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Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson says he’s doing everything he can to get answers for residents worried about what will happen to their homes, businesses, and financial security if Aboriginal title is granted over the city. And now he’s taken the unprecedented step of asking one of the two men who originally filed the decade-old lawsuit to withdraw it from the courts altogether.

KAMLOOPS LAND GRAB:

Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson says he too, was unaware of the Aboriginal claim over the city until recently.

Watch the full interview: https://t.co/EJOmEyInpD pic.twitter.com/y65lAIowqk

— Drea Humphrey (@DreaHumphrey) November 18, 2025

The 2015 civil claim was filed by Chief Ron Ignace and  Chief Shane Gottfriedson, “on their own behalf and on behalf of all other members of the Stk’emlúps te Secwépemc of the Secwépemc Nation.” Their lawsuit demands Aboriginal title “to all or part of the Stk’kempusemc te Secwepemc Territory,” including all of Kamloops, Sun Peaks, and the lands in between, and seeks damages for past and ongoing infringement.

Though the lawsuit was tied originally to the now-defeated Ajax mine proposal — a project rejected by the province in part due to Indigenous consultation concerns — the claim has never been withdrawn and continues to advance quietly through the B.C. Supreme Court. That reality has shaken Kamloops homeowners, especially after the Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (Attorney General) ruling granted Aboriginal title over private fee-simple land in Richmond, upending long-held assumptions about property rights.

Mayor Hamer-Jackson says the anxiety is hitting the community hard.

“Yesterday alone I had one realtor reach out to tell me he had three people that were searching for houses and now they’ve told him to stop searching.”

With fears mounting, the mayor reached out directly to Gottfriedson with whom he says he has a decades-long friendship asking him to help ease tensions by pulling the case from the courts and working collaboratively instead.

“I’ve asked former chief Shane Gottfriedson, who filed the claim in 2015 of September, if he’d consider withdrawing the file and seeing if we can work together collaboratively without it being in the courts right away and just get more clarity for everybody working together.” But Gottfriedson has publicly rejected the idea.

As quoted in the Armchair Mayor column, he said:

“The writ that was filed for that title case had enough merit to continue. I’m not going to withdraw our interests in that lawsuit.”

He also responded to the mayor’s suggestion that withdrawal could be a starting point for broader discussions by asking  “Why can’t we work together now, when it’s on the table?”

Hamer-Jackson maintains that collaboration is still possible and necessary and tells Rebel News, “We’ve got such a divide going on these days and we need that to stop.”

He also told Rebel News he isn’t discouraged by Gottfriedson’s refusal. “Shane didn’t want to come to a Stanley Cup party back in the day but I convinced him to come. I believe he thinks it was a good decision in the end,” he said.

“I don’t quit that easily.”