Columns

Iqaluit suicides cast pall over Pauktuutit meeting

Delegates to Pauktuutit's annual general meeting in Iqaluit this week began a suicide workshop just days after two men in Iqaluit had taken their own lives.

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- A Pauktuutit workshop on suicide prevention began just days after two young men in Iqaluit ended their own lives.

"Yesterday we were at the church burying one of our friends who committed suicide," Martha Grieg told Pauktuutit delegates Tuesday morning.

On March 16, many Iqaluit residents attended a funeral for a man who had killed himself the week before. That same week, a man from Cape Dorset also killed himself in Iqaluit.

"There are some people who don't want to talk about it," she said of a social problem that reaches deeply into every community in Nunavut. "There are others who don't want to hear anything at all."

Greig, whose son's father committed suicide, urged delegates, who attended the workshop from communities in the Northwest Territories, Nunavik and Labrador to speak openly about how suicide has intruded their lives.

Lena Wolkie of Sachs Harbour told the dozens of people who had gathered that she's suffering great pain from the recent suicides of two family members.

"On October 17, my son killed himself by shooting himself," she told the delegates, many of whom shared in her sorrow and tears. "On December 22, my uncle's son committed suicide. We're a small community. It's shocking."

In the succeeding months, she kept her feelings locked inside, initially refusing counselling for fear of making herself vulnerable.

"I didn't want people to find out what kind of life I had," she said, wiping the tears away from her cheeks and urging people not to be stubborn or proud, but to talk openly about suicide.

Increased awareness

Two weeks ago, a trekker from Kimmirut walked to Iqaluit and back to raise money for a hockey arena.

Residents in that South Baffin hamlet believe an arena will reduce the number of suicides -- there were two last year -- in the community.

Last summer a group from Inukjuak travelled across the North on snowmobiles talking to people about the problems of suicide.

According to statistics from the GNWT department of health and social servicess, 25 people committed suicide in the NWT in 1994.

Most NWT suicides in Nunavut

Of those, 21 were in Nunavut, almost all were Inuit and almost all were male. The youngest was 13; the average age was 23.

The cultural shift that occurred when Inuit living in outpost camps were brought together into communities to live the way of southern Canadians was identified as a severe disruption to northern people.

"Our highest priority was to stay alive," said one delegate, who views drugs, alcohol and unemployment as gateways to the depressive states preceding suicide. "At that time, when I was young, alcohol was unheard of."

Annie Napayok of Arviat said as a child, her grandfather often told her not to think of committing suicide.

"I used to wonder why he told me that when I was scared of death," she said. "I didn't think about the burdens in life that would come around."

No communication

Inuit are regaining their culture and their language, another delegate said, but they aren't learning how to communicate.

"For my generation -- and we don't like to hear it -- but in our Inuit culture, we're not used to communicating with our parents because they weren't communicating with their parents," she said. "I learned when I was young to keep things inside and not communicate. We gotta break that."

"I couldn't cry at home because I had no one to cry to," she said, expressing her grief in tears. "Since I've been here, I can feel myself getting stronger."

Part of talking about suicide, said Pauktuutit President Martha Flaherty, is learning how to help people who reveal their suicidal thoughts but don't seek counselling.

Another delegate said she has children who've comtemplated suicide, but she was at a loss as to how to help.

NIC conference will ponder Nunavut language policy

About 60 people will gather in Iqaluit March 24-26 to talk about Nunavut language issues.

JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- The job of developing a language policy for Nunavut will begin next week, at a three-day conference inside Iqaluit's cadet call.

Organized by the Nunavut Implementation Commission, the conference will bring together about 60 participants and observers from Nunavut, Nunavik, Labrador and the Northwest Territories.

"I think the big question will be what kind of language policies do we want the Nunavut government to look at," said Simon Awa, the NIC's executive director.

Awa said the commission can afford to pay the costs of bringing only 15 people to the conference. Other participants are sponosred by their own organizations.

