In a Tuesday post on his ‘Lotusland’ Substack, former NDP strategist and journalist Geoff Meggs describes a “collegial public forum” held three days earlier at a Presbyterian church near Victoria International Airport.
Organized by Green MLA Rob Botterell, an indigenous rights lawyer who once represented the Cowichan Tribes, the event drew roughly 100 attendees on a sunny long-weekend Saturday.
Panelists included former attorneys general Geoff Plant and Andrew Petter, Tsartlip First Nation member former Green Party leader Adam Olsen, Grand Chief Ed John, former Musqueam Chief Wendy Grant-John, and National Post columnist Terry Glavin.
Botterell posed the central question: Are private property owners at risk because of the August 2025 B.C. Supreme Court ruling in Cowichan Tribes v. Canada?
“No, I don’t think people should be worried,” Plant replied. “If you, like me, live in a house in a neighbourhood in a city, some nice tree growing in front of it, you’re not at risk. … There is nothing in Cowichan that is intended to unsettle what I’ll call ordinary private property ownership in British Columbia.”
Petter concurred: “I don’t think that private property is at all at risk as a result of this decision. I think the court will ultimately decide a way forward that will both respect Aboriginal title and respect fee simple and the two will, in fact, co-exist.”