O F F I C I A L C O M P L A I N T

REGARDING INDIGENOUS CONCERNS

FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, ABORIGINAL TITLE AND RIGHTS

AND THE POSSIBLE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF THE

TO BE PRESENTED TO:

• THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE

• MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE, ESPECIALLY:
• MEMBERS CONSIDERING THE BIDS FOR THE 2010 OLYMPIC GAMES
• THE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

• THE OFFICE OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE

• DIRECTOR GENERAL FRANCOIS CARRARD
• LIAISON FOR CANDIATE CITIES
• PEOPLE WORKING ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Sutikalh, Skwelkwek’welt, June 2002

A. SUTIKALH

The traditional territories of the St’at’imc stretch from the coastal mountains behind Vancouver to the Interior Plateau of BC. Cayoosh Creek is the last untouched valley in their territory, for the St’at’imc it is the land of the winter spirit Sutikalh. In conjunction with Vancouvers bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games a huge ski resort is to be built into Cayoosh Creek against the unanimous opposition of all St’at’imc people and chiefs, who have sent a joint letter to the investors opposing the development. The Cayoosh Creek Valley is the last untouched valley in the traditional territory of the St’at’imc People, a place of great spiritual importance and important habitat for endangered species such as the grizzly bear and mountain goats. The St’at’imc people fear the devastating impacts the development would have on the pristine valley, their culture, their way of life, their spirituality and the environment.

B. SKWELKWEK’WELT

Skwelkwek’welt is the Secwepemc word used to denominate a high alpine, tree-less area. Now Sun Peaks Ski Resort has invaded this area 30km North East of Kamloops and 400 km of Vancouver. The area of Skwelkwek’welt is the traditional hunting and gathering areas for Secwepemc families, most of them now living on the Adams Lake, Neskonlith and Little Shuswap Indian Reserves. Skwelkwek’welt and a considerable part of their traditional territories were initially part of the Neskonlith Douglas Reserve created in 1862 but the government unilaterally reduced it to a few thousand acres. The Secwepemc therefore hold a specific claim over the area of Sun Peaks Ski Resort. The elders have made it clear that they do not want to see any further expansion of the ski resort. Since the company did not comply and announced a 70 million CND expansion in 2002 the Secwepemc now openly exercise their Aboriginal Title and claim to Skwelkwek’welt through the Skwelkwek’welt Protection Centre.

C. PEOPLE OF THE PLATEAU

The Secwepemc and St’at’imc together with the Okanagan, Nlaka’pamux and Southern Carrier inhabit a territory that stretches from the Coastal Mountains to the Rocky Mountains and covers the Plateau of the Interior, that is why they also call themselves People of the Plateau. The diverse ecosystems in this area reach from high alpine areas to grasslands, some of them will be considered in more detail in the following. The People of the Plateau work together and support each other in the defense of their Aboriginal Title and rights. In 1910 the Chiefs of the Interior signed the Laurier Memorial calling for a fair solution of the land question. The people of the Interior have never signed treaties regarding their land and are also not part of modern negotiations aiming at the extinguishment of Aboriginal Title. They maintain inherent land rights over their traditional territories that the Supreme Court of Canada recognized as Aboriginal Title in the 1997 Delgamuukw Decision.

A. Human Ecology Model

The environment of the Plateau is very diverse and complex. The following description will heavily draw upon an unpublished Traditional Use Study, which was jointly conducted by two Secwepemc communities (Neskonlith and Adams Lake Indian Band), whose families and land users are the traditional users and caretakers of Skwelkwek’welt. In 1992, Diana Alexander published a "human ecology model" for relating people and environment in the Interior landscape of British Columbia. Alexander started with a system of biogeoclimatic classification of the landscape in which patterns of temperature and precipitation define the basic unit — the biogeoclimatic zone. In consultation with Shuswap and St’at’imc elders, the boundaries between the zones were further refined to reflect culturally important resources. Thus, the human ecology model of the landscape shifts the focus to present environmental variables in the context of human behaviour. Since Alexander published her human ecology system of landscape classification the British Columbia Ministry of Forests released a more detailed and refined system of biogeoclimatic classification. A human ecology model for the Plateau can now be constructed using the ministry’s more advanced system.