Awa explained that the commission, in its Footprints 2 report, recommended holding a Nunavut language conference some time in the second half of 1997.

But he said the three parties to the Nunavut accord were slow to react to that recommendation, so the NIC decided to go ahead and organize the conference on their own.

NIC chief commissioner John Amagoalik, and Peter Ernerk, another NIC commissioner, will co-chair the conference. Ernerk has recently been appointed as the Nunavut government's deputy minister of elders, culture and youth.

NTI President Jose Kusugak will provide a historical look back at the work of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada's language commission, which Kusugak chaired in the late 1970s.

ITC's language commission created the "new" system of syllabic orthography that replaced the old syllabic orthography introduced by the Anglican church in the 19th century.

Syllabics and Roman orthography

Awa said participants will also talk about the syllabic and Roman systems for writing Inuktitut, and whether Nunavut should promote Roman orthography instead of syllabics.

In Footprints 2, the commission had recommended that leaders adopt a standard writing system for the Inuit language before Nunavut's laws are translated.

Awa also said adopting Roman orthography -- used in Greenland, Labrador, and the Western Kitikmeot --  would make it easier to develop a literature in the Inuit language.

But he also said the people of Nunavik -- who also use syllabics -- would be affected by any movement away from syllabics and towards Roman orthography. Because of that, the NIC has invited two observers from Nunavik's Avataq Cultural Institute.

Another issue that delegates will deal with is how to make the Nunavut government friendlier to elders, Awa said.

"The OIC [office of the interim commissioner] has been talking a lot about creating a user-friendly government," Awa said. "We have to talk about how exactly to do that."

Other participants will include Judy Tutcho, the NWT's commissioner of official languages, Nunavut MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell, Elijah Erkloo of the Nunavut Social Development Council, numerous elders from a wide variety of communities, along with consultants, youth representaves and education officials, Awa said.

Kivalliq leaders support pilot project

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- Kivalliq leaders voted this week to support the controversial Keewatin pilot project.

Under that plan, tens of millions of dollars worth of territorial govenrment infrastructure and programs would be transfered to an association made up of the Keewatin's municipal governments.

At a recent meeting in Rankin Inlet, most Kivalliq mayors spoke in favor of the projects.

If the project goes forward, municipal governments will gain financial control for public spending on things like schools, airports, garages, public housing.

Manitok Thompson, a Keewatin MLA who is minister of municipal and communities affairs, stated in a GNWT news release that the pilot project will give decision-makers at the community level more control over local development.

"That's what it's all about," Thompson says.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. is opposed to going ahead with the Keewatin pilot project before division. They say that Nunavut's legislative assembly should get a chance to look at it first.

MACA report: Iqaluit still in trouble

A report done by municipal inspectors from MACA says the Town of Iqaluit's administration is still beset with the problems that caused the 1993 firing of the mayor, council and SAO in 1993.

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- Iqaluit Town Council has recently found itself in a position similar to a 1993 council that was booted out of power by the GNWT because it didn't pay its debts.

"One of the key factors that led to the appointment of a municipal administrator in 1993 was the severe financial problems faced by the Town, including its inability to meet the repayment terms of the debentures payable to the GNWT," states a recent report done by inspectors from the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Last fall, newly elected Councillors Matthew Spence and Lynda Gunn asked MACA to investigate and evaluate the Town's administration.

"Because we were so new, we wanted to take a look at the administration and get a third-party, unbiased view of how the administration is running," Spence explained.

MACA inspectors began their investigation with outstanding commitments made by the previous council, elected in the wake of the dissolution of the 1993 council and the one-year administration of the Town by government-appointed municipal administrators in 1994.

"The Town is at a pivotal point in its emergence from a municipal administrator," states the report. "Some good progress has been made since 1994, but some of the concerns that were in existence in 1994 still exist."

The report covers financial management, human resources management and general administration by the Town's administration during the 1997 calendar year.

Unpaid debentures until December

At the end of 1996, the Town had about $4.2 million in outstanding long-term debentures owing to the GWNT. These debentures are loans from the territorial government to the municipality.

