Sutikalh and Skwelkwek'welt 2002 Submission to the IOC

SUTIKALH AND SKWELKWEK'WELT 2002 SUBMISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMISSION

Regarding Concerns of Aboriginal Elders, Land Users and Native Youth regarding the impacts of the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympic Bid on Aboriginal People, Culture, Land and the Environment

June 2002

Official Complaint

BY THE ELDERS, LAND USERS AND NATIVE YOUTH OF SUTIKALH AND SKWELKWEK'WELT TO THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE REGARDING INDIGENOUS CONCERNS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, ABORIGINAL TITLE AND RIGHTS AND THE POSSIBLE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF THE 2010 VANCOUVER-WHISTLER OLYMPIC BID -- 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 CANDIDATE CITIES • PEOPLE WORKING ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES.

I. INTRODUCTION

We are writing you in the name of Aboriginal elders, land users and native youth of Aboriginal Nations whose traditional territories are located in the South Central Interior of British Columbia, covering diverse ecosystems including highly sensitive alpine areas and about a third of the province of British Columbia. Our peoples maintain their land rights and traditional knowledge over the area, which we have an obligation to protect and ensure its sustainable use. Therefore we are writing you to add our perspective to the Vancouver-Whistler application for the 2010 Olympic Games regarding its impacts on our diverse cultures and environments. Apart from sport, culture and environment are the other 2 main pillars of the Olympic Movement, all three are equally important as the foundations of the Olympic Spirits and Games.

Our people are actively engaged in an environmental awareness campaign, regarding indigenous peoples, our land rights, our traditional knowledge and its central importance for environmental protection. Indigenous lands and waters world wide have the highest concentration of biological diversity, yet they are also threatened by large scale unsustainable developments. For its most recent campaign that access to water is a human right and in their territory an indigenous right the Interior Alliance, a political organization representing Nlaka'pa'mux, Okanagan, Secwepemc, St'at'imc and
Southern Carrier, won the Spirit of the Lands Award of the Local Organizing Committee of the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. We take our obligation to protect the environment and share our traditional knowledge to create awareness very seriously and we therefore also want to bring our concerns to the attention of the International Olympic Committee.

Although Canada prides itself as one of the countries with the highest living standards in the world according to the UN Human development index, when the same indicators were applied to Aboriginal people by the federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs, we only ranked 47th. The same is
true for Vancouver being declared the city with the best living standard in the world, our people are the poorest in town, many living on the East side under deplorable social and economic conditions. This is what happens when we as Aboriginal people lose our link to the land, alcoholism and youth suicide are only indicators for underlying problems. In our case the problem are the policies of the federal and provincial governments. The provincial government claims exclusive jurisdiction over land management and does not at all take Aboriginal interest in the land into account. Not only do we own the land, we also continue to use it in a multifaceted way. Our elders are holders of traditional knowledge, which has to be the basis of sustainable development in our lands that we want to preserve for all people and future generations.

Instead the provincial government keeps allowing large-scale development on our land without taking the traditional and current uses of our people into account and thereby negatively impacting the land and our people. Presently our people are faced with applications for the development and expansion of
ski-resorts, heli-skiing, cat-skiing and snowmobiling, the latter are activities forbidden in most alpine areas in Europe. The governments of Canada and of British Columbia violate the Canadian constitution and disregard Supreme Court of Canada decisions recognizing Aboriginal Title and instead maintain a land rights policy aiming at the extinguishments of Aboriginal Title. This policy has repeatedly been condemned by the United Nations as violating international human rights. Our people are the ones whose human and indigenous rights are violated. Losing our land is losing our identity as Aboriginal people. With our current and traditional uses we lose our way of life and with our elders' traditional knowledge we lose the basis for true sustainable development in our lands. Indigenous peoples in the Interior of BC have therefore taken a very active stand to protect their Aboriginal Title and lands. The St'at'imc peoples oppose the construction of a ski-resort in their last untouched valley, that is also an important habitat for many species.

The Secwepemc people oppose the expansion of Sun Peaks Ski Resort in Skwelkwek' welt. The first ski resort development is directly linked to the Vancouver Whistler bid for the 2010 Olympic Games. As a major sports and public event the Olympic Games would further advertise and thereby also impact on indigenous uses in the area, unless appropriate policies are put in place. The International Olympic Committee is a very important body and representative of the international community that has recognized its obligation to maintain high ethical and environmental standards around the world. When the Olympic bid was awarded to China it was clearly stated that the games were awarded with the intention to help raise human rights standards and lead to better scrutiny and monitoring of international human rights. The implicit understanding is that the preparation of Olympic Games will go hand in hand with bettering human and in the case of Australia also indigenous rights standards. In British Columbia we are presently seeing the inverse development, the British Columbian government is actively repressing indigenous rights by putting them in question and to a majority public vote that violates Canadian constitutional law and international human and indigenous rights.

The Supreme Court of Canada recognized the collective land rights of indigenous peoples in British Columbia as Aboriginal Title in the 1997 Delgamuukw decision. Our Aboriginal Title and rights are also protected under Section 35 of the Canadian constitution that recognizes and protects indigenous rights at the highest level. Already present Canadian federal and provincial land rights policies that aim at the extinguishment of Aboriginal Title are in breach of the constitution and Supreme court of Canada decisions that mandate them to recognize and implement Aboriginal Title. The British Columbian referendum is an attempt to get popular endorsement for such an extinguishment policy and the approval to still further lower standards and undermine indigenous rights by asking leading questions like - province-wide standards of resource management and environmental protection should continue to apply. This implies that the recognition of indigenous rights would potentially lower or put out of force environmental regulations in the whole province, when in reality indigenous peoples are looking at further adding mechanisms to protect their lands and waters.