This makes it possible to correlate environmental factors and patterns of behaviour to arrive at a description of landscape that combines elements of nature and culture. What follows is a detailed description of human ecology units in the Interior Plateau with the Alpine unit. First of all the flora and fauna of the different units is described, followed by the data about how Aboriginal groups use the areas according to their traditional calendar. This specific information was collected in a series of interviews conducted with land users, elders and band members of the Adams Lake and Neskonlith Indian Bands according to the highest confidentiality standards. In the following the description will be limited to those landscape units that are threatened by the development of ski-resorts and possible impacts of the Vancouver-Whistler Olympic bid.

The Alpine unit occurs on the upper elevations and summits of the tallest mountains, usually beginning above 1,980 metres. Winters are severe, snowfall is heavy, winds are strong, annual average temperatures are low, and the growing season is very short. The Alpine unit is mostly treeless, with the sparse, shallow soils covered by low shrubs, grasses and sedges. Animal species include deer, grizzly bear, black bear, wolf, coyote, wolverine, marmot, long-tailed weasel, and ptarmigan.

Important food plants include spring beauty, avalanche lily, dwarf mountain blueberry, and whitebark pine nuts. By April, snow at the highest elevations would be melting, and by late May the first alpine food plants would be ready for harvesting and the ground would be dry and warm enough for travel. Deer, too, would begin their annual trek up the mountain towards security and better forage. Aboriginal land users hunt the deer and seek out the ripening plants. In June and July, the food plants are at their best in the higher mountains, a good time to collect plants and hunt deer at higher elevations.

The people do not build camps in the high alpine area rather they set them up in the Montane Parkland, just below the alpine margin, and harvested foods are carried back from the summits to the base camp for preliminary processing and then taken to the village for final processing and storage. By November, when the weather becomes colder and snow falls, living in the base camps becomes more difficult as they depend on stored berries and plants, but hunting continues.

The Montane Parkland, located between 1,500 and 2,300 metres elevation, is a transition zone between the treeless alpine meadows and the thick subalpine forests, and includes clumps of trees, parkland meadows, and open stands of subalpine tree species. In most parts of theInterior, the Montane Parkland unit falls within the Engelmann Spruce - Subalpine Fir biogeoclimatic zone, and high elevation trees are dominated by these species.

The Montane Parkland is somewhat milder than the exposed Alpine unit, but still has severe winters and a short growing season. The Alpine animals are also present in the Montane Parkland unit, along with snowshoe hare, porcupine, red squirrel, northern flying squirrel, cougar, lynx, bobcat, red fox, marten, mink, fisher, and short-tailed weasel.

The Montane Parkland is especially important summer range for deer and, perhaps in the past, elk and bighorn sheep. Most alpine plants also grow in the montane unit, but more abundantly due to better moisture conditions and protection from wind. More common in the Montane Parkland are tiger lily, nodding onion, balsamroot, cow parsnip, Indian celery, whitebark pine nuts, and soapberries.

The Montane Parkland is extensively used from May to November. Favoured places for a base camp have good trail access, plentiful water and wood, and dry level campsites in the lee of a grove of trees. In early autumn, people come to the montane base camps to gather nuts of the whitebark pine and black lichen, and to carry out a late-season hunt until the weather grows too cold and the snow too deep.

The Montane Forests are located between 610 and 1980 metres elevation and just below the Montane Parkland. Most of the Shuswap Traditional Territory is covered by the closed canopy of Montane Forests. At higher elevations, the predominant trees are subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce and lodgepole pine. In the eastern part of the Shuswap Traditional Territory and at middle elevations, forests include western red cedar, and western hemlock. At the lowest elevations in the western part of the territory, forests include mostly Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, western larch, and western white pine. In wetter places at the lowest elevations aspen, cottonwood, maple and birch are common and cedar and juniper are infrequent. Beneath the trees are pinegrass and bunchgrass. The Montane Forests are warmer and drier than the Montane Parkland and favoured with a longer growing season.