The Town has one fixed debenture payment; the others are land development debentures tied to revenue collected through land sales and leases. Under the repayment terms, the Town is legally bound to forward its lease revenues to the GNWT.

As of Dec. 19, 1997, when the report was completed -- it was tabled at a council meeting last week -- the Town had made no debenture payments for revenue collected during 1997.

MACA inspector Don MacDonald, one of the authors of the report, briefed Spence and Gunn on the financial position of the Town prior to Christmas.

"At that point we were very concerned about the situation because, technically, we were in default and in exactly the same position as that previous council," Coun Spence said.

"Certainly that was a concern to me as a councillor and it was a concern to some of the other councillors, but I think at this point, the problem's been solved, at least for now. The payments have been made."

Debenture payments now made

By the end of December, the Town had made a debenture payment to the GNWT of more than $600,000. Another payment of about $33,000 was made in February.

Spence blames part of the Town's failure to keep up on payments on the change in senior staff. Both the senior administative officer and the director of finance have held their positions less than two years.

"It was largely due to a lack of good record keeping and the fact that a number of positions had turned over during that period," Spence said. "For some of the loan agreements, there wasn't even copies at the Town office."

But the staffing situation hasn't improved. And, in the short term, it'll get worse.

SAO and social services director leaving

Sara Brown, the town's senior administrative officer, announced she's leaving at the end of March, along with Roger Sevigny, the acting director of social services.

"It is going to leave the Town in a bad spot," Spence said.

To deal with the absence of an SAO, two councillors and the mayor will sit on an executive committee. Someone will also be appointed to the job on an interim basis.

"In the transitional period, we're going to be more actively involved in the day-to-day administration of the Town," Spence said.

Inspectors outlined a number of recommendations to deal with administration deficiencies and state in the report that MACA will monitor the Town "very closely to ensure that real progress is made."

Greenlanders elect first woman MP

A 25-year old woman from Nuuk was Greenland's top vote-getter in Mar. 11 elections.

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- For the first time in its history, Greenland is represented in the Danish parliament by a woman.

Ellen Kristensen, 25, of Nuuk, won more votes than any other candidate for the Atassut party, taking the party's seat away from political veteran, Otto Steenholdt, 61.

Kristensen becomes one of two people who will fill Greenland's two seats in the 179-seat Danish legislature. The other member is Hans-Pavia Rosing of the Siumut party

"My victory is an indicator that voters felt the need for a shift in generations within the party," Kristensen, said to a Danish journalist last week. She said she believes she received many votes from young voters and women.

"And I know from many of them -- especially women -- that they voted for me, even though they normally voted for a different party," said Ellen Kristensen to Politiken.

With 4,011 votes, she stood first among all Greenlandic candidates. Under Denmark's complex system of proportional representation, voters cast ballots twice: one for a political party, and the other for a candidate representing that political party.

With 8,569 votes, Kristensen's party, Atassut, finished just behind the Siumut party, which took 8,646 votes.

Under Denmark's voting rules, each of those political parties is therefore guaranteed a seat. The top candidate in each party normally fills those guaranteed seats.

Support from women

Kristensen's political base has been Atassut's youth organization, of which she has been the national leader for nearly a year. She also sits as a member of Nuuk's municipal council, to which she was elected last year.

She'll likely give up that position when she moves to Denmark later this year to begin her new job.

Kristensen, who is trained in business and office administration, will also have to give up her sales job at Tele Greenland, Greenland's telecommunication's company.

"One of my main issues is that there must be more information on the political work getting out to the people. A lack of information generates a lack of trust," Kristensen says.

More education needed

Other Greenland-Denmark issues are Greenland's block funding arrangement, negotiations on mineral rights between Denmark and Greenland, and free access for Greenlanders to Danish education and training.

"It is important that more Greenlanders become well-educated, and it is necessary, before we can begin to talk about self-rule," she said.

Since 1980, Greenland's mostly Inuit population have enjoyed a form of self-government called "home rule."

