negatively affect title” and may compromise the status and validity of their ownership, The Globe and Mail reported.

The court’s decision recognized Aboriginal title for the Cowichan, who are based on Vancouver Island but operated a fishing village on the south arm of the Fraser River during the 1800s in an area that is now part of Richmond.

In the letter, Brodie invites property owners to attend an information session on the ruling on October 28 at Richmond City Hall.

The city decided to hold the meeting because many affected property owners were previously unaware of the ruling and became deeply concerned about its implications after learning of it.

“I think this is one of the most significant rulings in the history of the province, and maybe the country,” Brodie told the Globe. “I think it potentially could dismantle the land title system, certainly in our province, with ramifications across the country.”

In an 863-page ruling, Justice Barbara Young said that the Cowichan Tribes have established Aboriginal title to roughly 800 acres of Richmond, along with an Aboriginal right to fish for food, the Globe reported, noting that the trial was billed as the longest in Canadian history.

Young also ruled that private ownership, known as fee simple title, and ownership interests held by the federal government and City of Richmond in the lands are “defective and invalid,” according to the Globe. The judge has suspended the decision for 18 months, allowing for 18 months so that the Cowichan, federal government and city can “make the necessary arrangements.”

The Cowichan did not seek to invalidate fee simple interests of private landowners, Robert Morales, chief negotiator for the plaintiffs, told the Globe.

“But there are corporate interests that are part of what we’re disputing,” Morales, a Cowichan member, told his interviewer. “Corporations, or the governments who have privately held land as a corporation or as a government, I think that’s a different issue.”

According to the chief negotiator, the Cowichan will seek redress as the case proceeds further through the courts.

“Government expropriated those lands from the First Nations,” he told the Globe. “Even though it was many years ago, they were still required to compensate. B.C. took a strong position that Aboriginal title didn’t exist and that they didn’t have an obligation to do that. So now they have to pay the price.”

Aboriginal title refers to ownership of unceded territories previously inhabited by Indigenous peoples, the Globe noted. Since a 2014 precedent-setting Supreme Court of Canada decision over a B.C. land claims dispute, multiple courts have confirmed that Aboriginal title is a constitutional right, giving Aboriginal groups a say in how their ancestral lands are occupied, used and developed.

The B.C. government and City of Richmond are among groups appealing the Cowichan decision. The city contends that grants of fee simple interest over the area between 1871, when B.C. entered confederation, and 1914 necessarily extinguished Aboriginal title, according to the Globe.

Other appellants are not making that claim.

Pictured: Richmond, B.C.

Photo: Tourism Richmond