With the exception of mountain goat, all the species in the Alpine and Montane Parkland may be found in the Montane Forests, with numbers and frequency depending on the season and habitat conditions at different elevations. Squirrels, beaver and moose are most frequent in the heavily-forested sections, beaver and moose in the wetlands, and hare, marmot, deer and bear near the forest margins. Deer and moose congregate at higher elevations in summer and lower elevations in winter. Ruffed grouse are common at all elevations and in all seasons.

Important food plants in the Montane Forests include black lichen, inner pine bark, and a variety of berries. Tiger lily, false Solomon’s seal, cow-parsnip, Indian celery, fireweed and wild onions are abundant in the more open areas. The thick and close-growing forests were primarily corridors between the lower grasslands and river lands and the rich parkland and alpine country high up the mountains.

The most commonly used part of the Montane Forests is the margin between these higher and lower units. In most places, thick forests provide little habitat for food animals and plants used by the people, but during the depth of winter between November and May, deer and other animals seek shelter in the forest margins and people hunt for them there whenever the opportunity arises. In early spring, the few open areas in the forest are the first source of fresh spring plant foods. Also the forests are important sources of materials for the construction of houses, basketry, rope and cordage.

The above sections described the traditional use of the different units by the People of the Plateau. The fact that all the above data is part of the traditional knowledge of present generations and has all been extracted from interviews shows how strong those traditions still are. Traditional knowledge is the basis for the ongoing current multifaceted use of the land as practiced by the Secwepemc People.

Elders over their life-time can also make clear analysis over how their traditional use activities over time have been impacted by commercial industrial activities in their traditional territories. Scientists recognize that indigenous peoples collectively hold the longest term and most substantive data necessary as the basis of the conservation and the sustainable use of their lands. Ways have to be found to integrate this traditional knowledge to measure negative effects of present developments and devise ways of sustainable development to overcome the present environmental crisis.

A. TOURISM IN THE INTERIOR

Today the Interior is a famous tourist destination with everything from alpine skiing to whitewater rafting. Tourism began in earnest with the railroad, which delivered people and all kinds of goods to within a few kilometres of prime hunting, fishing, and boating. The lakes were soon overfished and by 1915 the sport fishery was regulated and in 1920, popular lakes were being routinely restocked.

As the most accessible lakes were fished out, tourists used the roads and trails to reach more remote lakes until they, too, needed restocking. In many cases indigenous fish species were poisoned, the Lake Neskonlith Kickeni, a staple food for the Secwepemc, was intentionally destroyed and is now extinct. On the other hand the province does not want to allow indigenous peoples to fish in their own lakes, especially introduced species, that are considered non indigenous. By 1930, when the province resumed responsibility for federal lands in the Railway Belt, tourism dispossessed the Shuswap of the Intermediate Lakes and they were now restricted to the Alpine part of their traditional landscape. In the mid-1990's, the multi-million dollar ski resort Sun Peaks opened for business on the summit slopes of Mount Tod, the most recent intrusion in the Shuswap traditional lands.

The Japanese holding Company Nippon Cables is presently planning to expand the Sun Peaks ski resort to include one more yet untouched mountain. Secwepemc elders and land users oppose this project and have set up a permanent protest camp to protect Skwelkwek’welt, an area that has been a traditional hunting and gathering place for many generations. Traditional Use Maps and accounts show that:

Skwelkwek’welt provides us with a variety of plant foods such as roots, berries, plant stalks, mushrooms, and lichen, as well as other foods, like deer, moose, fish and birds. In addition to obtaining food, we use this land to gather medicines, practice our spiritual traditions, and collect basic necessities for life….Our foods are rapidly disappearing from these mountains due to the increased ski resort development. We have grave environmental and cultural concerns about the present and future development on these mountains. They are being severely impacted by the activities of Sun Peaks Resort, causing serious damage to the land, vegetation, wildlife, and water and will seriously impact our use of the land. Therefore, we are adamantly opposed to the continued development of and destruction to our traditional areas by Sun Peaks Resort.