Kristensen is also a strong believer in sexual equality.

"During the campaign I didn't suggest that people should vote for me because I am a woman. But equality is important and women are really coming into their own in Greenlandic politics. For example, in the municipal election in Nuuk last year for the first time we had a majority of women, with nine women out of a total 17 members."

Like her predecessor, Kristensen will support the Venstre -- or Liberal -- party in the Danish parliament.

Editor's note: The quotes and much of the information in this story came from an article by Inge Methling that first appeared in the Danish language Politiken Weekly. Hugh Lloyd kindly provided a loose translation for us.

CARC "shocked" at fast-tracking of new diamond mine

IQALUIT -- A public watchdog organization is alarmed that a second proposed diamond mine at Lac de Gras in the western NWT won't get the same level of regulatory scrutiny as its predecessor.

The Canadian Arctic Resources Committee expressed "shock" this week that the federal government appears to be fast-tracking mining development in the region without adequate public consultation.

DIAND officials concluded last week that they will not refer a project submitted by Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. to the federal minister of the environment for a full environmental panel review.

Instead, the project will be assessed through a mid-level environmental review process known as a "Comprehensive Study," to be done by a regional committee made up of government and industry representatives.

The decision was swiftly condemned by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, which accused Ottawa of trying to conceal the project's potential socio-economic and environmental impacts.

"DIAND had 30 days to make this decision and they made it in less than a week, which I think raises certain questions about... whether they took everything into consideration," Kevin O'Reilly, CARC's research director said.

Second huge diamond mine

Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. has spent about $70 million to date on exploration and proposes to invest another $875 million to develop a mine 325 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife at Lac de Gras.

The company's own three-volume submission to DIAND contained 130 pages devoted to public issues and concerns raised at meetings and workshops that Diavik has conducted over the last three years.

O'Reilly said that should have been enough to show federal officials that northern residents who will be affected by the mine must also be involved in selecting an appropriate review process.

"If this is any way they're going to approach those things in the future, of course there is a lot of concern," O'Reilly said.

To refer a project to a panel review and subsequent public hearings, DIAND must be convinced that there is significant public concern or significant adverse or unknown environmental impacts.

"We do not presently have clear indications that the environmental effects of the proposed project will be uncertain or significantly adverse, or that there is significant public concern," Debra Myles, a project officer for DIAND, informed a Diavik official.

Under the comprehensive study, there is a public review only at the end of the environmental review process.

Nunavut board wants a say

The Nunavut Impact Review Board has no jurisdiction in the area, but NIRB director Joe Ahmad said the board is interested in the Diavik project and will want to discuss it with the regional environmental review committee at some point.

"Although there could be some impacts in our area because of that mine, those impacts are not really very large," Ahmad said.

The Diavik project is the second most advanced diamond project in the Northwest Territories. It's located just 35 kilometres southeast of BHP Diamonds' Ekati project, which was subjected to an impact study and full public environmental panel review.

Among other objections to DIAND's decision, CARC is concerned that without a broad environmental assessment, any review of the Diavik project will not take into consideration the cumulative effects of mining in the region.

Cumulative impacts?

CARC says there are unanswered questions about what these two projects together will have on caribou migration and fish habitat.

"The size of this project and the fact that it's just south of BHP, and when you combine the two of them with all the other exploration activity that's going on, it raises a lot of questions about what sort of impact it's going to have," O'Reilly said.

The Diavik project entails damming and draining a portion of Lac de Gras to mine kimberlite pipes on the lake bed. Lac de Gras is at the headwaters of the Coppermine River and an important source of fish for the community of Kuglugtuk.

Students enrol in record numbers at Nunavut's college

Nunavut Arctic College is doing more with more, as students reap the benefits of Ottawa's $39.9 milliion contribution to Nunavut-related training.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- The drive to prepare candidates for the new territory's civil service helped boost enrolment at Nunavut Arctic College by nearly 25 per cent last year.

