Another decade-old Aboriginal title claim is shocking British Columbians. This time, it’s one that blankets the city of Kamloops, the Sun Peaks resort area, and large swaths of the surrounding territory.

The Kamloops land grab attempt was quietly filed in 2015 by the Tk’emlúps and Skeetchestn bands, one year after the 2014 Cowichan Tribes vs. Canada case over some private lands in Richmond was filed.

The excuse given by the bands when filing was to stop the Ajax mine project near Kamloops, claiming it would negatively impact Aboriginal cultural sites. Yet, the claimed area expands far beyond the regions that would have potentially been affected by that project.

The case still remains active even though the province rejected the mine project in 2017, in part due to aligning with “Aboriginal consultation.”

The scope of the case mirrors the Cowichan Tribes vs. Canada case in Richmond, where the B.C. Supreme Court ruled this summer that certain fee simple titles were “defective and invalid,” replacing them with Aboriginal title.

Shockingly, affected homeowners there weren’t notified until two months after the ruling, sparking concerns of financing problems, appeals, and growing anxiety among property owners blindsided by a process they were never part of.

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As lawyer Robin Junger, representing Montrose Properties, a company seeking to become a plaintiff in the appeal to that case told Global News, “The trial went on for more than 500 days and neither our client or other private property owners were involved in the case.”

“The breadth of the ruling is surprising to the company, and many other British Columbians,” the lawyer added.

Now Kamloops residents are in a similar boat, just learning they, too, sit atop an open Aboriginal title lawsuit whose potential implications — legal, financial, and personal — remain entirely unclear.

After Rebel News travelled to Kamloops to hear concerns from residents during an information session put on about the claim by One B.C. Party, we caught up with Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson to get answers for the public as to why Kamloops citizens have also been left in the dark.

“I just recently learned about it and I’m very concerned myself,” he told Rebel News.

The mayor says his concern was serious enough that he immediately contacted former Tk’emlúps chief Shane Gottfriedson, who was in office when the claim was first filed.

Current Chief Rosanne Casimir, who played a central role in the widely publicized and false claim to have discovered 215 children’s remains at the former Kamloops residential school, is also named in the case.

“This has been going on for years,” Hamer-Jackson said, adding that, “there’s been deals made, you know, where the government has paid them, you know the band, certain money, and you know a lot of things have happened.”

While he stressed the importance of maintaining good relations with Tk’emlúps, Hamer-Jackson also says the city must be forthright with the people who stand to be affected.

“I believe there’s been a grievance between the city and Tk’emlúps,” he said, “but it’s imperative that we need to be open and transparent and see what’s going on.”

Mayor Hamer-Jackson added he's been “paying (his) property taxes for a lot of years” and doesn't “want to lose (his) property either.”

With the Richmond ruling under appeal and the Kamloops claim still active, the community is left questioning why they were never informed, what transparency looks like going forward, and what Aboriginal title over a fully built city could mean for private landowners who may have never imagined their titles could be challenged in court.