Francophone forum kick starts process of implementation

Members of the federal cabinet took their first peek at Nunavut's Official Languages Act this past week after Leona Aglukkaq, the Conservative government's regional minister for the North, brought the proposed law to the table.

The act, which gives equality to Inuktitut, English and French as Nunavut's three official languages, must pass the House of Commons before it becomes law in Nunavut.

Speaking March 27 at the Association des francophones de Nunavut's community centre, Aglukkaq said she will steer the new Official Languages Act through Parliament and expects to introduce a motion this summer to approve it.

Unlike Quebec or Ontario, Nunavut must get parliamentary assent for any new language law, because a federal law, the Nunavut Act, created the territory.

Premier Eva Aariak, speaking to a forum for Nunavut French-speakers on the territory's official languages act, said she recently asked Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to support Nunavut's new language law.

Aariak said she asked Ignatieff to help "push so that it passes."

With support from Ignatieff's opposition Liberals, it's a near certainty that Nunavut's Official Languages Act will get enough votes to pass the House of Commons.

But even before the Official Languages Act becomes law, Nunavut is pushing ahead on its implementation, with an Inuit language leadership forum planned for later this month.

Aariak, Language Minister Louis Tapardjuk, other cabinet ministers, and the presidents of the three regional Inuit associations will meet April 18 and 19 in Arctic Bay.

There, they will decide how their organizations will collaborate on a series of round tables on the Official Languages Act.

A summit next autumn will follow these consultations. The GN's final implementation plan for the Official Languages Act should be ready by March 2010.

The round tables will involve all language groups affected by Nunavut's Official Languages Act, as well as businesses and municipalities.

Some of the round tables will also focus on the Inuit Language Protection Act, with its measures to promote and safeguard Inuktitut.

Unlike its companion law, the Official Languages Act, the Inuit Language Protection Act does not require the approval of the House of Commons.

Last week's forum kicked off the GN's language consultation efforts.

About 30 francophones met with Nunavut's official languages commissioner, Alexina Kublu, to examine the nature of services that they can expect to receive under the new law.

Nunavut's francophone population is still mainly comprised of transient workers, but its numbers are stable and likely to continue that way, a researcher from New Brunswick noted.

That's because one in two students attending Iqaluit's Ecole des Trois Soleils is the result of a mixed marriage between Inuit and non-Inuit and some speak French at home.

The forum's expert speakers noted that school is as important as the family when children acquire their cultural and linguistic identity.

The Ecole les Trois-Soleils's 55 students learn French as a first language in the classroom. French is the language kids speak to each other, in class and outside.

The $4 million-plus school, named after an Arctic atmospheric phenomenon that produces the illusion of three suns in the sky, opened in 2003. Its operating budget comes mainly from Ottawa.

"This is a great example, because they are showing everyone in Iqaluit that it can be done. The French school here is a testament to your patience and determination," Aariak told the forum.

But apart from Ecole des Trois Soleils and the francophone centre in Iqaluit, the city's 500 francophones have only a handful of places in Iqaluit where they can feel at ease speaking their language, according to Marie Belleau.

Belleau is the daughter of Rebecca Veevee and Jacques Belleau and now studies law at the University of Laval in Quebec.

She said French-friendly public spaces in Iqaluit include the post office, the Discovery Inn, the Snack, other businesses owned by francophones, and taxis with French-speaking drivers.

But at the hospital or most GN offices, francophones must generally speak English to make themselves understood.

Some participants said they worry that under the new law, additional French-language services will only be offered if they complain.

And they said they already feel guilty asking for services that Inuit still can't get in Inuktitut.

But Nunavut's new Official Languages Act should "lift a burden off their shoulders," a representative of the Ontario government's French services commission told the group, because it will recognize their rights and set the scene for "comparable" GN services in French.

"You can't be embarrassed to ask for services," Stéphane Cloutier, a special advisor on language at the GN.

Cloutier pointed to progress that came directly from complaints made about the lack of GN news releases in French.

The complaints resulted in news releases being translated into French as well as Innuinaqtun, and strengthened all Nunavut languages, Cloutier said.

As part of its new plan to deliver French-language services, the GN plans to hire people in every department to coordinate and deliver French-language services.

Hiring a French-speaking receptionist at the Qikiqtani Regional Hospital is also recommended in a new five-year plan proposed by the Association des francophones du Nunavut.

But Aariak told forum delegates they won't have to wait until the Official Languages Act is law before the GN web site is fully translated into French – a commitment received by enthusiastic applause from the group.

The GN also plans to set up a fund to promote the three languages, spelled out in its proposed law, part of a larger effort to encourage Nunavummiut to decide it's worth speaking their language, French, Inuktitut or English.

A March 28 concert, Qaggiq, which was organized at Iqaluit's Arctic Winter Games area in conjunction with the forum, highlighted the language and culture of Inuktitut, French and English speakers.

The evening hosted by Marie Belleau and Karliin Aariak featured a combination of Innu language rap, throat singing, accordion music, and Quebec folk songs, which provided an example of the happy co-existence of languages that Nunavut wants to achieve with its new official language law.