Supreme Court refuses to hear GN’s case to kill NTI language lawsuit
Nunavut government attempt to challenge lawsuit in the highest court is dismissed
The Supreme Court says it will not hear the Government of Nunavut’s bid to quash a lawsuit brought against it by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. over Inuit-language instruction. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Canada’s Supreme Court dismissed the Nunavut government’s request to hear its bid to kill the four-year-old legal battle with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., over Inuit-language instruction.
“We respect the decision and look forward to moving forward,” Premier P.J. Akeeagok told reporters Thursday at the legislative assembly, after the Supreme Court ruled on what’s known as a leave to appeal.
Canada’s highest court was the final legal avenue for the government to appeal lower courts’ decisions that sided with NTI.
NTI, the organization responsible for ensuring the rights of Nunavut Inuit are protected, sued the Nunavut government in 2021.
That lawsuit claims the government has failed to ensure Inuktut language education is available throughout the territory’s public school system.
By doing that, the government violated “constitutionally protected equality rights of Nunavut Inuit,” NTI alleged, citing section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which prevents discrimination on the basis of language.
With the Supreme Court’s decision, the matter is now set to go to trial, although Akeeagok said he is “optimistic” the issue can be settled.
“I really think it’s so important to realize nobody wants to be in court,” Akeeagok said.
He didn’t say what the government’s legal strategy might be if the matter does proceed to trial.
“It’s tough to be excited about this,” NTI president Jeremy Tunraluk said in a phone interview.
“We were trying to avoid going through with litigation, at the same time it is very important for Inuit to actually be able to learn in their own language,” he said, adding that even though NTI is trying to work with the government of Nunavut on the education program, the trial will “remain.”
The Inuit organization’s lawsuit calls for a five-year plan to implement the Inuit language from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Since the lawsuit was filed, the GN has been trying to block it, with litigation dragging on for four years.
Both the Nunavut Court of Justice and the Nunavut Court of Appeal sided with NTI, rejecting the government’s attempts to kill the lawsuit.
In November, the Nunavut government attempted to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.
“We don’t want to spend years and years in court,” Akeeagok said of the government’s repeated attempts to block the lawsuit.
As the highest court of the land, when the Supreme Court refuses to hear a case, the ruling of the court of appeal stands and cannot be challenged further within the Canadian legal system, according to the Department of Justice Canada website.
The language lawsuit is one of at least five initiated by NTI against the territorial or federal governments since 2015, according to its four-year strategy report.
In February, Tunraluk said he was not anticipating any new legal actions against the governments in the near future.
Despite the warming relationship between NTI and the Nunavut government, none of the existing lawsuits have been dropped.
“I look forward to having more conversations around what we could do to settle these differences [with NTI],” Akeeagok said.
“I really think there’s a common goal of wanting to move past this. And I look forward to that in the near future.”
For me, the real story here is who is giving the GN such incompetent legal advice on how to handle this case? And, why is the GN humiliating itself by going along with it?
Let’s remember that this case is about an action filed by NTI that the GN has breached the Charter and the NLCA by failing to provide Inuit language instruction. Does anyone in their right mind think that any court is going to dismiss an important indigenous rights case like this without having a full trial? That is simply ludicrous! The decisions of the Nunavut Court of Justice, Court of Appeal and now Supreme Court of Canada in this were entirely predictable!! The GN looked quite foolish by flogging this dead horse of getting the case booted out without trial. Like I said, who is giving them this dumb advice of going down the rabbit hole of trying to get the case summarily thrown out? A waste of time, money and credibility to me. But hey, you know what? I bet the law firm who did all of these failed appeals for the GN made plenty of money doing them! That’s for sure!!
Bottom line: Whether NTI has a case on this or not, there is no way on earth that the court system will toss it without allowing them a trial. That’s basic common sense that’s not too common with the GN.
Cost to fight < cost to implement
Even though it isn’t right, why not fight?
Just basic legal strategy.
There’s nothing wrong with fighting the case at trial. But this strategy of aggressively trying to get the case tossed without a trial made no sense. There was no chance that a judge or appeals court would deny NTI a full trial on an important case like this. This was a cynical and pointless strategy with an entirely predictable result.
Them.woke supreme.e court judges don’t know the reality of what’s really going on in nunavut maybe they should come to nunavut and see for themselves for a change?
What do you mean woke, do you even understand what the term means. Judicial system is non bias as it could be. Government of Nunavut suppose to represent citizens which includes 85% of the population.
The media bias shown in this headline is outrageous. Describing the GN’s legal action as an attempt to “kill” the NTI lawsuit suggests aggression or hostility. That emotion is not reflected in the referenced quotes from GN or NTI leadership. More neutral terms like “dismiss” or “strike down” are appropriate, please do better, Nunatsiaq.
Journalists love a good narrative, which often means drama and conflict.
English is here to stay time to.turn the page nti and start to focus on the real problems in nunavut Rome wasnt build in aday
Come on Nunavummiut go get your teaching degree. That’s what is missing, inuit teachers to carry on our language. The resources are there and in development. We just need the teachers.
I am surprises that Nunavut has not acted like Quebec and or Greenland to require strong language laws before you can land a job in Nunavut. We are continually losing and weakening part of our backbone as Inuit by weakening our strength of our language. Culture is not solely language but it defines big part of our way of life. We are a public government but 80 to 85% of our public is Inuit why are we not targeting 80 to 85% of government services and programs solely to Inuit. Non Inuit have a place and will always have a place but if we really want culture to survive act like Inuit culture is 100% priority and everyone else secondary based on majority of who they serve. Nunavut was created for a reason strengthen Inuit say and preserve culture and frankly it is failing both badly. Nunavut Agreement is not about promoting and protecting non 8nuit culture, Canada and Inuit recognized the importance and the need to protect Inuit rights thus the agreement and Inuit chose a public government to ensure proper funding but it should act more like Quebec or Greenland government to protect and enforce majority of its residents.
There are no language laws in Greenland like the ILPA or OLA. But certain policies have helped keep the language vibrant. Municipal governments administer all daycares, which are affordable and accessible to most people who want to enrol their child in one. The policy of every daycare is full Greenlandic immersion, then the kids receive Greenlandic language of instruction in school. People here have different attitudes about their language as well and use it more deliberately.
You can not conjure a reality that exceeds your capacities simply by writing legislation.
In a way NTI is not helping, this will cost the GN money if they lose and court costs and then less money for the GN to run or help people.