Too much English, not enough Inuktitut in Iqaluit, Nunavut MLA says
Minister says languages commissioner can impose fines on private businesses
For visitors to Iqaluit like Pangnirtung MLA Margaret Nakashuk, the English language enjoys widespread predominance over Inuktitut. (File photo)
An apparent lack of Inuktitut-language service and signage in Iqaluit is a continuing “source of consternation,” Pangnirtung MLA Margaret Nakashuk said in the legislative assembly last week.
“This is visible everywhere, when you arrive to Iqaluit or even in an airplane, we rarely hear Inuktitut being spoken or have bilingual workers. When I enter the terminal building, the first language I hear is English, although I feel Inuktitut should be the first language spoken,” Nakashuk said.
She said this is her experience with many private businesses in Iqaluit that serve the public.
“If I enter a taxi, most drivers can’t speak Inuktitut, and when I go to a hotel, there is no Inuk receptionist,” she said.
She also said many Inuktitut signs contain spelling errors and that the “government is helping to deteriorate the language, as there seems to be no commitment to providing services in the Inuit language.”
After being delayed twice, the sections of the Inuit Language Protection Act and the Official Languages Act that mandate the use of Inuktut for private sector organizations that serve the public came into force on July 9, 2017.
To correct the situation, Nakashuk asked if non-compliant businesses can be fined.
“Inuktitut should be first, and private businesses that can’t provide services in Inuktitut, can’t the government charge them a fine?” she said.
David Joanasie, the minister of culture and heritage, said people in Nunavut may bring concerns to the Nunavut languages commissioner, who has the power to investigate complaints.
“If they don’t follow the legislation, the languages commissioner can investigate as long as you inform the languages commissioner,” Joanasie said.
In response to another question, Joanasie confirmed that the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Culture and Heritage operates a program that offers grants of up to $5,000 to help private businesses comply with their obligations under the Inuit Language Protection Act.
That money is to help cover the cost of signage, translation and proofreading, and language training courses for employees.
And in 2017, the GN also announced it would spend $1 million over five years to help organizations make the transition.
Aggu MLA Paul Quassa also pressed Joanasie for answers on language policy, especially the relative prominence of Inuktitut compared with English.
In public signs, Inuktitut should come first, but that doesn’t always happen, Quassa said.
“I imagine the minister knows that within the majority of government offices, although I already spoke to this matter, the signage always has the English first, and then Inuktitut or French comes next, as if these buildings weren’t even in Nunavut,” Quassa said.
He went on to say that Nunavut’s signage policies should be like those in Quebec, where French words are placed first and are larger than the English words.
“That is what we need to do here in Nunavut because Inuit fought for Nunavut through their land claim. This is what Inuit wanted,” Quassa said.
He also suggested that he’s getting impatient with the slow pace of linguistic change in Nunavut.
“The government has to adhere to its own legislation and has to follow these requirements. When can we expect to see this? We’ve had Nunavut now for 20 years. When can we see this?” Quassa said.
Joanasie replied by saying that the government would “look into the Quebec signage the member referenced and how they operate their linguistic publications.”
How about the grade 10 (Mandatory) Inuktitut students from Inuksuk High create signs while their (sub) teacher tries to figure out how to work the AV equipment to get Degrassi up and running…?
The cover photo:
“iiiii! Matuingaajugut” means “Yes! Our lid is open” or “Our cap is open”
Proper term would be “Aaaa, Ukkuingaartugut”
Dialectal difference should never be pointed out. We are all Inuit regardless of our dialects. I can point out a few words that are said differently in Nunavut and Nunavik but we are all Inuit and fighting for our language. So please refrain from racist remarks.
I am failing to see how that previous statement was racist.
Racist? You calling me a racist? What’s racist is the majority population chose to not include Inuktitut/Inuktut as a mandatory class for all grades and ages. There are 600 pages and thousands of words in the Late Thomassie Qumaks Inuktitut Dictionary. Many more unwritten too.
The K.I school board (Formerly known as K.S.B) has Inuktitut classes for all the way through high school graduation.
I’m talking about Inuktitut essays, oral exams, definition for different complicated words tests, formerly bible study (In Inuktitut). It is not all cross word and word searches that Inuktitut can offer.
As the language was flourishing with no writing system for thousands of years, kind of disappointing to see the first ever Inuit territory of Canada not make Inuktitut/Inuktut language a primary language (Inuit English first language?!?). I am just saying despite the dialects and common words, the language can be used everyday same as english.
we should also be open to being corrected.
what they pointed out is correct.
can either take it as a lesson, or like you, call it racist and negative.
we can all work together
Who are you blaming for this ?
Inuit people have been in charge of teaching Inuktitut for
many years. You , an MLA. didn’t know this ?
If you want to fine people, then go after the Inuktitut teachers
and Inuk advisors who have failed their own people.
We should start an enquiry , similar to MMIWG, and accuse
the appropriate Inuk people with LINGUICIDE.
Destruction of their own language through laziness and
incompetence.
I &a other West Nunavut youth will bear witness to this.
