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Secwepemc Territory, September 16~ 2002 - Three members of the Secwepemc Nation, including 46-year-old Beverly Manuel and her 26-year-old daughter, Niki Manuel, were found guilty of the charge of intimidation by Judge Eugene Slather in a Kamloops courtroom today. Miranda Dick, a Secwepemc woman, was also found guilty.

The charges were laid in the continuing battle between the Sun Peaks Resort, which is intent on expanding from approximately 5,000 bed units to 24,000 bed units. The people of Neskonlith say that the existing Sun Peaks Resort has had a dramatic negative impact on the rights of the Secwepemc people to make decisions and benefit from their Aboriginal Title and their Aboriginal Right to hunt, fish and collect food and medicine from their land and practice their spirituality. They know that if the expansion continues the ecological biodiversity in the area will be destroyed.

They were charged with blocking a so-called provincial highway leading to the Sun Peaks Resort on August 24th, 2001. The Secwepemc peoples raised the defense that they did not have any criminal intention when they blocked the road because they are the true owners of the land. Furthermore they did not give permission to the province to build the road they were blocking. The Judge, however, found that though they were sincere about their intentions on a moral basis. The Judge ruled their intentions fell short of meeting what he considered the legal requirements in order to defend themselves according to a Color-of-Right defense.

Chief Arthur Manuel said that regardless of this decision "what is on trial here is the inadequacy of the federal and provincial governments to deal with the Neskonlith Aboriginal Title and our Neskonlith Douglas Reserve of 1862".

The Skwelkwek'welt Protection Center did raise the eight trials that they are involved in to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The Report to CERD basically raised the fact that if a Secwepemc person does not follow the inadequate policies of the Canadian system, and the illegal laws of the Province of BC, your only alternative is to go to prison. What is on trial here is not the accused, but the way the province and federal government use the criminal and judicial system to oppress Secwepemc peoples.

The Neskonlith Band Chief Arthur Manuel also testified in the case. He said that 'The charges brought against the accused under this case are inappropriate and outdated because their primary purpose is to alienate the traditional territories of indigenous peoples by unilaterally imposing third patty property interests over the land. It is clear that there is no genuine effort on the province or the federal government to deal with the underlying causes of the roadblock. In fact the province and the federal government are using the police and courts to try and crush the Secwepemc peoples so they conform to the existing British Columbia Treaty process."

Chief Manuel also said "he was enormously proud of his people for standing up for their human rights, as well as their Aboriginal rights and title". Chief Manuel also said that "he will continue to raise all trials involving Aboriginal Title issues to the international level".

Beverly Manuel was present at the roadblock for only a short time, but she told the court that she had every right to be on the road because it was Aboriginal Title land and part of the traditional Neskonlith Douglas Reserve.

Niki Manuel told the court that her people "have a duty and responsibility to care for the land that comes from our ancestors and from the Creator." She also said that the damaging environmental practices that are permitted at Skwelkwek'welt conflicts with the laws of the Creator and she urged Canada and British Columbia to follow their own laws as set down by the Canadian Supreme Court in the Delgamuukw decision, which recognized the existence of Aboriginal Title.

Janice Billy, Spokesperson said all actions; including legal, direct action, tourism and business boycotts will continue and escalate at Skwelkwek'welt (Sun Peaks) and at other traditional territories until we gain the long overdue recognition of Secwepemc Title and Rights.

Sentencing under the trial decision will be made October 22,2002 at the Kamloops Law Courts. Beverly Manuel, Niki Manuel and Miranda Dick will however seek to appeal this decision because they feel that their intentions were not properly interpreted by the trial judge.