The community college, with regional campuses in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay, reported an increase of 169 full-time, and 126 part-time students for the semester ending Dec. 31 1997, pushing its overall enrolment to 1,485.

College officials predict enrolment figures to increase again in 1998 by another 15 per cent, as Inuit beneficiaries sign up for a range of new and expanded programs funded by the Nunavut Human Resource Development Strategy.

The $39 million federal job training fund was established in late 1996 to ensure that sufficient numbers of Inuit will be ready by division to take on jobs at all levels in the new Nunavut government.

Nunavut planners are striving to reach 50 per cent Inuit employment in the public service by April 1999, as recommended in the Nunavut Implementaion Commission's Footprints 2 report.

Eleven new programs

The college has so far received the bulk of the funding, used to develop 11 new programs and to expand courses at community learning centres.

"Because of the funding that came in we were able to offer those existing programs in more locations," said Ian Rose, the college's director of policy and programs.

"For example, as well as the base-funded portion in Rankin, the strategy allows us to run management studies programs in Igloolik and Kugluktuk."

About $25 million of the NHRDS money is expected to be funneled through Nunavut Arctic College by 2000, when the current job-training strategy expires.

The college is offering 19 different programs in 15 communities this academic year, with 269 full-time and 304 part-time students enrolled in NHRDS-sponsored courses.

Course offerings include four basic skills programs aimed at preparing students for entry into diploma level studies, as well as certificate and diploma programs in management studies, adult education, computer operation, human resources, financial management, science and technology and legal studies.

Though all graduating students will meet the requirements for entry-level jobs within the new government, whether or not they choose to join the civil service is a different matter.

"They're not all going to work at the Nunavut government, but if the new government has 600 positions to fill, it looks like we're getting a match in terms of the numbers," college president Greg Welch said.

Strong student interest

Student interest in the college's new financial management diploma program proved to be the surprise success of the semester.

The two-year program is designed to permit students to fulfil about half the professional requirements set forth by the Certified General Accountants (CGA) Association of Canada.

"When we were designing this my initial worry was that there were going to be some real problems with this one, and I thought enrolment levels would be low," Rose said.

His concerns were unfounded: "Currently, there are six full-time students and 40 part-time students. This has exceeced what we ever thought we'd get."

Even with student rolls brimming, the Nunavut government will likely find itself in stiff competition with Inuit land claims organizations and the private sector for many graduates, especially those who are following the college's computer specialist program.

"This is an area where the supply does not meet the demand," Welch said.

Interest in a new executive Master's of Business Administration (MBA) program, which the college has recently arranged to offer in conjunction with St Mary's University of Nova Scotia, also exceeded expectations.

Though the MBA program only received final approval last December, the college has received more applications for admission to the program than it has room for.

Opinion

Language in Nunavut: Let the people speak!

Brigitta O'Regan
Special to Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT -- April l, 1999, the official birthdate of Nunavut, is just around the corner. In anticipation of this important event, the divisional boards of education in the Kitikmeot, the Keewatin, and Baffin, have proposed a new model for the Nunavut school system.

But while the efforts of the three divisional boards to restructure existing educational institutions and services have received some play in the media, relatively little information has been made public about the steps the boards have taken toward planning a language policy for the new territory.

It was in the late seventies that the strong link between identity, language, and achievement among aboriginal people was first recognized. Since then, aboriginal groups have made the revival of indigenous languages their priority. Yet, in spite of these efforts, the use of aboriginal languages continues to decline.

In 1492, when Columbus arrived in North America, there were more than 1,000 indigenous languages spoken on this continent; today there are only about 200.

As one of the six aboriginal languages in the NWT, Inuktitut is spoken in most homes and is the language most Inuit children first learn to read and write in the eastern half of Nunavut. Compared to the poor status of aboriginal languages spoken in other parts of the world, Inuktitut is doing quite well.

But this is hardly the time to be complacent, for statistics show that English is rapidly gaining ground on Inuktitut, especially among the young who make up a third of the Nunavut population.

