B.C.’s Indigenous land claim dilemma is a mess—one the government has made a whole lot worse – The Hub
11 November 2025
The most revealing political sentence in British Columbia this fall came from a homeowner in a Richmond hotel ballroom, pointing at officials on the stage: “Why did you not warn us earlier?”
That line, hurled after hundreds learned their properties sit inside the Cowichan Tribes’ successful title claim, summarizes how the province has mishandled one of the most important land cases in its history. Governments that saw this coming never levelled with the people most affected. The Cowichan ruling could have been a moment of adult leadership, but instead has exposed how unprepared the province is for the world it keeps saying it wants, one that takes Indigenous title seriously.
