E/CN.4/2004/18/Add.2 page 22 74. The legal strategy is limited in several ways. In the first place, it suffers from a lack of vigilance, flexibility, adaptability and creativeness. Discrimination in fact presents a shifting landscape, whose colours, contours and textures are transformed and evolve, inconspicuously and ineffably, under the pressure of migratory movements or ideological and ethical factors, or as a result of the dilemmas and contradictions of multiculturalism and bilingualism. One example would be the failure to extend the rights of French speakers to non-Quebec communities. So the Canadian multicultural landscape is constantly changing under the demographic and cultural influence of successive waves of immigration and the ideological and political impact of the situation and climate in the region and in the world at large. In the Special Rapporteur’s view, this environment is particularly exposed to xenophobic and racist political platforms, which emerge like poisonous plants whenever national identity safeguards are disrupted by the thrust of pluralism, arising either from historical events such as slavery, colonization and imperial expansion or from immigration or globalization. He considers also that this sort of environment is affected by technological progress, particularly in the area of communications, through which other factors are amplified. 75. The effectiveness of any political and legal strategy against racial discrimination is therefore necessarily dependent on political vigilance and legal inventiveness. Canada’s legal strategy must not be allowed to suffer from complacency and immobilism, but must evolve and change in order to find appropriate responses to the new challenges and dangers of discrimination and xenophobia, such as the non-recognition of the qualifications and professional experience of immigrants. 76. Canada’s judicial and quasi-judicial system is not very effective in the protection it offers victims of racial discrimination. The members of communities interviewed believe that the laws are not properly applied. For example, some representatives of aboriginal peoples consider that the failure to apply the treaties which those peoples signed constitutes a significant, lasting historic denial of rights in a country governed by the rule of law. Thus the excellent legal coverage provided by a network of national and provincial human rights commissions in the country is discredited in the eyes of the communities concerned owing to excessive delays in the processing of discrimination complaints. The rapid treatment required by such cases owing to their social, economic and emotional impact is impeded by the backlog due to inadequate resources. The Special Rapporteur’s attention was also drawn to the fact that, owing to a lack of sufficient intercultural training, the commissions’ investigators are limited in their deeper understanding of the emotions and feelings underlying the complaints and thus ill-equipped to elucidate the human dramas experienced by the victims. A purely legalistic or legal approach is not sufficient when it comes to appreciating the structural, cultural and psychological dimensions of racial discrimination. Inevitably the members of communities that are regularly exposed to racial discrimination are suspicious of the judicial system. 77. The legal strategy is also handicapped by poor coordination at national level in the struggle against racism and discrimination. The Special Rapporteur was struck by the lack of information exchanges between provinces concerning their policies and practices, often in areas as sensitive as “racial profiling”. Even though the provinces are bound by national legislation, the political and judicial authorities in charge do not deal with racial discrimination with the same degree of motivation, the same sensitivity or the same keenness to find appropriate solutions. Thus the question of the observance of treaties, by which the aboriginal communities set such store, has been dealt with in Saskatchewan through an educational programme