B. IMPOSED REGULATION

The Province of British Columbia in its early years addressed mainly land and resources in their most important legislation and regulation. Policy was directed at putting immigrant settlers on the land, and taking Indians off it. It was also directed at maximizing the commercial returns from resources. These policies and their resulting regulations were imposed on the Aboriginal people, with immediate harmful consequences for their economic culture.

Regulations governing settlement, mining, ranching, farming, tourism, and rural and urban development lay behind the sectoral histories outlined above, and officially condoned the consequences for the People of the Plateau and their traditional territories. Aboriginal land and resource traditions were soon threatened by Canadian traditions.

By the late 20^th century, the entire Shuswap Traditional Territory was blanketed with an imposed regime of timber, land and mineral leases, fee simple titles, pre-emptions, Crown interests, easements, and rights of way. Three levels of imposed legislation and regulation — federal, provincial and municipal — manage forests, waters, fish and wildlife in the Shuswap Traditional Territory. It is important to understand that 93% of British Columbia are still public or Crown land and only 7% are privately owned, therefore it is mainly the province that directly allows the exploitation of indigenous lands.

Still the indigenous nations are not actively involved in the Land and Resource Management Plans of the provincial government or forestry plans for areas within their territories. Not even data from the discussed Traditional Use Study that has been presented to the provincial government is taken into account. How else could it be that developments such as the expansion of Sun Peaks ski resort in a traditional hunting and gathering area, the Cayoosh Creek Ski Resort Development in the last untouched valley of the St’at’imc Nation, that is also an important grizzly bear habitat, are approved without the consent of the traditional owners and land users.

Instead the province has set up a pro forma referral system whereby third parties notify bands of planned developments and activities within their territories and bands are expected to reply within 45 days. Most recently the Secwepemc People received a proposal to allow cat-skiing in low access areas of their territory. Heavy machinery would be used to bring tourists into the area and drive them up mountains so they can ski down, also leisure skidooing is part of the operation. Both operations are prohibited by law in most Alpine areas, where skidoos are just allowed for transportation and emergencies. The bands do not have the money or human resources to deal effectively with the overwhelming volume of referral letters, nor do they have funds for research and land use planning integrating the traditional knowledge of their communities.

Since 1871 when British Columbia became a part of Canada, the province has maintained its practice of allotting land to settlers and companies without taking indigenous use into account. Under the Canadian constitution provinces have exclusive jurisdiction over land use, but not regarding lands reserved for Indians, which is a federal competence. They were backed in this practice by federal policies that did not recognize the inherent land rights of Aboriginal peoples.

Indigenous peoples had always opposed the present land policies of the governments, in 1997 they were joined by the Supreme Court of Canada, who on December 11^th, 1997 issued the landmark Delgamuukw decision recognizing the collective proprietary interest of indigenous Peoples in their traditional Territories as Aboriginal Title.

In the following the term "inherent rights" will be used to refer to Aboriginal Title and rights, due to the fact that they flow from indigenous laws and form the basis of indigenous identity and nationhood. Inherent rights have to be distinguished from treaty rights that are enshrined in and flow from treaties signed between indigenous nations and the Canadian Crown. Both are protected under Section 35 of the Canadian constitution. The Interior Alliance Nations have never signed treaties ceding their inherent land rights.