Agree 100 %. It’s inuit who destroys everything for fellow Inuit. The shaming, the ridicule, it’s terrible. I heard good Inuit people say that they wish their kids could never hear what’s on radio, coming from Inuit putting down Inuit, in everything from hunting , language, culture! You name it. Inuit hurt other Inuit so much.
You need to give your head a shake! Inuit have not been in charge in making Inuktitut to be used in schools and the public, Inuit are lobbying the GN to make it so, don’t confuse it now. The people in charge are the directors in the GN, the consultants, the so called experts that make the GN wheel turn. These MLAs just listens to their briefing notes from the ones in charge.
The GN needs to do a better job and also these politicians, we need real leadership in the GN that is not afraid and that has the will to take this on. Big changes needed in the GN, not just another carbon copy of a government from somewhere else.
Why do we have a French school???????????????
Because French is an official language of both this country and this territory.
You would deny an education in an official Nunavut language?
Ummm, you don’t wish to see speakers of all of Nunavut’s official languages served?
You only need one question mark to show your intolerance… More than one, you show your stupidity…
Only kids of francophone people go there. It’s not going to stop Inuit from learning Inuktitut. However, all the other schools work in English. Why isn’t it one English (large-ish) school for kids of anglophone people, one French school for kids of francophone people (both with mandatory Inuktitut classes) and all the other schools in Inuktitut in Iqaluit, as it should be?
It would be amazing to have an inuktitut school. But one question: who would teach there? There is a distinct lack of inuktitut speaking teachers. Actually there’s a distinct lack of inuktitut speakers in the workforce. I can’t imagine any business would truly have an issue with hiring inuktitut speakers if there were enough available. Its a wicked problem: we want more inuktitut speakers; thus we need inuktitut schooling; thus we need inuktitut speaking teachers; therefore we need more inuktitut speakers. How do we solve the problem instead of simply standing there decrying the lack of inuktitut speakers? Perhaps we need to encourage inuktitut speakers to become teachers, we need to reform the curriculum of current inuktitut courses and incentivize people to learn the language to fluency and to teach those around them.
Very observant, if business, organizations shouldn’t comply they should get the ruler, and their hands hit with a stick or soap in their mouth! do it or else! does it sound familiar?
Take a moment, scale the font, it is the same size. Inuktituit is on top, then take a moment and consider that no matter who does the translation to prepare the signs, as witnessed hundreds of times, there is always disagreement on interpretation. Thinks about it. You are going to fine someone when the facts are overpowered by emotion. La Belle Province with snow …….
Maybe NTI and the RIA’s should invest in Inuktitut emersion schools with there mining money! Then enter into an agreement with the GN to fund on a per student basis. If you really want to increase the language use we need people who can speak and write it technically. The GN has a duty to provide education and they are doing that, but with NTIs and RIA’s mining money and specific focus they could develop the curriculum and train teachers faster then the GN. Its time for NTI and RIA’s to step up and do more then just complain at what the GN is doing. Be part of the solution!
A lot of us are waiting for the day when we can speak our own language in a work place especially in a staff, safety and as member of a committee.
Someone is going to make a bold move and demand to speak in Inuktitut in a work place or meetings and then their department will be scrambling to accommodate the service but its not happening yet because so called transients managers from south still have absolutely no respect for our way of life and language.
Why cant the politicians see it yet let alone do something about still on going to this day even after 20 years of so called land claims.
Yep, that may happen, and then on the very same day the demand will be put in to have simultaneous translation into both English and French, and the staff will be scrambling to fulfill that legal requirement also.
It will be a mess, hilarity will ensue…sarcasm.
Establish a standard Inuktut language, support it, enforce it…do it or lose it!
You guys don t have language gestapo , like we do here in quebec
Indeed, the references to copying Quebec’s system is more than a bit disheartening, and seem to show a lack of understanding that Quebec has been able to do that because they have recourse to the notwithstanding clause, which is not a tool available to Nunavut.
It’s half a century too late to have an Inuktitut book for grammar and syntax like the ones students used forever to learn Latin, French and German, or like the Teach Yourself language books. The grammar book produced around 1885 by the Rev Edmund Peck is comprehensive but extremely cumbersome. He was the Anglican minister and originator of syllabics for Inuit. Who has a copy of it any more?
Preservation of Inuktitut may be a lost cause when teachers don’t have book setting out grammar and syntax either for themselves, for students or anyone else.
It’s also half a century too late to have available a really good two-way pocket dictionary. Of course, it would have to use the Latin (English) script rather than syllabics—yet another ball dropped.
This would hardly be the issue that it’s become if Inuit had become educated and qualified for the managerial and professional jobs in their own land, with truly effective bilingualism achieved from infancy—like Justin Trudeau and thousands of others.
Our parents our grandparents were taught with one book with no consultants with no Internet with no teachers in class, not one person telling them they are doing it wrong or saying it wrong! What is it they are hiding what is it they are planning
Contact your Senator for Nunavut about the Bill c-262, and our rights as indigenous people will be on the same level playing field as those who oppose but live in Nunavut. We can get the language on par with the French and English spoken in Nunavut, our home and native land, hope you sang that along
Interesting how all of you posters are posting in English and not Inuktut. If YOU don’t care enough to use it in a bilingual newspaper to reinforce your point, then ………