Nova Scotia has been home for Black Loyalists, Maroons and Black Refugees since the seventeenth century. African descended peoples who migrated to Nova Scotia came in large groups and came in different streams of immigration, under very diverse conditions and circumstances. Our people were prepared to give everything they had in return with for promise of freedom, free land and opportunity. Their descendants were joined over the next two centuries by individuals and families of the African diaspora from countries all over the world.
1964 Community Land Titles Clarification Act
In 1964 The Community Land Titles Clarification Act (the predecessor to The Land Titles Clarification Act) (LTCA) was enacted to create an ameliorative process to right the past injustices related to land title and to provide a new legal avenue to facilitate individual land claims in marginalized communities. The intent of the LTCA was to provide a clear, straightforward, simplified process to grant clear title to land in the designated land clarification districts.
However, to this day, African Nova Scotian communities in the Preston area face ongoing struggles. These challenges stem from a history fraught with racism, oppression and inequity. While now there are fewer instances of overt racism, the problem is now largely systemic. For example, a white decision maker may be less trusting of evidence provided by an African Nova Scotian person or laws which appear neutral on their face may presume certain things about family structure or land ownership which are centred in a Eurocentric worldview. In Nova Scotia, there have been several significant events and reports that have clearly identified these issues.
When the Act was first introduced there was significant resources and supports provided to individuals seeking land title clarification under the Act. As a result of these resources, there were many, many certificates of title issued in a short period. However, over time the resources for lawyers and surveyors and the support for applicants dwindled and the Act no longer served the ameliorative purpose that it was designed to perform.
Today, government bureaucrats who administer the LTCA are using the common law standard of adverse possession as a test for land ownership and do not recognize the flexibility originally envisioned in the drafting of the LTCA. The resources that have been cut have deeply impacted the application process. Residents in the community now bear the burden for all required documentation, application fees, lawyer fees, surveyor fees, and registration fees to establish clear title to property they have occupied for many years.
A Legacy of Broken Promises: The Struggle Over Land Titles in Preston, Nova Scotia
Angela Simmonds
13 BLawyerisH/March, 2017
Credit: Reference.com