It was in 1982, that Section 35 was added to the Canadian constitution to protect the rights of indigenous peoples. Since then the Courts have found that the provinces do not have jurisdiction to extinguish Aboriginal Title:

"179. The vesting of exclusive jurisdiction with the federal government over Indians and Indian lands under s. 91(24), operates to preclude provincial laws in relation to those matters. Thus, provincial laws which single out Indians for special treatment are ultra vires, because they are in relation to Indians and therefore invade federal jurisdiction…" The provinces therefore have to respect Aboriginal Title and are under a constitutional obligation not to pass legislation undermining it. Present legislation in British Columbia that regulates forestry operations on Aboriginal Title lands violates this principle. A direct obligation to protect Aboriginal Title lands is imposed on the federal government.

The Supreme Court found that:

"133. Aboriginal title at common law is protected in its full form by s. 35(1)… S. 35(1) did not create aboriginal rights; rather, it accorded constitutional status to those rights which were existing in 1982. Since aboriginal title was a common law right whose existence was recognized well before 1982… s. 35(1) has constitutionalized it in its full form."

Now it is clear that the federal government has a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard Aboriginal title lands, as per their exclusive federal jurisdiction under section 91(24) and section 35(1) Constitutional authority. Therefore the Supreme Court of Canada called upon the federal government to recognize Aboriginal Title and negotiate in good faith the joint use of the land:

186. Those negotiations should also include other aboriginal nations which have a stake in the territory claimed. Moreover, the Crown is under a moral, if not a legal, duty to enter into and conduct those negotiations in good faith. Ultimately, it is through negotiated settlements, with good faith and give and take on all sides, reinforced by the judgments of this Court, that we will achieve the reconciliation of the pre-existence of aboriginal societies with the sovereignty of the Crown.

The following points are central characteristics of Aboriginal Title as outlined in the bracketed parts of the judgment:

• Aboriginal title is a right to land. (111, 140)
• Aboriginal title is a property interest. (117, 119)
• Aboriginal title is a collective right. (115)

• Aboriginal title is sui generis, or unique. (112)

In the following the Delgamuukw Decision will be especially analyzed in parts that make reference to traditional knowledge, which will further show how interwoven land rights, traditional knowledge and current use are. The judgment starts off with a big section on the admissibility of oral evidence. The traditional knowledge that is collectively held by the community is an important basis for the recognition of their rights to their traditional territories. It was held that Courts must give Oral History equal footing as historical documents, by:

83. …adapt(ing) the laws of evidence so that the aboriginal perspective on their practices, customs and traditions and their relationship with the land are given due weight by the courts. Given that aboriginal rights recognized and affirmed by section 35 (1) are defined by reference to pre-contact practices, those histories play a crucial role in the litigation of aboriginal rights.

Proof of Aboriginal title involves showing ancestors had exclusive occupation of the lands when Crown asserted sovereignty:

128. …Occupancy is determined by reference to the activities that have taken place on the land and the uses to which the land has been put by the particular group. If lands are so occupied, there will exist a special bond between the group and the land in question such that the land will be part of the definition of the group’s distinctive culture.

This quote shows the intricate relationship between traditional use activities and Aboriginal Title, whose recognition in return is central for protecting ongoing uses and traditional knowledge, because it can only be maintained if it is practiced which again requires access to the traditional territories.

B. POLICIES OF NON-RECOGNITION + EXTINGUISHMENT

The Peoples of the Interior have proposed and want to elaborate schemes ensure the co-management of their traditional territories. The lack of meaningful consultation as outlined in previous chapters and the ongoing destruction of their lands has led land users and communities to take a stronger stand for the protection of their lands setting up camps like Skwelkwek’welt and Sutikalh.

The fundamental problem lies in the underlying policy of both the federal and provincial government, both aim at extinguishment and land selections processes. The peoples of the Interior believe that they cannot abandon their stewardship of their lands. They believe that just by integrating traditional knowledge sustainable development can be achieved. Modifications have to happen both in the policies and on the ground to accommodate Aboriginal Title. The indigenous peoples of the Interior have made it clear that they want to achieve coexistence as set out in the Delgamuukw decision and want to see fair negotiation processes in place, as long as that is not the case they will continue to exercise their Aboriginal Title and have decided to go international in order to protect the proprietary interests and human rights of their peoples.

