The Chief of the Whispering Pines First Nations says he and other First Nations leader may have to go to court to challenge the removal of land title records from Kamloops to Victoria.
Mike LeBourdais says like other area First Nations leader his phone has yet to ring to talk about the land title records issue.
“No nothing from Doug Donaldson’s office or the Premier’s office about consultation on any of this.”
LeBourdais says he met on Tuesday with the CEO of the local Kamloops Land Titles Office.
“It was an exercise in futility because she has been retained to do a job and she is doing it to the best of her availability. I was trying to express our concerns around what happens when you move records. Records get lost, they get destroyed, they go missing that kind of thing. She was trying to give me cover by saying it is an earthquake proof building. I said we don’t need earthquake proof buildings here we don’t have earthquakes. The list went on and on. Everything they are doing in Victoria they could do here in Kamloops they are just choosing not too.”
He says area First Nations leaders are mulling whether or not to go to court.
“Short answer no I have not been consulted. I have not had any of my stuff addressed. I am sitting here with my CEO debating whether we should do a cease and desist order.”
He says he is also waiting to hear back from other nearby First Nations leaders about seeking a cease and desist order.
LeBourdais says removing the records makes no sense.
“It seems politically motivated or something along that line because they are perfectly fine and safe where they are. They do not need to be in Victoria.”
He says like First Nations oral history the land title records themselves are massively important for aboriginal land, title, and water claims.
“We are without treaty. We have not resolved any of these issues of being dislocated from our conditional territories and so these records are deeply deeply important to us.”
On Tuesday morning Kamloops Land Title Office staff confirmed some records were being removed and others had already been taken to Victoria back in January.
