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Indigenous Relations

Protected: Sign on the Dotted Line: How B.C.’s Latest Indigenous Outrage Threatens Freedom of Contract across Canada

Peter Best
April 27, 2026
As if the mayhem created by the 2025 Cowichan decision regarding property rights wasn’t enough, the B.C. court system has now declared its readiness to undermine legal contracts as well. As Peter Best reveals, a January 2026 decision to allow a contentious Indigenous lawsuit to proceed threatens to upend centuries of contract law. At issue is a small B.C. First Nation’s claim it has an aboriginal title right to export propane on an industrial scale, one that should overrule a signed, legal contract between the port of Prince Rupert and a billion-dollar energy project that itself is providing major aboriginal benefits. Acceding to such an outrageous demand, Best warns, will plunge relations between natives and the rest of Canada further into chaos and mistrust.
Indigenous Relations

Protected: Sign on the Dotted Line: How B.C.’s Latest Indigenous Outrage Threatens Freedom of Contract across Canada

Peter Best
April 27, 2026
As if the mayhem created by the 2025 Cowichan decision regarding property rights wasn’t enough, the B.C. court system has now declared its readiness to undermine legal contracts as well. As Peter Best reveals, a January 2026 decision to allow a contentious Indigenous lawsuit to proceed threatens to upend centuries of contract law. At issue is a small B.C. First Nation’s claim it has an aboriginal title right to export propane on an industrial scale, one that should overrule a signed, legal contract between the port of Prince Rupert and a billion-dollar energy project that itself is providing major aboriginal benefits. Acceding to such an outrageous demand, Best warns, will plunge relations between natives and the rest of Canada further into chaos and mistrust.
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