The Supreme Court of Canada recognized that since the time of contact with Europeans, indigenous peoples had always maintained their Aboriginal title, jurisdiction, rights and interests over our traditional territories. The Nations of the Interior never surrendered or extinguished their title. Read together with Section 35 of the Constitution that gives them the right to the co-management of their traditional territories, a right that has been made clear in the 1997 Delgamuukw decision:

"For the first time, the right of Aboriginal peoples to participate as equal partners in resource development on Aboriginal lands has been acknowledged. But for this new partnership to work, the federal and provincial governments will have to shed out-dated attitudes and accept the new legal landscape."

Both federal and provincial government have to date refused to change their by now unconstitutional policy of not recognizing Aboriginal Title which is a major stumbling block in securing indigenous co-management of their traditional territories involving their traditional knowledge in order to achieve sustainable development. Surrender of Aboriginal Title has been the sole aim of governments before and since the Delgamuukw decision, instead of recognizing Aboriginal Title as mandated by the Supreme Court.

There has been no substantive reform of the 1986 Comprehensive Claims policy since the recognition of Aboriginal Title in 1997. Governments are violating their fiduciary obligation by failing to set up the relevant schemes for taking indigenous proprietary interest into account. Also when it comes to tourism and real estate developments indigenous rights and uses are not taken into account leading to a violation of the Canadian constitution and international law.

A. UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations repeatedly held that Canada’s land rights policy violated international human rights standards. Similar to the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, concluded that:

"18. The Committee views with concern the direct connection between Aboriginal economic marginalization and the ongoing dispossession of Aboriginal peoples from their lands, as recognized by RCAP and endorses the recommendations of RCAP that policies which violate Aboriginal treaty obligations and the extinguishment, conversion or giving up of Aboriginal rights and title should on no account be pursued by the State Party."

The High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues heard complaints regarding the recent BC government referendum violating indigenous and international human rights. The Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples is considering investigating the situation.

By not recognizing Aboriginal Title Canada also violates further international obligations, also in the field of international environmental protection. It goes contrary to Agenda 21, that takes the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples to their lands and resources into account, by dedicating Chapter 26 to "Recognizing and strengthening the role of indigenous peoples and their Communities". The first Article reads:

26.1. Indigenous people and their communities have an historical relationship with their lands and are generally descendants of the original inhabitants of such lands. In the context of this chapter the term "lands"; is understood to include the environment of the areas which the people concerned traditionally occupy. They have developed over many generations a holistic traditional scientific knowledge of their lands, natural resources and environment. In view of the interrelationship between the natural environment and its sustainable development and the cultural, social, economic and physical well-being of indigenous people, national and international efforts to implement environmentally sound and sustainable development should recognize, accommodate, promote and strengthen the role of indigenous people and their communities.

To achieve the above delineated goals some of the following objectives were devised:

B. THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

As one of the two main instruments arising from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio the Convention on Biological Diversity relates to Indigenous Peoples in a number of ways. It recognizes in the Preamble the:

"close and traditional dependence of many indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles on biological resources"

and thus the connection between Indigenous Peoples and their territories.

It encourages Parties in Article 10 (c) to:

The Convention encourages Parties in Article 14 to implement environmental impact assessments of proposed projects:

In many cases, such projects are intended to take place on Indigenous Peoples’ territories, and so this clause encourages their participation in project decision-making to some extent. Article 14 also includes the issue of restoration and compensation for damage to biological diversity, which often is an issue for Indigenous Peoples with development projects.

In Article 8j access to, and the sharing of benefits from, the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of Indigenous Peoples is foreseen. It also encourages Parties, within the concept of in-situ conservation, to respect, preserve and maintain this knowledge. Article 8(j) reads as follows:

"Each contracting party shall, as far as possible and as appropriate, subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations and practices."

