Nunavik no voters wanted language guarantees

Instead of writing contemptuous remarks, try learning to empathize with the Inuit of Nunavik.

You may have noticed in the Facebook page “Nunavik and the Nunavik Regional Government’s Final Agreement,” that there’s a silent majority in the membership. As well, it doesn’t include the rest of the population who have no access to the Internet.

Trying to clump the majority of the “no” voters, and say they’re dwelling in fear is pretty pathetic, and overtly condescending to the many who voted with good and clear conscience, to what’s at stake.

What’s at stake here no matter how insignificant it may be to you, and to others, is our future as a distinct group of indigenous people.

Critics to the outcome of the Nunavik referendum, have poorly covered, and some failed to mention as to why the results came to be, instead tried to divert attention to how marvelous the system and how democratic it would have been under the NRG.

Inuktitut should have had equal status within the NRG agreement; the way it’s written there’s no respect for our Inuktitut language and culture.

I think we understood as much as we could, based on what was divulged to us. Though, we rejected this deal in part because it left too many unanswered and unanswerable questions, and subsequent documents not yet drafted.

We understood the layout, and the system of the proposed NRG, and that wasn’t where the concerns were for the people who are empathetic to the Inuit language and culture.

Another major reason as to why this final agreement was rejected was because of Phase Two of the final agreement. How would you feel if governments asked you to sign a blank document? As a result, the proposed final agreement for the creation of NRG was just not good enough.

Fundamentally, “hope” for a better future was a major factor in our decision. We all wanted something better in our future.

We should all understand that this was just one attempt. It shouldn’t be considered to be the “only time” Nunavik’s needs and dreams may have been answered.

Johnny Kasudluak
Inukjuak

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