SnowJob goes ahead

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Although First Nations communities in British Columbia were split on whether to support MuchMusic's annual SnowJob event at the Sun Peaks ski resort near Kamloops on March 6 to 11, there was no question of their solidarity when it came to wanting the land claims issues in the area addressed.

SnowJob is MuchMusic's annual spring break road show, a winter music festival filmed on location at a different mountain resort each year.

The Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre, the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs had spoken out against the event and asked MuchMusic to either cancel or relocate the SnowJob broadcast. Other First Nations publicly supported the channel's decision to hold the event at the Kamloops-area resort, where a $70-million expansion of the facilities is planned on land that was set aside in 1862 for a reserve for the Secwepemc people.

Before a final decision was made to hold the event, MuchMusic's general manger, David Kine, discussed the issue with First Nations representatives, including Arthur Manuel, chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band and chairman of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council. On Feb. 19, Kine announced plans to hold SnowJob at the Sun Peaks location saying MuchMusic had the support of chiefs representing the majority of the First Nations people in the area.

He quoted the chiefs of three area bands-the Kamloops Indian Band and the Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band, both members of the Shuswap Nation, and the Little Shuswap Nation-declaring their support.

Chief Bonnie Leonard of the Kamloops Indian Band was one of the chiefs quoted in the MuchMusic press release.

"Right from the very beginning we were involved in the protocol agreement between the bands in this area and Sun Peaks," Leonard said during a telephone interview following the MuchMusic announcement. "And that was done in 1997, I believe. And part of that protocol agreement is basically saying we'll work together.

"And then there was some concern, some of the bands, or one of the bands, said that the Sun Peaks people breached this agreement by not following through with it, and they pulled out, which was Adams Lake Band. And as far as I'm concerned, we're still bound by that agreement. And so part of our co-operation with Sun Peaks, from my perspective, would be not to block an event at existing facilities."

Leonard said MuchMusic had offered the bands air-time during the broadcast to state their case on the land claims issue.

"David Kines was offering air-time for the issue, as well as showcasing some of our communities, and our economic developments in our communities. But we've asked him, if he's interested in that, to do it at some other time. We want to focus on the land issue," Leonard said.

Leonard met with five other area chiefs-Chief Felix Arnouse from Little Shuswap, Chief Ron Jules from Adams Lake, Chief Ron Ignace from Skeetchestn, and Chief Richard LeBourdais from Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band-who she said seemed to be supportive of the event going ahead, as well as of taking advantage of the air time being offered.

"Just to be clear," Leonard stressed, "we are very united in the objective to settle the land claim through negotiation. There is no division there. The only division, I suppose you could say, has come up with whether or not we should allow this event to occur, and certainly I think that the chiefs that I met with today felt that it is a good opportunity. Let's take advantage of it."

Janice Billy is spokesperson for the Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre. The centre has been operating a protest camp near Sun Peaks since last October on land that would be taken up by the proposed resort expansion.

"They've decided to go ahead, so we've accepted," Billy said during an interview before the event. "We don't agree with it, of course, but we will be there demonstrating on Saturday, March 10."

In addition to the protest schedued for March 10, the protection cenre also organized a protest outside the MuchMusic offices in Toronto on March 2, with that protest targeting MuchMusic president Moses Znaimer.

"He's received all of these human rights awards, and he's violating our rights by not respecting our request that he not come into our territory," Billy said.

"The movement is really from the people," Billy said of the protection centre and its work.

"It's from Elders, educated Native people, it's from youth, it's from hunters. We want to make it clear that it's not just a group of radical young men who are out there to fight for something and then stop. That this is going to be ongoing, that we're working for protection of our land for our use, how we use the land. And this will not be the only area, that we are looking at other areas too. Because we believe we just absolutely have to protect what's left of our remaining lands, which is not much," she said.

"At one point or another, I've spoken with every chief involved in the immediate area," David Kines said in an interview the day before SnowJob 2001 performances were to kick off.

Kines said the potential controversy over the SnowJob site first surfaced about a month before the event was to be held.

"Our initial reaction was, 'Well, perhaps it's not the most constructive thing for us to go away, but if that's what everyone in the area wants us to do, we'll take that request seriously. In the meantime, though, please consider that we are going to bring attention not just to ski bunnies, but to the issues that are inherent in the resort, and throughout B.C. in terms of land claims dragging on and not being solved'," Kines said.

"After a couple of weeks of looking into the situation, we were sort of faced with, 'Well, we've got four or five chiefs here who want us to come and one who doesn't. And we did, notwithstanding that, really think it's a more constructive solution to bring attention to the issue than to just ru away.

"I think when the issue came to our attention,we didn't ignore it. We were concerned. We did our due diligence. We did our research. We tried to make the right decision on behalf of the channel and our artists that are performing and people that are coming out here, to do the right thing. We wanted to make the right decision. We consulted with the people in the area, First Nations people in the area, and we feel we've come to the right decision. And we're bringing attention, and hopefully a little bit of heat on the government, to get this thing resolved."

A group of five area chiefs were also planning to be on site March 10, joining with Sun Peaks representatives to provide information to the public about the land claim. The group would also be handing out ribbons "symbolizing unity of all people of British Columbia and symbolizing the support for a peaceful resolution of outstanding land claims throughout the province."