Malcolm Brodie

RICHMOND, BC — On a Thursday afternoon in August of last year, Malcolm Brodie, the mayor of Richmond, B.C., got a call from one of the city’s lawyers. He had news: the province’s Supreme Court had reached a decision in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada, the longest trial in Canadian history. The verdict wasn’t what Brodie wanted to hear. …B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Young determined that the Cowichan title was “prior and senior” to private property and recognized the Cowichan people’s Aboriginal title—a unique mixture of property rights and governing authority—to 300 hectares of the city. …The situation metastasized into a crisis for B.C.’s NDP government, which had been a vocal supporter of Indigenous rights since coming to power in 2017. …Proving Aboriginal title in court is a monumental undertaking. That’s why only two nations, Tŝilhqot’in and Nuchatlaht, both in B.C., had done it successfully before the Cowichan.