Over the years, the Baffin Divisional Board of Education has strived to be true to its mission of promoting a culturally sensitive learning environment in schools. The board has spent time and money on producing culturally appropriate curricula including picture books and other Inuktitut materials for Inuit children.

Yet, despite the board's efforts, most educators and parents will agree that children's language skills in both Inuktitut and English are less than adequate.

Do board policies work?

Currently, the BDBE policy on the language of instruction for Inuit children requires that Inuktitut be used exclusively for the first few years of schooling and that a transition be made to English around the Grade 4 level. But, is this policy working for the children?

The policy is based on the latest available research in language learning, the so-called CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency) theory, a hypothesis first put forward by Jim Cummins, an authority on second language acquisition at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

He claims that children are able to transfer cognitive academic skills across languages, provided they are able to read and write in their indigenous language first.

Surprisingly, this theory is considered valid even if the indigenous language does not use Roman orthography. In theory, then, a child should have no problems transferring cognitive skills gained from reading and writing Inuktitut syllabics to the learning of English.

But not all educators are convinced that this theory works. Inuit patents, too, are doubtful that reading and writing in Inuktitut exclusively in the early elementary grades will improve their children's language skills in English. As a result, some parents have started to enroll their children in the English language stream.

The question is: Are these parents doing the right thing?

Naturally, parents want the best for their children. They want them to be healthy and happy, to do well in school and to be able to compete for well-paying jobs and-or go on to college or university.

English: The language of power

For Inuit parents, choosing English as the language of instruction for their children is based on the economic reality of day-to-day life in the Northwest Territories. It is a fact that most of the well paying jobs are held by English or French speakers or bilingual Inuit.

An elder in Iqaluit put it this way: "You only have to look around this town to see who has the good jobs, to know what language has more power."

The elder has a point. The evidence is there -- English still has superior status in the larger communities. Next time you are in Iqaluit, visit the local stores and look at the signs. For the most part, what you will see are unilingual English signs.

Perhaps it is time for the silent majority to speak out. For it is up to the Inuit to decide upon a language policy for Nunavut that will designate which language will be used in the public sphere. After all, it is their children and grandchildren who will suffer the economic as well as the social and psychological consequences of a language policy that does not address their needs and aspirations.

Ordinary citizens should be involved

How can the ordinary citizen -- the parent, the teacher, the elder -- be involved in deciding upon a language policy for Nunavut?

This is by no means an easy task. Holding a plebiscite, which would give the people of Nunavut the opportunity to decide which aspects of public life to designate as bilingual and which ones as unilingual, may be one option.

Another possibility would be to hold a series of town hall meetings in communities across Nunavut, so that everyone would have an opportunity to participate in the process of language planning.

In addition, such meetings would provide an ideal forum for informing people as to what is happening in aboriginal communities around the world. This would enable all stakeholders to reflect upon the issues and make informed decisions based on fact rather than speculation.

But, back to the issue of the language(s) of instruction in the schools. It is not only the parents who feel that the NWT school system is failing their children, but there is also a sense among teachers that the education Inuit children receive in elementary school is not preparing them adequately for the high curriculum that is taught in English, of course.

High school teachers concerned

Recently, some teachers from Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit expressed concern about the level of academic performance of some of their students and suggested that English instruction for Inuit children should begin in the early elementary grades.

No doubt this well-intentioned proposal was made with the hope that children would be more successful in their studies and become bilingual in the process.

At first blush, bilingualism for Inuit children seems to be highly desirable. Unfortunately, studies show that only if both the mother tongue of the majority of the people and the other official language or languages are designated for specific use, will the mother tongue survive.

Research further suggests that "only in situations where two ethnolinguistic groups are equal in status and power, but not necessarily in size, will large sections of the population become bilingual."

If the latter theory is applied to the situation in Nunavut where English is still the more powerful language in terms of social and economic status, the school children of today could well be the last generation of Inuktitut speakers. Obviously this is a possibility too painful to contemplate.

But what is the alternative?