Present British Columbian land use and natural resource management does not take into account traditional knowledge that has to be the basis of all sustainable use, because it contains the most long term data regarding the environment, its biological diversity and interaction with different cultures. Many Aboriginal peoples in British Columbia including most member nations of the Interior Alliance have conducted traditional and current use studies regarding their traditional territories and watersheds to enable their future sustainable use. The data was collected according to the highest scientific standards and in a way it could be directly transferred into provincial land use plans, yet the government to date has refused to make use of them and take them into account in their approval and land management process. The referendum question also portrays present provincial standards as positive parameters, when in reality they have failed to ensure sustainable land and resource management and have not taken traditional knowledge into account. This violates international standards like the Convention on Biological Diversity whose Article 8 calls for the in situ protection of biological diversity with the help and on the basis of traditional knowledge.

The Interior Alliance has actively participated in the development, implementation and monitoring of this convention that attempts to balance traditional and commercial interests. At the recent conference of the parties held from April 7-19, 2002 in The Hague, the Netherlands, they endorsed recommendations for the conduct of cultural, environmental and social impact assessments regarding developments proposed to take place on sacred sites and on lands and waters occupied or used by indigenous and local communities. One key provision and internationally recognized principle for impact assessment is the prior informed consent PIC of indigenous peoples that has to be ascertained before approving any projects that impact on their lands and waters. Present approval processes in British Columbia do not even take into account traditional knowledge, let alone seek the prior informed consent of the indigenous peoples affected.
One example is their approval of Cayoosh Creek Ski Resort in St'at'imc territory despite its open rejection by all St'at'imc Chiefs.

This development is an integral part of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic bid and would be responsible for opening the last untouched valley of the St'at'imc people, that is also grizzly bear and mountain goat habitat to unscrupulous development that does not at all consider the traditional and current uses of the St'at'imc and environmental concerns.
Similarly the expansion of Sun Peaks Ski Resort is presently being propagated in Secwepemc territory despite the clear opposition of Secwepemc land users and elders, who as the holders of traditional knowledge can measure the negative impacts of the ski resort on the entire watershed and will not allow any further expansion that would make the negative impacts increase correlated to the number of extra beds. Ski- resort developments in British Columbia usually do not have the promotion of winter sport as their main objective, rather they open usually intact watersheds and habitat for large scale development and real estate speculation. After passing through a pro forma approval process, that does not take Aboriginal interests into account a master lease is granted, excepting future developments within it from environmental and social impact assessment. In return for putting in ski-lifts fee simple title is granted over base land that can then be sold off lucratively.

The skiing operations themselves do not underlie many restrictions either. Recreational use of skidoos is booming and no areas seem off limits, cat- and heli-skiing are legal and do not require separate permits, artificial snowmaking is often used to create and artificially maintain a full snow cover using chemicals and bacteria prohibited elsewhere. None of these activities would be allowed in European ski resorts where restrictions have been put in place to limit environmental impacts on already altered landscapes, whereas in British Columbia they are allowed to happen without any limitation in previously pristine and therefore even more sensitive ecosystems. Mass winter tourism as it is presently practiced in Canada is neither environmentally, nor socially nor economically sustainable. Yet it is pushed ahead by the provincial government as the future industry and heavily subsidized. One of the subsidies consists in the government's policy of the non-recognition of Aboriginal Title aiming at its extinguishment and allowing companies to access indigenous lands and resources without the consent of indigenous peoples and without having to remunerate their proprietary interests. Indigenous participation in land use planning would also limit access to certain lands and impose restrictions to ensure sustainable use. Presently indigenous peoples pay the double price for unsustainable use of and practices in their land, they lose parts of it for their traditional multifaceted use due to destruction and environmental degradation and then their proprietary interests are not remunerated either.
The internalization of environmental cost and indigenous proprietary interests would make the tourism industry more sustainable and accountable.

To ensure high standards in the winter sports industry as well as to monitor practices and policies of host countries, governments and municipalities with respect to environmental protection and ethics is an important part of the mandate of the International Olympic Committee. As indigenous peoples we have to oppose the Vancouver - Whistler Olympic bid as long as regressive and destructive environmental practices and policies that undermine and do not recognize indigenous rights are in place. The awarding of the Olympic bid would lead to further destruction of the environment and miss the model function of Olympic host cities and countries who are supposed to better their human rights and environmental standards instead of further lowering them. As the International Olympic Movement is built around three main pillars: sport, culture and the environment. Our elders have decided to make a submission to the International Olympic Committee to ensure that sports and entertainment are not put over the two other elements of key concern to our people and most importantly over our human and indigenous rights. We therefore ask you to consider the information submitted and initiatives such as the BC government referendum seriously.

If there are any specific issues you want to see included in our submission to the International Olympic Committee, please send them to me via email:
jrbilly@mail.ocis.net or contact me by phone 250-679-3052.
Kukstemc, Janice Billy, Spokesperson,
Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre Elders Land Users and Youth Interior of British Columbia

c.c.: Richard Pound Interior Alliance bands Salzburg, Berne and the other potential host cities in 2010 Vancouver Whistler Olympic bid UN High Commissioner for Human Rights International Support Groups KWIA-Belgium, Incomindios-Switzerland, AGIM-Germany, Society for Threatened Peoples-Austria