Rob Shaw: B.C. says Aboriginal title cannot displace private property rights

First Nations land title rights do not exist above B.C. private property rights and should not lead to people losing their property, says the province’s attorney general.

Niki Sharma made the statement Tuesday, for the first time clearly articulating the NDP government’s position against the elevation of Aboriginal title over fee-simple private property ownership in the legal hierarchy, as was stated by the BC Supreme Court in its landmark August ruling.

“What I can say is all of our grounds of appeal will be making sure that we make clear that fee-simple title has a superior title than everything else,” said Sharma.

“And then there probably, and very likely, will be very many other grounds of appeal that we’ll need to put before the Court of Appeal.”

The fallout of the landmark case c