Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks during a press conference in Richmond, B.C., to call on the federal government to do more to protect property rights.Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for an emergency parliamentary committee to study all possible steps to protect private land ownership – known as fee simple title – in Canada.
His is the latest in a long list of voices expressing concern about the Cowichan decision, a B.C. Supreme Court ruling from August, 2025, that declared Aboriginal title is a senior interest above fee simple.
Mr. Poilievre spoke to reporters Thursday at a dusty crossroads between farmers’ fields in Richmond, B.C., the city where the courts have recognized that the Cowichan Tribes have Aboriginal title to about 300 hectares of developed land.
Flanked by members of his caucus from British Columbia, including Aaron Gunn and Ellis Ross, Mr. Poilievre criticized the Liberal government for not defending the fee simple interests of Richmond landowners at trial.
The precedent-setting Cowichan decision sparked national debate about the rights of private landowners where Aboriginal title has been declared. Another Indigenous group from British Columbia, the Dzawada’enuxw First Nation, has since gone to court claiming ownership of private lands in a case that relies on the Cowichan decision.
“The implications for all of British Columbia are massive,” Mr. Poilievre said. He wants the federal Liberals to publish a plan to protect private property ownership within 30 days, and to rescind a legal directive to government lawyers that he claims prevented them from arguing to defend fee simple in court.
Mr. Poilievre said it is “regrettable” that protections for fee simple land titles are not enshrined in the Constitution. “Property rights are human rights,” he said. “We as Conservatives would argue unapologetically in court that your home and your land belongs to you, that fee simple property is the most senior of any title,” he said.
In a joint statement released March 2, the provincial government and the Cowichan stated that there is no desire to invalidate fee simple titles, and that both parties are negotiating how to reconcile those private interests with the Cowichan Tribes’ Aboriginal title in Richmond.
The federal government has been largely silent on the Cowichan decision that was delivered last year in B.C. Supreme Court, although it has given notice to the courts that it intends to appeal the decision.
Alec Wilson, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty, said in a e-mailed statement that “all options are on the table” for that appeal. “We are committed to maintaining legal clarity and stability of private land ownership. At trial, Canada defended the validity of fee simple title and we will continue to do so on appeal,” he wrote.
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In her 863-page ruling, Justice Barbara Young found that Aboriginal title, a type of ownership claim rooted in ancestral use of land, is a “prior and senior right” to private ownership.
The province has been vocal about its commitment to address private property issues arising from the case. Within days of the Aug. 7 Cowichan decision, B.C. Attorney-General Niki Sharma promised the province would seek to overturn the ruling. “We disagree strongly with the decision. British Columbia will be filing an appeal and seeking a stay to pause implementation until the appeal is resolved,” she said in a statement at the time.
Today, all seven parties to the Cowichan case, including three levels of government, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the Cowichan themselves and two neighbouring First Nations, have filed applications to appeal – a process that will likely take years. But it’s not clear when that might start, because the B.C. Supreme Court trial is not concluded until a final order has been written by the judge.
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The province also can’t file its stay to suspend the enforcement of the decision until the order is in place. And that order is now in limbo, pending an application from one of the private landowners to reopen the trial. The next hearing is scheduled for May.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, in an interview Thursday, noted that the federal government is a significant party to the case, as the largest share of land in the title area belongs to Ottawa.
“I’m looking to the federal government to take a very active role in the appeals. And what is most important as they go through the appeal, they need to plead extinguishment,” he said.
When the Cowichan case first went to court, Ottawa argued that Aboriginal title had been extinguished, or ceased to exist, due to certain actions of the Crown. However, it abandoned this defence in 2018 under a directive issued when Jody Wilson-Raybould served as Canada’s Attorney-General and Justice Minister.
The directive prohibits Crown lawyers from arguing positions that are inconsistent with the government’s commitments on reconciliation, as well Section 35 of the Constitution, which guarantees existing Aboriginal and treaty rights.