E & N LAND GRANT
In 1875 legislation went before the Parliament in Ottawa, for the construction of the Esquimalt-Nanaimo Railway. Although this legislation passed to allow for the construction of the Railway, at the House of Commons, it took an additional 10 years before the railroad was completed. There was an ongoing debate on who should own the E & N railway;
"Should it be part of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) or a separate company?"
In 1884 Robert Dunsmuir, who was the owner of the coal mines in Nanaimo, was awarded the right to construct the railway as a separate company. As the CPR was granted the land, resources and tax breaks as incentive to develop across the Canadian Frontier, Dunsmuir received a 1/5 of the land base on the eastern portion of Vancouver Island equivalent to about 2,000,000 million acres, (from Finlayson Arm to Seymour narrows.). In addition to the largest land give away Dunsmuir and his associates received $750,000 as well as the land grant included the rights to all coal and ores (excluding gold and silver), as well as all the timber.
Not only was this the largest land base and resources given away to a private owner, this land went directly through many First Nations Traditional Territory. Many villages were relocated and their land base drastically reduced. Not only did they lose out on a vast majority of their main villages but as well as hunting, medicinal plants, and cultural and sacred sites.
These nations were essentially cut off from any type of prosperity, self-sufficiency, and economic viability and continue to live in a cycle of dependence, despair and poverty. This grant was made in complete defiance of the laws designed to protect Aboriginal peoples, including our people. There are strong arguments that this claim did not extinguish our Aboriginal Title and we will be looking to Canada and BC to compensate us for this long outstanding injustice. The White and Bob court case states that:
B. 2. The Crown grant of Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay company in 1949 did not extinguish the aboriginal rights of the Indians because:
a) The Crown could not by the exercise of it's executive power to make a grant of land in 1849 extinguish the aboriginal title of the Indians.
b) The Crown did not convey the "hunting grounds" of the Indians in the grant
c) Crown grants to proprietary companies were always subject to Indian title.
d) The evidence shows that it was never contemplated by the Colonial Office, the government of the Colony, the Hudson's Bay Company or the Indians, that the grant should extinguish the Indian title.
C. 1. As to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, that Proclamation guaranteed the aboriginal rights of the Indians.
2. that the Proclamation applied - and applies - to Vancouver Island.
BC had no power to infringe, extinguish or abrogate or derogate the aboriginal rights and title that existed on Vancouver Island. Furthermore, Canada's fiduciary responsibility was to look protect the best interest of the First Nations. Because of that lack of Canada's fiduciary responsibility they are now responsible for any past infringements that occurred between the time British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871 and the enactment of Section 88 of the Indian Act in 1951. Canada failed to prevent and protect the massive infringements that continually occurred to the First Nations Traditional Territory.
In the 1900's Dunsmuir had achieved all he could and proceeded to divest his financial gains over the next 10 years. In 1905 he sold the E&N and the land grant to the CPR, transferring once again the largest land mass along with the resources to another company. Then in 1910 the entire Dunsmuir coal mining interests were sold to McKenzie and Mann, who reorganized the company as Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd
In 1920 James Dunsmuir died in Victoria the wealthiest man in the province, and with him the Dunsmuir empire came to an end. Yet the First Nations that lived off the lands and resources it offered continue to live in poverty.
The Te'mexw member First Nations recently took steps to protect our claims in the E&N railway grant by intervening at the Supreme Court of Canada in the Marshall and Bernard cases.