Okay. I'll try.
The whole issue of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expression is one of particular interest and challenge, for many reasons that I alluded to in my opening remarks, because some of the fundamental characteristics associated with TK, traditional knowledge, and TCEs do not match with the way intellectual property laws function.
For something to be copyrightable, it needs to be fixed and it needs to relate to one author that you can theoretically identify. In the case of the traditional knowledge or traditional cultural expressions of indigenous people or other types of communities, most often you're dealing with things that are not fixed, such as a song, a story, a know-how. That's the first hurdle.
The second hurdle is that it's usually collectively owned: a song belongs to the Abenaki people, assuming you can identify some sort of property around this song, but it doesn't relate to one individual in the Abenaki community.
From the get-go then you have a major challenge when you're trying to use copyright for that purpose.
That being said, there are other tools in the intellectual property tool kit that are still at the disposal of indigenous people, such as patents and trademarks. Often the example that is put forward is the misappropriation of the inukshuk or of the dream catcher.
The protection of traditional cultural expressions was already highlighted in 1992 by Parliament as one issue that would be worthy of consideration by Parliament. In 2012 the government made a decision to focus its work around making the act technologically neutral and more adaptable to new technologies. It doesn't make the issue around misappropriation and traditional cultural appropriation go away; it's something we still often hear about, including in international negotiations.
Thank you very much.