ltree installation error

Hi all,

I've got a fatal error when i try to start postgresql service.
I debugged my scripts and the error came up right after i ran the followed
ltree installation script.
It was an attempt to install ltree on my postgresql-8.2.4

Here it's the bash commmand script:
# Install ltree
su - postgres -c "cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-8.2.4/contrib/ltree && make
install"
su - postgres -c "psql -U postgres -f ltree.sql template1"

here it's the log at the server.log

LOG: database system was shut down at 2007-12-19 00:19:26 EST
LOG: checkpoint record is at 0/42C424
LOG: redo record is at 0/42C424; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown TRUE
LOG: next transaction ID: 0/593; next OID: 10820
LOG: next MultiXactId: 1; next MultiXactOffset: 0
LOG: database system is ready
LOG: received fast shutdown request
LOG: shutting down
LOG: database system is shut down
FATAL: invalid value for parameter "lc_messages": "en_CA.UTF-8"

does anyone have any idea what could be wrong?
it seems my debian distro doesn;t suport UTF-8 messages.
my box is debian etch 4. postgresql 8.2.4

regards,
iuri