Canada’s Constitution Doesn’t Protect Property, and Homeowners Are Now Paying the Price For decades, Canadians have thought their property was secure by default. The Cowichan ruling has shattered that illusion. Houses and farmland along No. 6 Road and the Country Meadows Golf Course, which fall within the boundaries of a Cowichan Nation aboriginal title claim, are seen in an aerial view in Richmond, B.C., on Aug. 22, 2025. Why do governments exist?