Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Dec. 12th, 2022

[Alexina Kublu]

I did it again.

[Witness spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

I apologize. Thank you, Lori.

We have mentioned many times at the ministerial task force that if you take indigenous language protection seriously, provinces have to support their people and their region in their language protection. I believe that provincial governments have to take the responsibility to support and protect their people in their province and their languages.

Official languages that are recognized should include all indigenous languages in Canada. The Inuit language is officially recognized in Inuinnaqtun, Dene and Inuvialuktun languages, and in Gwich'in. They have to identify in each territory or province the indigenous languages spoken in their province or state and officially recognize them as official languages so that they are protected. Do not lump them into one recognition of indigenous languages. There are specific languages to be protected in the territory you're in or the province you're in.

You have to reaffirm that we recognize the importance of protecting your indigenous language, and we want to make sure that we do not lose it and that we continue to nurture it.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you, Alexina.

I would like Ron Tremblay to respond to that as well.

[Grand Chief Ron Tremblay]

Woliwon. Thank you very much.

Yes, I truly believe it is very crucial for all indigenous languages to be official. Back home in New Brunswick, we even struggle to reclaim the original names of our rivers. The river that flows through our homeland is called St. John. I've never met this gentleman before, but we've always known that river as being Wolastoq, which clearly defines who we are. We are the people of that beautiful and bountiful river, so that's our responsibility.

We're struggling with the present provincial government, which is putting up roadblocks even to our simply reclaiming the name of our homeland. It is really discouraging when we come up against these roadblocks from the government and they're not following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action with respect to our reclaiming our names and honouring our languages.

It's a constant battle for us even to do something as simple as giving the river back her beautiful name. Our languages are the first languages of the lands we're from, and when we do ceremonies, our land, our waterways, the trees and all the animals know what we're speaking.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Ms. Idlout.

Colleagues, we have very little time, but we could do a very truncated second round. What I mean by that is one question from each of the four parties, if you wish to do it, without a long preamble. If you're interested, I will turn to the Conservatives first.

Mr. Zimmer, go ahead if you have a question.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Sure. Quickly to Ms. Kublu again, you said that you feel as though sometimes Ottawa or the government feels like a long way away. There was an article in Nunatsiaq News that talked about how there were amendments to the original act. I'll read it: “The committee attempted to add numerous amendments to the Liberal government’s Indigenous Languages Act, largely prompted by Inuit leaders. But the federal government rejected most of those amendments”. It was said that it was seen as a “symbolic gesture” by NTI and others.

This article is from 2019. You've already spoken to the fact that it did not seem to have gotten better. Has it gotten better? What needs to be done to make it better?

[Alexina Kublu]

There have been some changes, but the changes are largely at the grassroots level. We now have an Inuit language television channel, but that is the initiative of Zach Kunuk, who is the filmmaker of Atanarjuat, which was all in Inuktitut. Then we have a former instructor who holds classes out on the land and—

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Is this Robert Watt?

[Alexina Kublu]

No, it's Leena Evic in Nunavut.

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

My hope, Ms. Kublu, is that to make this program successful, they would consult with people like you, especially those who are teachers, who are Inuit, who really know what needs to be done. You've talked about an immersion-type program. My daughter took French immersion, and that language just stuck, and she can speak it and understand it quite well as a result of that. My hope is that they would really be listening to people like you on the ground about how to make the program really work. I think it's one thing to provide resources to the program, but I think our bottom line is really providing resources to a program that will work, and I hope that the committee today and your testimony today will make that happen.

Thank you, Ms. Kublu.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Zimmer.

We'll go to either Mrs. Atwin or Mr. McLeod. I'm not sure which of the two.

Go ahead, Mrs. Atwin.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We talk a lot about the calls to action, truth and reconciliation, and the intergenerational impacts of residential schools and day schools. Grand Chief Tremblay, I'm wondering whether you could again speak to the coordinated effort we need to undertake now in order to return what was taken. Could you speak to that?

Thank you.

