Lawyer for B.C. First Nation says historic land title case is about reconciliation and justice

A lawyer for a tiny B.C. First Nation kicked off the opening day of a historic Aboriginal land title trial Monday by calling on the judge overseeing the case to give his clients the justice they have been denied for centuries.

Jack Woodward told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elliott Myers that even the Crown's experts agree the ancestors of the Nuchatlaht First Nation have been living off the west coast of Vancouver Island since at least the late 1700s.

Woodward said the questions the judge has to decide are as much about how to reconcile Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians as they are about the details of a dispute over a 200-square-kilometre piece of land.

"The function of this court is reconciliation," Woodward said during his opening submissions.

"By the end of this trial, we have a huge intellectual project ahead of us. This case is not about the facts. This case is about grappling with these difficult legal concepts and doing justice for my clients."

The Nuchatlaht are seeking Aboriginal title over an area of Crown land 300 kilometres northwest of Victoria, mostly made up of Nootka Island and much of the surrounding coastline.

The First Nation is the first to make a claim according to the terms of a groundbreaking three-part test set by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2014 to establish Aboriginal title.

To meet that standard, the Nuchatlaht must prove they occupied the land exclusively in 1846 — when the British claimed sovereignty through a treaty resulting in the present-day boundary between Canada and the United States.

Woodward told the judge his clients have done everything they can to make their application for title as legally simple as possible — excluding private land or anything that might conflict with federal interests like lighthouses.

The lawyer accused the province of falsely suggesting that the Nuchatlaht are trying to lay stake to territory claimed by other Indigenous groups. 

Woodward said the claim was drawn up with the express goal of avoiding any overlap.

"The [Nuchatlaht] have carefully chosen a claim area that avoids any conflict with neighbouring tribes," he said.

"By the end of the case and upon hearing the relevant legal principles, the court will find that any attempt to stir up the spectre of a dispute with neighbours is mischief-making on the part of the province."

Lawyers for the province have yet to make their arguments in court.