Article 8j has to be seen in conjunction with the rest of the Convention on Biodiversity, against the background of the political discussions held in Rio and enshrined in Agenda 21 along with documents and declarations by indigenous peoples. This context makes it very clear that the protection of Traditional Knowledge as foreseen in Article 8j can only be implemented if other indigenous rights, especially land rights are recognized and implemented on the international and national level.

If Canada really honored the interrelationship of traditional knowledge, uses and traditional territories, the government would recognize Aboriginal Title and thereby secure indigenous access to their lands so they can continue to use the land in their traditional way. This contradiction even becomes more evident when reading Canada’s Biodiversity Strategy, where it is acknowledged that:

"The existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of indigenous peoples of Canada are recognized and affirmed by the constitution and decisions of the Supreme Court."

 

What they fail to mention is that the federal government still refuses to implement those Supreme Court Decisions and thereby violates its own constitution.

The fundamental role that indigenous peoples as the holders of traditional knowledge have to play in developing sustainable land use plans has been recognized internationally. They therefore also have to be consulted on the national level and international level when it comes to the implementation of international obligations such as Article 8j and related provisions and the taking of decisions such as the awarding of International Olympic Games.

The 6^th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity had to consider recommendations regarding social, cultural and environmental impact assessment regarding projects in the traditional territories of indigenous peoples and the international consensus was reached that indigenous peoples had to give their free prior informed consent to any developments in their traditional territories.

Therefore indigenous peoples have to be informed prior to the initiation of developments in their land, properly consulted and the developments can only go ahead with their free prior informed consent. The same is true for any developments associated with the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympic bid. In the case of the proposed Cayoosh Creek Ski Resort that is an integral part of the bid the opposite is true, the indigenous peoples in the area clearly oppose any such development in their traditional territory and yet the government of British Columbia approved the project and the investor’s are pushing ahead despite early promises to respect the decision of the St’at’imc chiefs and people.

The same is true regarding the expansion of Sun Peaks Ski Resort the Secwepemc people, led by their elders have made it very clear that they do not want to see any further expansion of the ski-resort in their traditional territories due to the devastating environmental, social and cultural impacts of the present development. Yet the Japanese investor announced the expansion of the ski-resort despite the lack of consent of the indigenous peoples of the area.

All those facts are evidence of the reverse tendency in British Columbia and Canada instead of meeting their international and national obligations they continue to violate them.

Canada and the international community are faced with this fundamental question whether they want to maintain and finally implement important values such as the protection of the environment, human and indigenous rights or whether they want to further subdue to the pressures of trade liberalization that will result in the further destruction of the environment and threaten cultural and biological diversity.

If they commit to the first route, indigenous peoples have to play a key rule in giving directions how to use their traditional territories in a sustainable way. Under the condition that Aboriginal Title, their collective proprietary interest to the land is recognized, their traditional knowledge will survive and can be made instrumental in developing joint management schemes. Scientist have recognized the immeasurable value of this long term collective knowledge that can guide the way out of the present environmental crisis.

It is now upon the Canadian government to recognize and protect indigenous inherent rights and knowledge in their fullest sense, to move them to the center of their policies instead of marginalizing them. Traditional knowledge is inextricably linked to the land it relates to, if those eco-systems are destroyed the relevant knowledge and indigenous cultures will disappear too. The Recognition of Aboriginal Title has to be made the basis for the implementation of holistic schemes for the protection of traditional knowledge.

On the contrary as long as Canada does not recognize Aboriginal Title and develop co-management schemes with indigenous peoples as equal partners, their present policies regarding the protection of traditional knowledge have to be uncovered as mere lip service. An analysis of the present environmental situation of Canada shows that their present policies cannot stop the degradation of ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity. It is the obligation of the International community to call upon Canada to recommit to fundamental values such as human and indigenous rights and environmental protection in order to reverse this negative trend.