Saturday, April 25, 2026

you can't just show up out of nowhere, steal people's land and enforce your concepts of land ownership on them. that was always illegal under british colonial law. even the fucking romans knew that was wrong, and the romans had some broader problems with right and wrong. the romans would have decided it was illegal, the british would have decided it was illegal and canada has upheld an ancient precedent in confirming it's illegal. something i learned recently is that the british adaptation of roman law was actually formulated by francis bacon in the early 17th century.

the unilateral imposition of european fiefdom concepts of land ownership on british columbia was always illegal. even according to the 1763 proclamation, it was illegal; the proclamation claims the land for the british, so that other european powers cannot claim it for themselves, but it also says that the indigenous groups have to sell the land to the crown, and can only sell it to the crown. it is a land claim, but it doesn't extinguish indigenous title.

it is absolutely baffling that the government in bc, which is supposed to be a left-wing government, is having difficulty with this. 

not only is it not new, it very well might be the oldest law in canada.