Mayor cancels second meeting

The unbridled enthusiasm of Iqaluit's brand new public safety committee got pulled up short this week when Councillor Jim Little neglected to follow necessary language procedures.

Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik pulled the plug on the committee's second meeting, scheduled for last Saturday, when she realized Little, who chairs the committee, had not had the agenda and supporting documents translated into Inuktitut.

Nor had he arranged for simultaneous interpretation for the meeting.

Sheutiapik's decision frustrated Little, who initiated several heated exchanges with her over two days – which Sheutiapik politely called "discussion," even though Little at one point hung up on her in the middle of a phone call.

At that point, Sheutiapik said, she decided to call a special meeting of council to deal with the brouhaha, and to reinforce the whys, wherefores and necessities regarding procedures.

Councillor Jimmy Kilabuk, a unilingual Inuktitut speaker and also a member of the safety committee, raised the initial objections to the second meeting of the public safety committee. He had missed the first one due to illness.

No translation had been available there either.

"If I had been sick, and Jimmy had been there [at the first meeting], it would have been awkward," Sheutiapik told the special council meeting.

What if "Jimmy had decided to bring six friends to the meeting with him from the community?" she added.

"How open to the public is a meeting if it is not translated?"

Kilabuk, also speaking Inuktitut, apologized to council for his objections, but stressed the importance of following procedures.

He said he had considered asking his children to translate the documents for him, but realized he is responsible as a council member for his actions, which require professional translation to ensure accuracy of communication.

Sheutiapik responded strongly: "Jimmy, do not apologize for being unilingual. Inuktitut is not something to apologize for."

"We have a procedures bylaw and we have to be open and transparent to all our colleagues," Councillor Simon Nattaq added in Inuktitut. "It's time-consuming and costly, but it's the bylaw and we have to abide by it."

According to city bylaws, full council meetings and all committee meetings must have documents and agendas available in English and Inuktitut, and there must be simultaneous interpretation.

At the first safety committee meeting, Sheutiapik had several times reminded Little to work with city support staff to make sure the next meeting was properly organized.

For his part, Little seemed relieved at the non-confrontational tone of the meeting.

"The demeanour here is far different than I had expected," he said. "I'm delighted."

In a rambling response, he attempted a halfhearted justification for his actions, but eventually got around to apologizing.

Participants and observers got another object lesson in the challenges of cross-cultural and cross-language communication near the end of the council meeting when both Nattaq and Kilabuk objected strongly to what they understood to be a complaint from Little about the costs of having to use ­Inuktitut.

But heard in English, that was not what Little had said, as he himself tried to make clear.

"Council should not think I was putting down the other language," he said. "That is not what I meant. It's a cost, but a necessary cost."