Makivvik language rules for president too strict, says would-be candidate
Lack of Inuktitut fluency prevented Jason Etok from submitting nomination
Jason Etok, who grew up in Nunavik and now lives in Montreal, says the Inuktitut language requirements to be a candidate for Makivvik Corp. president are too strict and lack detail on what constitutes fluency in the language. (Screenshot from Zoom)
As Makivvik Corp. checks the credentials of nominees for its presidency, one would-be candidate is fighting against its language requirements he says prevented him from running.
The period to nominate candidates to lead the Nunavik Inuit organization closed Monday. Chief returning officer Phebe Bentley said Makivvik officials are reviewing candidates’ applications and will announce the nominees Jan. 15.
An election will be held Feb. 1 for the presidency of Makivvik, the corporation created to represent Inuit in Nunavik. Pita Ataami was elected to a three-year term in the last election in 2021.
One name that won’t be on the ballot this election, however, is Jason Etok.
Etok lives in Montreal but grew up in Kangiqsualujjuaq and has lived in several Nunavik communities.
He’s a former Air Inuit pilot but has struggled for the past decade to find work in Nunavik due to Inuktitut language requirements, he said.
“I’m not completely fluent. I know if I were to assess my skills in Inuktitut, I would say I’m an intermediate,” he said.
“I’m not completely illiterate to language, I do know words to a lot of things that I know, traditions, things that I hear in my family. I know the culture, I respect the culture.”
Etok said he wanted to run for president of Makivvik over what he sees as a lack of leadership there, but said he’s frustrated with strict language requirements that prevented him from applying to run.
The official nomination form for presidential candidates states applicants must be fluent in Inuktitut.
They must collect 10 signatures from Nunavimmiut from at least five different Nunavik Inuit communities attesting to their fluency, and signatures from three Makivvik directors also attesting to their fluency in Inuktitut.
Etok said the requirement that candidates be fluent in Inuktitut is a type of language discrimination.
“I would say that people that know me and they’ve seen me on the land and they know who I am, they would say ‘yeah, he’s a traditional person,’” he said.
“So it’s unfair. Just because my lack of language doesn’t enable me to go further and be successful in life.
“‘He doesn’t speak Inuktitut so he’s not Inuit,’ and that’s offensive for me because I try very hard to be a better person in Nunavik,” Etok said, noting he is a beneficiary of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.
The nomination form also lacks detail on what constitutes Inuktitut fluency and how a nominator should rate a candidate’s skills, he added.
“They don’t broadcast to the public how you are to rate these people,” he said.
“There’s reading, there’s writing, there’s talking. They have no rules about how they judge those people [on their fluency].”
Etok also takes issue with the requirement to get three Makivvik directors to sign off on an applicant’s Inuktitut fluency.
“I would even go as far to say that it’s an obstruction of justice to have somebody I’d be working with to get approval to get into their club,” he said.
Representatives from Makivvik did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Etok said he’s been in contact with the chief returning officer about his frustrations and said he also plans to bring it up with government officials.
He wants the Inuktitut requirements softened so Nunavimmiut who are culturally Inuit aren’t prevented from running for president if they aren’t fluent in Inuktitut to the standards of the organization.
“I have a good mind, I’m a good person. I wish to relate that and stand up for rights that people should have but are taken from them very easily just because of their language,” Etok said.
Finally, what was known tongue-in-cheek, as the Bob Deer/Harvey Mesher by-law when introduced is being looked at.
This was introduced because these two gentlemen dared to challenge the powers that be and to ensure their silence, the by-law was seen as a way prevent them from helping Nunavik evolve.
There definitely needs to be a re-examination of the language fluency rules for sure.
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It was well known that for a while people from Chisasibi were forging their language requirements simply because no fluent speaker wanted to take on the BoD positions that required them… then they just ended up getting rid of the fluency requirement for the Chisasibi Director position…
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If Makivvik has already broken and changed their rules around language fluency without much issue, why do they still insist on them? It’s pretty clearly meant to be a filter of certain kinds of people from making any sort of impact, and this will only likely lead to more issues as our language fluency levels are dropping with youth.
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Makivvik has no problem keeping people around who defrauded the people of Nunavik via these executive positions, but for some reason they have a big problem with letting in those of us who aren’t 100% fluent.
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I guess Makivvik prefers to be defrauded in inuttitut rather than competently led in English… atsuuk.
Absolutely correct, Etok is automatically ineligible to be even nominated. i’m sorry but majority of signators’ and elders have to be spoken to in inuttitut. Ppl who are on high positions’ are also changing the workplaces and employees not speaking inuttitut majority of the time which helping loose our language. etoo, I think there are inuk runned places in mtl where you might find work. don’t challenge the current requirements.
Are there any language revitalization programs available in Nunavik to become fluent? This is just my opinion but learning doesn’t have a cut off age, better luck next term! Language requirements should remain the language of the people.
To No Non Larry:
For those who still don’t get it, this was/is a by-law put in place to prevent competition to those who made the rule.
Look no further than all the “Language programs” Makivik put in place since making the restrictive rule.
Oh yeah, there are no language programs put in place by Makivik since they restricted access.
Language remains an important integral part of culture, to represent and entire group of people but not be able to fluently speak the language places a huge barrier, either learn the language or make way for someone who does, plain and simple!