[Grand Chief Ron Tremblay]

Sure. I've been in discussion with a few of my siblings, who have all been involved in curriculum development or teaching throughout the years. We've always talked about this. What is needed here is a board of speakers to help us create more curricula, as well as ideas about what needs to be done to preserve our language. There's been a lot of money wasted on core programs. As I said before, we know those don't work.

What's really needed is a whole section of our people who can sit down and speak the language, so we can start to record them, whether they're making baskets, carving, sewing or beading—have that documented and use it as a resource, because, as I said, we've lost a lot of our speakers in the last few months and years. We needed this years ago.

This is a very slow process. I'm not pointing fingers at any federal or provincial party. We've been talking about this for decades and it's a very slow process. We need things done now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mrs. Atwin.

Mrs. Gill, if you have a question, go ahead.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a question about which actions the government should prioritize.

As we've seen, there are one-off programs and initiatives that can't fix everything, obviously, but do help with revitalization. Should there also be a program that provides large-scale, rapid assistance to communities whose language is more endangered than other indigenous languages?

I'd like to hear from Ms. Kublu and then Chief Tremblay.

[Alexina Kublu]

Qujannamiik.

Yes, I think the levels of funding need to vary, because one level does not cover all. The ones where.... Revitalization takes a different form of presenting, whereas maintaining is a different way. You cannot treat the two as one. They are separate. Therefore, when funding is provided, it should be diverse in how the transmission is handled. It will vary as to what is best. Go for best practices.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Go ahead, Chief Tremblay.

[Grand Chief Ron Tremblay]

What was the question again? I kind of forgot. I'm sorry.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Chief Tremblay, do you think the government should prioritize certain languages that are in greater danger of disappearing unless urgent action is taken?

I know there are already programs and that people want something large-scale and intensive. Do you think there should also be emergency programs and initiatives for endangered languages?

[Grand Chief Ron Tremblay]

Yes, for sure. First and foremost, I think we need to strike up a board of people who are really concerned about the preservation of our language and get those people talking. This way we can start to produce something more in an immersion form on exactly how to go about preserving our languages and how to support a school like Kehkimin and our pre-K immersion school in Fredericton.

That should receive a huge amount of funding for creating a building, training the teachers, and training more teachers for the future, as well as funding for more curriculum development and equipment focused on land-based learning. As I said before, our language comes from the land. We need to get our young children back out to the land.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Gill.

Ms. Idlout, if you have a question, please go ahead.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you.

Your presentations have been very useful and interesting. They've given us a better understanding of the local perspective and the practitioner's perspective.

If you were able to amend the Indigenous Languages Act, if you had that capability and that power, what would you change in the act?

Alexina, perhaps you can start.

[Alexina Kublu]

I'll send you my scribbles. I've gone through the act and shown the changes that I would make here and there.

One of them is that anywhere in the act that says “may”, that should be changed to either “must” or “shall”. “May” is waffling. “Must” means it has to get done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you.

Chief Tremblay, did you want to make a final comment?

[Grand Chief Ron Tremblay]

Sure.

Unfortunately, I don't know the languages act, or haven't had a chance to go through it, but I totally agree with the previous speaker. The settlers' language is very deceiving sometimes, when you use words like “may” or “should”, because in our indigenous languages, you either do it or you don't do it when you make a statement.

I strongly agree that the original languages of Canada should be recognized as first languages, not as third or second languages. Our languages should be the official languages of our homelands. French and English should be the secondary ones.

I'm a very strong advocate for our rights, especially through our ceremonies and through our languages. As I said at the beginning, Senator Murray Sinclair spoke last night so powerfully. He said that it is only through our languages that we will save who we are and what our purposes are here on earth.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Chief Tremblay.

On that note, thank you very much to our two panellists this morning, Alexina Kublu from the Inuit community and Grand Chief Ron Tremblay from the Wolastoq Grand Council.

We very much appreciate both your taking the time to answer our questions and your opening remarks today. It will help us as we examine where we're at with indigenous languages. Certainly, you and the panel before you had some common themes on what needs to be done. We very much appreciate that.

With that—