BURST
A Richmond company that wants to join the Cowichan Tribes land claim lawsuit has been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to produce documents requested by the tribes before its case can be heard.
Montrose Property Holdings, and two of its companies, applied to be added as parties in a lawsuit that ended last summer after more than 500 days of trial with Justice Barbara Young of B.C. Supreme Court ruling that Cowichan Tribes had Aboriginal land title over hundreds of hectares of land in Richmond.
The ruling on the documents came on the same day that the B.C. government and five chiefs of First Nations within the Cowichan Nation said they are in negotiations after that title ruling, even as various appeals, including the B.C. governments continue before the B.C. Court of Appeal.
The Cowichan chiefs said in a statement that they did not seek “to invalidate any privately held fee simple titles.”
Instead, they characterized last summer’s ruling as a declaration by the B.C. Supreme Court that the B.C. government “has a duty to the Cowichan Nation to negotiate in good faith the reconciliation of these continuing Crown-granted, fee-simple interests with the pre-existing Cowichan Nation Aboriginal title.
They and the B.C. government also said that in the current negotiations, “neither the Cowichan Nation nor B.C. are seeking to invalidate any privately held fee simple titles on the Cowichan Title Lands through the negotiation or appeal processes.”
Monday’s ruling on documents came after Montrose Property Holdings, Montrose Industries and Ecowaste Industries filed an application six months after the judgment by Young, seeking to have the trial reopened so Montrose could make arguments about how the decision affects their fee-simple title rights.
The company said it had been assured Young’s judgment would not affect the rights of landowners. But Montrose told the court the Cowichan Tribes lawyer suggested after the judgment that private land sales under Cowichan Aboriginal title “would be with the Cowichan’s consent and some accommodation from the Crown to the Cowichan,” according to Young’s ruling on documents.
Montrose said this change in position resulted in an abuse of process.
Cowichan Tribes, which maintains landowners would not be affected by its claim, opposed the Montrose application because of an inordinate delay in filing, calling it an abuse of process.
The Cowichan asked the court to order Montrose to produce correspondence with the province before it could respond in the courts to the Montrose application to join the case. It argued it needs to know what information the company had about its claim over the 11 years of the legal battle, Young wrote.
Montrose opposed that order, arguing the only relevant time period was after the August judgment and that it would be burdensome to go through years of documents.
After hearing a day of arguments on the Cowichan application, Young ruled the Cowichan would be “prejudiced in their ability to respond to the Montrose application without some degree of document production.”
The delay by Montrose to seek party status “is in issue, including the extent and reasons for delay,” she wrote.
She also ruled the Cowichan had set some dates for which documents they need, and she narrowed the scope by limiting wording about generalities.
But, “I find that documents which reference the Aboriginal rights and title claim or these proceedings are likely to be relevant,” Young wrote.
That would include documents pertaining to applications made by Ecowaste under the Water Sustainability Act to construct a bridge over the No. 7 Road canal and to do remediation work around 15111 Williams Rd. and under the Heritage Conservation Act for storm sewer construction.
As well, she said documents should be produced that deal with applications to remove land from the agriculture land reserve, any archeological assessments, and any other documents the province sent to Montrose regarding the Cowichan Tribes claim between 2014 and 2025.
Young gave the company and the province 14 days to respond. She also ordered the Cowichan to file a response to the Montrose application seven days after the company and province produced the documents.