Quebec? Montreal? This good fellow should know what strict language rules are that he should abide by in Quebec; French. if Quebec could imposed their law on language, why not Inuktitut? In addition, our national organization body should imposed this code to becoming a presidential nominee as will. So why not NTI, RIOs, Sad all over Nunavut (and Nunavik?) it’s a token gesture to speak and conduct business in Inuktitut. Farce, ridicule of language.
There is no language requirement to run in an election in Québec. You can be unilingual in English, or Inuktitut, or Cree, and stand in an election and be elected if you can convince enough francophone voters that not speaking French isn’t a deal-breaker to vote for you.
It’s the “sign-off by directors” thing that’s the most problematic thing about the rules because that’s just throwing the door wide open for cronyism and corruption built right into the rules.
What is Bill 101?
If you wanna champion the traditional Inuit way of life and its history, including the protection of its hunting, lifestyle and it’s “language”. Should you not be able to speak it as well? Just a thought. Lets extend this policy to the very organization mandated to represent Inuit at an international level. ITK. It’s president should be able to read and speak Inuktitut or one of the many forms of dialect. This would clearly eliminate attempts only standardize the spoken word of Inuktitut while ignoring the true regional identity of Inuit through circumpolar region.
In our territory there is no requirement to speak Inuktut fluently. Imagine if there was though. The pool would be very small for the western region.
Current Kit. IA board would never implement that kind of policy. Majority of them already don’t speak Inuktut.
Kitikmeot; its a shame.
“They must collect 10 signatures from Nunavimmiut…”
Shouldn’t that say ‘Nunavikmiut’?
Nunav u mmiut = Nunavut
Nunav i mmiut = Nunavik
If our Gov Gen can get the role without the French requirement what’s stopping this guy from being fit for the job? Even ITK leader Nathan Obed doesn’t speak inuktitut. If he’s the right guy for the job so be it. That’s what translators are for.
Natan was never the right person for the job.
Let’s see if he is right for the next Senator of Nunavut.
That would be incompetence being rewarded.
Sorry, but the Inuit who chose to speak and write in English only are only going to lose a lot of good benefits run by Inuit owned bodies, such as candidacy, bilingual bonus etc.
The Inuit who only speak English will be in the majority soon enough and when that time comes the ‘rules’ will adapt to that reality. Of course not everyone will like that.
No, a lot of people won’t like having their protected status (i.e. privilege) threatened. Make no mistake, that is exactly what this issue is all about.
I was raised down south because my parents worked at Makivvik, and I never had a lot of access to inuttitut growing up because there were no language learning opportunities for kids down south at that time.
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If I had a choice, I would have wanted to be born and raised up north and speak fluently, but I had no choice in that. As an adult those programs started up and I have learned however I could
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Now I’ve worked for Makivvik, the NV, an LHC, helped with some stuff at KSB, etc… and I will never be able to hold any elected position in basically any of these places.
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It’s pretty sad that I can’t really get into these sorts of positions in my own community, but for some reason I’d be eligible to work in bigger organisations like ITK or the ICC who have a say in what the other organisations can do. It feels a little backwards in some ways.
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All I’ve ever wanted to do is help our people however I can, and eligibility rules like this really limit options. It makes it really tough to move back up north… I’m glad we have so many fluent speakers though, it’s a good accomplishment when compared to almost every other indigenous group in the world.
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I’m still learning inuttitut and I am better than I was the day before, but I don’t think I will ever get to the fluency level Makivvik requires.
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Maybe one day!
I see lack of Respect about the importance to preserve Inuit language! If you wanna run Makivvik you have lot of homework to do! Peace and respect!
Aren’t we suppose to have Inuktitut as an official language? Why was this article even posted? I am confused by this where it suppose to go… and I ain’t debating with anyone!
The fastest way to learn a language is to actually use it. There need to be jobs that get you in an immersive language environment regardless of your current language ability. Put the guy on a fishing boat with inuit staff who don’t know (or who refuse to speak) English and French, and teach him how to live on the kind of salary that job gets him so he doesn’t live beyond his means and then think he has to leave town to get a better job.
There needs to be distance education and other materials, at all language levels, set up so people can access them regardless of location – including an immersion environment, such as a geography or math class which is taught entirely in Inuktitut, with illustrations, offered online, and open to everyone (regardless of heritage) who passes a screening test on language ability.
Ideally speaking Inuktitut should go hand in hand with education to be a leader as well. What we have, or I’ll say what we may have are Inuit who have the language, but no education. So, the question is : do we accept a leader that don’t speak Inuktitut well, but is educated, or an uneducated person who speaks it well ?
Person who speaks Inuktitut fluently is highly educated enough to lead Inuit people, however, if you cannot speak Inuktitut well and still want to work for Inuit then might as well try to become “associates” or “consultants”, isn’t that’s how the corporate run??
Listen up. Many can speak Inuktitut, but they don’t read or write it, so what about that as a qualification. Can’t read or write it ? And, many who we see speaking it, never been in school, and they represent Inuit, come on ? Speak the language, can’t read or write it and never been to school, do you know these people? I know lots, and even more.
He is an example for the people who don’t want to keep their language
Official language in Canada is ENGLISH and French. Learn the language!!
As an Inuk who was raised South, I 100% agree that these positions should be reserved to a pool of candidates that are fluent in Inuktitut. Language is the epicenter of culture. I only have a basic knowledge of Inuktitut (not by choice) and that makes me miss out on 95% of Inuit cultural cues and ways of knowing. Keep Nunavik strong, require our leaders to speak Inuktitut ! We live in a day of information, there are many ways to learn inuktitut, the rest of us can learn it !