Different models of language planning

Around the globe, different models of language planning have been tried. Since the 1960s, which witnessed the birth of newly independent nations worldwide, some aboriginal states and territories have opted for internationalization.

Internationalization is the practice of adopting a non-indigenous language, usually the language of the colonial past, for wider communication or international trade, while designating the indigenous language for use in parliament and-or the media.

With regard to education, there are several models that have met with success. In Singapore, for instance, English, Mathematics, and the mother tongue of a child -- all core subjects in high school -- also make up 80 per cent of the elementary school curriculum. Therefore, the transition from elementary school to high school is made much easier for the children.

In several European and African countries, some elementary and secondary school subjects are designated to be taught in the indigenous language, others in a non-indigenous language from elementary school through high school. This model seems to work equally well in developed as in developing countries.

Whether holding a plebiscite or setting up town hall meetings in the communities, the important thing is that the voices of all stakeholders -- parents and children, elders and teachers -- are heard before a decision is made as to the appropriate model for language planning in Nunavut.

It would be a serious mistake to leave language planning to the bureaucrats or experts alone, for the simple reason that there is too much at stake for the people of Nunavut.

This would be a timely opportunity for the Nunavut Implementation Commission to create a public forum -- such a forum would allow all citizens of Nunavut to take part in the discussions.

Set policies first

And while the more immediate linguistic concerns like syllabics versus Roman orthography, or the question of dialects need to be addressed, research has shown that it is the nonlinguistic aspects of language planning that need to be sorted out before deciding upon a language policy for a newly-founded nation territory.

Ideally, Inuit and non-lnuit must take part in the process, but most important is that the voice of the Inuit be heard, so that the language policy for the new territory reflects the will as well as the heart and soul of the people.

A little over 40 years ago Benjamin Lee Whorf, an American linguist and anthropologist, first put forward the hypothesis that the structure of a language influences how its speakers make sense of the natural and social world around them.

If language does indeed influence our interpretation of the world around us, then losing Inuktitut, their mother tongue, would amount to nothing less for Inuit than foregoing their identity as a people, for as the Irish nationalist Thomas Davis put it

A people without a language of its own is only half a people.

Brigitta O'Regan is language consultant with the Canadian Educators Group in Kamloops. B.C. She's currently working with the Nunavut teacher education program.

My Little Corner of Canada

JOHN AMAGOALIK

A call to duty

After playing hard to get for awhile, it looks as though Jean Charest is preparing the groundwork for his jump into Quebec politics. In the last few days, Mr. Charest has made the kind of noises which indicate he will go after the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party.

The situation has left him with no other alternative. If Mr. Charest still wants to be prime minister of Canada sometime in the future or if he wants to leave his mark on Canadian history, he cannot turn away from this call to duty. If he does not answer the call, people will remember.

Recognizing that he could not shake his Gomer Pyle image, Daniel Johnson wisely stepped aside, creating a vacuum in the leadership of the federalist forces in Quebec.

Because of his continued popularity in Quebec and his impact in the last referendum, Mr. Charest was immediately seen by many people as the natural choice to challenge Mr. Bouchard and the separatists in the next provincial election, expected sometime this year. Public opinion polls have shown that he has the best chance of beating the PQ government.

If Mr. Johnson had stayed as leader of the Liberals, he would have had little chance against the charismatic Bouchard. It is not guaranteed that Charest will beat Bouchard if he does make the jump, but it certainly means that the next election in Quebec will be worth watching.

Polls indicate that the majority of Quebecors do not want another referendum soon. It appears they are getting tired of Mr. Parizeau's "endless visits to the dentist."

Mr. Charest and Mr. Bouchard were once comrades under Brian Mulroney. Mr. Bouchard jumped the Tory ship to defect to the separatists. Mr. Mulroney left the once mighty Tories in tatters. It was up to Mr. Charest to salvage what was left.

If Charest does jump into the breach and wins the provincial election, it would be poetic justice for him. But we should not be assuming that he will win. In Quebec politics, nothing is assured.

