From the mouths of babes

JOHN THOMPSON

If Nunavut’s young people ran the territory, there would be more drug-sniffing police dogs, fewer bingo nights, and a massive amount of money spent on building and upgrading youth centres, ice rinks and other recreation facilities in the smaller communities.
There would also be an acknowledgement that the territory with Canada’s youngest population doesn’t do enough to prevent child neglect, drug and alcohol abuse by children, and to address children’s ignorance of their own rights.

Those are some suggestions, anyhow, from Nunavut’s youth legislative assembly, which sat for the first time on Thursday, Nov. 9.

The purpose of the exercise was to give 19 students from each of Nunavut’s electoral ridings a taste of life in the legislature. Over the course of the day inside the chambers, the young MLAs made members’ statements, raised issues during question period, and even passed a mock piece of legislation.

Julie Alivaktuk from Pangnirtung presided over the session as speaker, while receiving tips whispered to her by John Quirke, clerk of the assembly.

Most discussions involved how the territory’s ugly social problems touch the lives of its young residents.

For example, Jacqueline Omilgoetok-Lafrance from Cambridge Bay said parents who gamble in Nunavut sometimes return home with no money for groceries, so their children go to sleep hungry.

“Children are being affected by it, and it’s ruining people’s lives,” she said.

As a solution, the youth minister of community and government services, Adine Sandy from Rankin Inlet South-Whale Cove, proposed to have materials for Gamblers Anonymous translated into Inuktitut and Inuinnaqun.

Laura Kripanik, the youth minister of Health and Social Services, said the territory’s children are hooked on junk food like pop and chips, and are growing fat as a consequence.

“I’ve seen parents give junk food to their young ones,” she said. “I myself am overweight, and I know it’s difficult to stop eating junk food. It’s addictive.”

To combat this, Kripanik declared one day in December as “No Junk Food Day.”

Mick Appaqaq, the youth MLA for Hudson Bay, lamented the loss of language and culture among many young Inuit.

And indeed, English will become the predominant language of politics in Nunavut in a generation’s time, if the youth MLAs are any indication. Very little Inuktitut was spoken by the young MLAs during their session in the chambers.

Appaqaq recommended that the government encourage more land trips for students in school, and more time spent with elders by children

Others, such as Inootiq Manik, youth MLA for Quttiktuq, commented on the sad state of recreation facilities and youth centres in Nunavut’s communities, and called for the government to invest in fixing these buildings, so that kids don’t need to resort to more destructive forms of amusement, such as drinking and drugs.

Manik also called on the government to invest in more drug-sniffing dogs for RCMP around the territory — which Inuusiq Akavak, youth minister of justice from Iqaluit West, promised to make happen.

Louisa Pootoogoo, youth MLA for South Baffin, said young residents in Cape Dorset need to learn skilled trades to succeed in life, but few are willing to leave their home community to go to school.

She asked the government to consider offering trades programs, through Arctic College, in Dorset.

A proposed piece of legislation, The Bully Prevention Act, quickly passed through first and second readings with no debate.

That law, explained the youth justice minister, would require schools and district educational authorities to create stricter rules to prevent bullying from occurring — including new forms of bullying that are occurring over the Internet.

Premier Paul Okalik, who sat watching in the public gallery, can only hope his own Family Abuse Prevention Act, to be tabled when the legislature reconvenes later this month, will get such an easy ride.

In some ways, the youth parliament behaved in a more mature fashion than Nunavut’s grown-up MLAs usually conduct themselves.

There was no name-calling, which is more than could be said for MLAs when they last sat in March. At that time, members frequently referred to Health Minister Leona Agglukaq as the “minister of hiccups,” after the word she used to characterize ongoing problems with air travel for medical operations.

And there was no grandstanding over frivolous issues, such as whether two teachers in Coral Harbour should keep snakes in their school, against the wishes of their MLA , a matter that Patterk Netser talked about for considerable length for during a member’s statement, also this March.

However, Zachary Cousins, the youth MLA for Iqaluit East, did reprimand his father for showing up late during the recognition of visitors in the gallery — a move that prompted loud applause and thumping on the tables by fellow members.

Nunavut’s legislative assembly sits next on Tuesday, Nov. 21.