VANCOUVER — B.C.’s Land Title Office should remove racist documents and covenants from its files rather than forcing landowners to pay for that work to be done, says a resolution approved by Union of B.C. Municipalities delegates.
The resolution recommends the Land Title Office conduct an audit of land titles and systematically remove racist and discriminatory covenants and documents.
Vancouver Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung “vociferously” encouraged delegates to approve the resolution.
She said Metro Vancouver municipalities have titles that restrict people of Asian descent from owning land, calling the situation “racist and exclusionary.”
Courtenay Coun. Evan Jolicouer said the document language prevents certain people from owning or visiting properties.
“We’re asking the province to proactively remove that language,” he said.
The UBCM membership in 2022 endorsed a resolution making a similar request of the province to instruct the Land Title and Survey Authority to search for and identify discriminatory language contained in registered covenants and for the authority to be able to remove them.
The resolution said discriminating covenants are not enforceable.
It said the authority has worked with Simon Fraser University to explore techniques that assist in identifying occurrences of these covenants.
The province has indicated that there is no charge to landowners who initiate the process to remove racist language. It said the Land Title and Survey Authority has initiated a process to identify discriminatory clauses, and while prohibited from removing them, the authority does use a strike-through process to show that the discriminatory clause is void.