After he becomes the leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, the first thing Mr. Charest should do is to have a good meeting with Matthew Coon Come and Zebedee Nungak.

Editorial

Next week, about 60 people will gather at Iqaluit's cadet hall to engage in some belated public discussion on language policy for Nunavut.

The Nunavut Implementation Commission had recommended in its Footprints 2 report that such a conference be held some time in the second half of 1997. But none of the three parties to the Nunavut accord have shown much interest in sponsoring such a gathering, so the NIC has gone ahead to organize its own.

Their agenda is loaded with difficult issues. For example, the time has come for Nunavut residents to take a long hard look at which writing system would best ensure the survival of the Inuit language. Inuit now have a choice between two writing systems: syllabics and the Roman alphabet. Both were brought to the Arctic by Europeans, and neither can be called "traditional" in the real meaning of the term.

Many thoughtful people now believe that the syllabic system has outlived its usefulness. They believe that Roman orthography is easier to read and to teach. Some believe that the Inuit language may not survive in Nunavut if it continues to be written mainly in syllabics.

They're probably right. But that doesn't make it an easy question to resolve. Elders and those who have a vested interest in syllabics will likely object to any movement towards Roman orthography.

The Nunavut government faces a more practical issue: What writing system should be used to translate the Nunavut government's statutes and other official materials? If these are to be accessible to people in Coppermine and Cambridge Bay, then the answer is obvious: use Roman orthography.

Another difficult issue is how a government whose work force is more than 50 per cent non-Inuit will provide services in the Inuit language.

If the Inuit language's official status in Nunavut is to mean anything at all, these issues must be explained, discussed, and resolved. Next week is a good time to start. JB Back to Top
Back to Nunatsiaq News

Editorial

Beware of making bad law

When people are shaken to their very core by tragedy, it's natural that many will beseech their governments to do something, anything, to ensure that such painful events never happen again.

Sometimes these reactions stimulate badly-needed reform and the creation of useful new laws. But sometimes they bring about bad laws that few bother to obey.

The people of Iqaluit have been shaken to their core by such a tragedy. Last weekend, a tethered team of sled dogs mauled and killed a six-year-old child.

There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the owner of those dogs violated any bylaw or showed any disregard for public safety. The owner himself requested that his dogs be destroyed. The dogs were where they're supposed to be. Tragically, the apparently unsupervised child was not.

Inevitably however, some people are asking that Iqaluit's town council amend its animal control bylaw to create even more stringent measures, such as requirements for mandatory fenced in enclosures and rules forcing owners to keep their dogs even further away from the built-up areas of the town.

Some are suggesting that the territorial government create new rules that would apply to all communities.

Such is human nature. But those who would rush to change our laws should first wait until their shock and grief has passed, and only then think clearly and carefully about what they would propose.

For example, they may end up making it so difficult for people to keep dog teams that no one will bother raising them anymore. In Iqaluit many dog teams are kept by hobbyists and tourism outfitters. But in other communities and regions they're kept by hunters who can't afford to use snowmobiles anymore.

Properly supervised young children do not get mauled by dog teams, any more than they are hit by vehicles or burned in fires. Again, however, it's unlikely that any new laws or amendments to current laws would persuade people to supervise their children any more than they do now. Human behaviour is rarely changed by the coercive intervention of governments.

Before spending unneccessary time considering new bylaw amendments that could turn out to be unneccessary, Iqaluit's town councillors have other urgent matters to deal with. According to a recent municipal review by MACA, they include a long list of old bylaws that must be modernized, a worsening financial management situation, and the need to hire a new senior administrative officer.

Sometimes the hardest political decision of all is the decision to do nothing. But sometimes governments do best when they do nothing. JB

These materials are Copyright (C) 1998 Nortext Publishing Corporation (Iqaluit), and may be freely distributed throughout the Internet, or other electronic computer networks or bulletin boards, as long as this notice remains intact and the articles are reproduced in their entirety. These materials may not be reprinted for commercial publication in print or other media without the permission of the publisher.