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VANCOUVER, B.C. - A group of B.C. First Nations leaders says it will carry out a campaign during the Winter Games to pressure Canada to sign a UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.
Like the Lubicon Cree did during the Calgary Games in 1988, members of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, the First Nations Summit and the B.C. Association of First Nations say they will target the national and international media in town for the Olympics.
"We support the spirit of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Chief Wayne Christian, chairman of the union's working group and spokesman for the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council.
Christian applauded Olympic organizers for including the Four Host First Nations, the bands upon whose territories the Games will take place.
Over the next few days the torch relay will pass through several aboriginal communities and feature prominently First Nations culture as it nears the Feb. 12 start date of the Games.
"Yet, while this is a great starting point, there is much work which still needs to be done after the Games to address aboriginal human rights, poverty, missing and murdered women, and rights and title," Christian said in a statement.
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