Politics

A Canadian judge held a 513-day trial, and ruled that the "indigenous Cowichan Nation holds 'Aboriginal title' over 800 acres of land."

Josh Blackman | 12.25.2025 9:00 AM

A few weeks ago, the Free Press published a remarkable story about legal developments in Canada. In short, a judge ruled that the indigenous Cowichan Nation holds superior title over an 800 acre plot of land, based on claims from the 19th century. People who previously owned that land in fee simple now hold it subject to a servitude by the Nation.

After an 11-year legal battle and a 513-day trial that is the longest in Canadian history, a judge ruled in August that the indigenous Cowichan Nation holds "Aboriginal title" over 800 acres of land—including a swath along Road No. 6 that includes Batth's house and fields. The decision was a seismic shift in Canadian property law, declaring for the first time that indigenous land rights are greater than the rights held by private owners like Batth. It seemed unimaginable, but it was real.

Let me pause right there. How can a trial possible last 513 days? Here, I will invoke Jeff Brown's Law.

The longer these trials go on, and the more evidence presented, the more the brain's ability to discern reality falters.

Does anyone think a single judge could possible keep nearly two years of evidence in mind? Such a proceeding, at a certain point, is no longer judicial, but instead becomes political. In related news, the NAACP is put on trial the question of whether naming a school after Robert E. Lee is inherently racist.

The trial, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, was ostensibly about whether a school board violated the rights of Black students when it reinstated the names of two schools that once honored the Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson after they'd been replaced in of 2020.

But when arguments ended last week, it was clear that the case, Virginia State Conference N.A.A.C.P. et al. v. County School Board of Shenandoah County, represented something much larger. Hanging over five........

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