Official Languages Committee on Feb. 9th, 2011

[Shannon Gullberg]

Exactly.

So it's very important to try to work together, and--

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I understand that, but take schools, for example. The territories are responsible for education. But before they had their legislation and all that, the federal government was responsible for it.

Has that been lost, the responsibility of the federal government to be involved, or do they still have some say in it?

[Shannon Gullberg]

I think from a funding perspective, the GNWT certainly looks to the federal government for--

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

People could look for it, but by law, does the federal government have responsibility?

[Shannon Gullberg]

I think there is still a strong responsibility on the federal government. The federation court case did certainly make it clear that the federal government can't just wash its hands of it and say--

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I guess aboriginal people have the same as the francophone people, because they don't have much, or not as much as what the anglophones have. We should be treated all on the same level.

[Shannon Gullberg]

Right. And I think the court cases have clearly said that. In my opinion, it puts the onus back on the federal government to ensure that the funding is there to make that work. It can't simply be a GNWT responsibility. The Northwest Territories Official Languages Act exists because the federal government allows it to exist.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Is it working?

[Shannon Gullberg]

As we've already talked a little bit about this morning, there are issues. There certainly are issues. It's working, I would say, better than it did even 10 years ago, but there is room for improvement. The federal government--

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Where is there room for improvement?

[Shannon Gullberg]

A good example is with regard to the equality issue. If somebody walks into a government office, they can demand service in English and French. Someone like Sarah can make sure that service happens. But to do it right there, while that individual is standing in the office, if they're with a clerk who kind of looks dumbfounded and they don't know what to do...that person is not going to walk away satisfied. Ultimately those services could be provided in French, but what would be better than having to think too much about the next step would be, “Oh, you're speaking French. Here's how I'm going to provide services to you.”

A lot of the time that happens, and there have been great strides to make sure people that know how to access those services. But we still hear those complaints: a francophone will go in, they'll speak French, they will demand service in French, and a clerk--using the example of a clerk--will be totally unsure how to address this need.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Godin.

We will move on to Mr. Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, ladies.

Ms. Jerome, you mentioned briefly earlier that there were nine official languages. Are there 9 or 11?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Généreux, I think you will address your question in French, so I would invite our witness...

Oh, you're okay...?

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Can you hear me? I see.

I'll repeat my question. Are there 9 or 11 official languages here in Yellowknife? It was my understanding that there were 11 official languages.

[Sarah Jerome]

Sorry: that was 9 aboriginal languages, but 11 with French and English.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Ms. Jerome, you referred earlier to teaching in natural environments. What I think you meant by that is that the teaching does not only occur at school, but also at home, and even in the community. Have I properly understood what you said?

[Sarah Jerome]

Yes.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

You also referred to the notions of pride and identity in reference to each of the 11 official languages in the Northwest Territories. Can you elaborate on this and how it relates to language?

[Sarah Jerome]

I went to school when I was eight years old. I was taken away from my community and taken to a residential school where we spoke only English. Prior to going to school, I spoke my language fluently. It was my first language. I was proud. I was so proud, now that I think about it in retrospect. I was so proud of being a Gwich'in, of speaking my language and understanding it.

It gave me so much confidence in myself. Even before I went to the residential school, I had a dog team of my own. This must have been when I was about six or seven years old. I had a dog team of two. I pulled a tent and stove for my parents through the Richardson Mountains.

Then I went to school and I had to speak English. I had to read, write, and speak English all at the same time. Many times I saw a big red X on my paper. I was a failure. They took my pride and confidence away from me when they forced that English language upon me and punished me for speaking my language.

So when I talk about pride, today I talk about pride because I relearned my Gwich'in language from my grandmother, who was 106 years old when she passed away. I spent two or three years with her prior to her death, mainly because I wanted to regain my Gwich'in language, which I did.

Today I have that pride because I know where I came from, because my parents and grandparents entrusted that language to me. Today I have to carry that torch and re-teach my family. This is what pride means to me.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

That's very interesting.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

What’s your sense of the youth in the Territories—do young people here feel a sense of pride like you do? And speaking of the youth of today, you mentioned earlier that young people had been to some degree assimilated in terms of their official language, whether it be French or one of the other nine aboriginal languages. How do you see the future?

[Sarah Jerome]

Confusion, a lot of confusion, because our young people were not taught about the basic survival skills on the land. My husband and I do a lot of on-the-land programs with students from both schools in Inuvik, the primary-elementary, and also the junior high and senior high. We've observed that a lot of these students do not know how to survive on the land. Some of these students have said to us, “We've never ever had a box of matches in our hands”. And matches are the most basic survival instrument you'll have if you're lost out on the land.

Therefore, from my observations, a lot of our young people today are not proud to be who they are because they're still confused. We are working in that area today through the healing, through Health Canada, to deal with the residential schools and how it affected us and how we've kind of put that onto our children and our grandchildren. We're trying to cut that now.... For me, I'm trying to deal with it so that my grandchildren are not affected, so that they will be proud of who they are, and so they will relearn their language through my efforts as their grandmother, their shitsuu.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Do I have any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

You have a little less than a minute, Mr. Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

I think that it’s important to have tools to get specific things done. Yesterday, we visited the Maison bleue. I don’t know what its official name is, but it goes by the name, “la petite maison bleue”. It caters to the francophone community here in Yellowknife. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the building is somewhat overcrowded.

Do you think that there should be better equipped infrastructure here in Yellowknife that caters to the broader francophone community and offers a number of other services to do with secondary education and francophone culture? Do you think that that kind of infrastructure might be a useful tool to help develop the community?