Canadian Heritage committee  My first preference is a recommendation to move the clause to a paragraph 6(b) and strengthen the language to have it recognized under the rights.... I'm not a lawyer, but you have people on your team who can write it in a way that doesn't interfere with any other processes. I'm

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I'm very familiar with that school. Many of my students are teachers at that school. It's a crowning jewel in Saskatchewan. It's certainly something that the government is proud of and first nations people are proud of, and it's a start. It's not really my position to spea

Canadian Heritage committee  I've heard the word “flexibility” come up quite a bit regarding the bill. I'm really glad you've brought up that word. It's so important. I agree with Blaire and the words that you said. There's a wide range for all communities. The one part that I could say is consistent acros

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the national organization that we're all advocating for is the organization that would be concerned with all indigenous languages.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a complex issue that you're bringing up, but I'll try to say this very quickly. In the field of scholarship of language revitalization, we talk about three ways of categorizing indigenous language communities: recovery, which is usually no speakers or very few; revitalizatio

Canadian Heritage committee  It could be. I was pointing to articles 13 and 14 as the ones that are specific to language, and particularly article 14, around education, is the one we're discussing now.

Canadian Heritage committee  The recommendation that I am making is not “by and for”, but rather “by and with”, which is an important distinction. I'm not clear about your question. Are you asking about the three directors who are named in the bill under the office of the commissioner, or are you referring

Canadian Heritage committee  It's unclear. Because I wasn't part of the co-development, I don't know what the thinking was behind the number three. When I saw that number, initially I wondered if it was because there are first nations, Métis and Inuit. Is that how they're going to divide these three director

Canadian Heritage committee  I would actually boldly say that I'm not sure that's fully accurate. I think there was a consultation process. There were reports written. There was a co-development process, and there were decisions made about the final bill and how it was drafted. I've been a part of some of t

Canadian Heritage committee  I appreciate the question. That's why I spent the majority of my speaking time on the issue. It's probably the biggest issue that I have with the bill. This is one of my areas of scholarly research, and the concern that I have is that at this time we have no comprehensive support

Canadian Heritage committee  My main recommendation was around adding a clause to recognize UNDRIP and particularly article 14, which speaks directly to our right to educate our children in our languages, and also to strengthen the language around indigenous rights over provincial jurisdictions. As Blaire ju

Canadian Heritage committee  Is that regarding clause 24?

Canadian Heritage committee  It's the recommendations that I put in my notes about “by and with”. And if you've heard from NSERC, I hope that this would support the whole tri-council's approach at this point. I strongly support Blaire's position and any indigenous community's position, who are better posit

Canadian Heritage committee  Part of what we're arguing for is a national organization, which is different from a languages commissioner. I don't think people are in opposition to that. They understand what it's for, but it's not exactly what indigenous people were advocating for in the consultation process

Canadian Heritage committee  B.C. is the leader in the country. It has been for a long time. Part of that has to do with more than 50% of indigenous languages being found here, but the provincial government has stepped up. It has added $50 million to the table. The impacts have been, to use Blaire's words,