Good Intentions Gone Bad

"I've been present for many of these recitations, which are common in liberal areas of the United States too. They are usually received by their audiences as a Christian invocation might once have been: a socially required ritual in which only some believe, but at which it would be rude to scoff. After all, what harm does it do?"

"Although the judge in question has claimed that this decision does not apply to private land, the logic of this ruling has proved so muddled that it has called into question not only the private titles of some 150 landowners in the region but also the ownership of almost every piece of private land in British Columbia-and possibly all of Canada. Some Americans may try to apply this precedent to the U.S. too."

Land acknowledgments are common at public events in Canada and parts of the United States. Canadian courts have begun treating such pronouncements and related legal reasoning as admissions relevant to property claims. A British Columbia ruling subordinated titles to 800 acres south of downtown Vancouver to an Aboriginal title held by about 5,500 Indigenous people. The judge claimed the decision did not affect private land, but the ruling's logic has produced uncertainty about roughly 150 private landowners' titles and potentially nearly all private land in British Columbia and Canada. The decision has driven sharp declines in commercial-property values and prompted distressed sales; similar precedents could be invoked in the United States.

Read at The Atlantic