New land claim seeks massive territory on BC’s South Coast, including Stanley Park – Vancouver Sun

Tiny, unrecognized Hwlitsum First Nation launches ‘novel’ lawsuit

DECEMBER 2, 2014

A small group of dispossessed aboriginals in Delta are laying claim to a vast swath of southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, including Stanley Park.

The group members, who have no federal or provincial recognition and no reserve, want their pick of all federal, provincial and municipal lands within the claimed territory.

Saying their territory was wrongly taken after the shelling of a Gulf Islands village by a Royal Navy gunboat in 1863, the Hwlitsum First Nation are claiming in a B.C. Supreme Court action $1 billion each in damages from the provincial and federal governments.

They also want land that has been promised to the Tsawwassen First Nation as part of that group’s treaty settlement agreement.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/land+claim+seeks+massive+territory+South+Coast+including/10431709/story.html