Carney Says He'll Protect BC Property Rights. His Government's Own 2018 Directive Tied His Lawyers' Hands.
A BC Supreme Court ruling granted the Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title over 300 to 324 hectares of private land in Richmond, BC. Carney now says he "fundamentally disagrees." But it was a Liberal government directive — in place since 2018 — that instructed federal lawyers not to use the one legal argument that could have won: extinguishment. And the City of Richmond has largely been left to fight the appeal alone.
In Question Period on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that he "fundamentally disagrees" with a 2025 BC Supreme Court decision granting the Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title to between 300 and 324 hectares of private land in Richmond, BC. He said his government appealed immediately, alongside the Province of BC, the City of Richmond, and other First Nations.
It was a confident performance. It was also incomplete.
The Directive Ottawa Won't Talk About
In 2018, the federal Department of Justice issued a litigation directive discouraging federal lawyers from using what is known as the "extinguishment" argument — the legal position that the creation of fee simple private land title permanently eliminates Aboriginal title to that land.
That argument, if made successfully, is the cleanest legal path to protecting private property owners. The City of Richmond has been arguing for it from day one. The federal government abandoned it.
Conservative MP Tako van Popta, a former real estate and land development lawyer who now leads the new Conservative property rights task force, was blunt about the consequences: "Here's the question — can that argument now be raised in the Court of Appeal, since Canada had abandoned it?" He said it may already be too late to introduce extinguishment in the appeal that Carney is now trumpeting.
Richmond Conservative MP Chak Au, who served on city council when the Cowichan decision was first handed down, told the National Post that the City of Richmond has been effectively abandoned by both levels of government. "The leadership on the appeal right now is being provided by the City of Richmond," he said. "They've been arguing for extinguishment right from the beginning."
"Disinformation" — The Liberal Deflection
Rather than address the criticism head-on, Carney was responding to a scripted question from his own Richmond Liberal MP Parm Bains, who asked him to "dispel disinformation" about property rights. The PM obliged, framing public concern about the Cowichan decision and a separate February 2026 federal agreement with the Musqueam Indian Band as misinformation to be corrected.
This is a familiar Liberal tactic: when policy creates public anxiety, label the anxiety as disinformation. The residents of Richmond — watching a court ruling hand hundreds of hectares of their neighbourhood to a land title claim — are not confused. They are alarmed. And they have good reason to be.
The Pattern Continues
This is not an isolated file. Carney's 30x30 land conservation commitment pledges to place 30 per cent of Canada's land and water under federal protection by 2030. Critics have raised questions about which privately held and resource-sector lands could fall under that designation. His February 2026 Musqueam agreement expanded federal recognition of Indigenous stewardship rights in the Lower Mainland.
The Liberals' record on land policy is not one of careful balancing. It is one of steady expansion of federal and Indigenous jurisdiction over private and productive land — followed by expressions of sympathy for property owners after the damage is done.
Carney can say he disagrees with the Cowichan ruling. He can say he appealed. What he cannot do is escape the fact that his government's own legal posture — in place for eight years — made the loss more likely. And now, as he tells Canadians not to worry, the city most affected is fighting the appeal largely on its own.
If that's what protecting property rights looks like, Canadians in BC should be very concerned about what comes next.
Sources: National Post, April 30, 2026 — "Carney hits back on B.C. property rights decision, as Conservatives form task force"; BC Supreme Court decision Cowichan Tribes v. Canada, 2025 BCSC 1490; Department of Justice Directive on Civil Litigation Involving Indigenous Peoples (2018); Canada-Musqueam Agreement, February 20, 2026.