Inuit adrift over CBC lockout (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Sep. 26, 2005. 01:00 AM
Inuit adrift over CBC lockout
JOSE KUSUGAK
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/ 
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As the CBC lockout drags on, millions of Canadians are left without  
programming they are accustomed to. In southern Canada, there are many  
alternatives, and the lockout will likely be devastating mostly to the  
CBC's viewership and listenership.

It's an entirely different story in the Arctic. There are few, if any,  
alternatives to the CBC Northern Service broadcasts in Inuktitut and  
English. Radio continues to be king in the Arctic, the medium of choice  
for an oral culture.

  Inuktitut rules the airwaves on the CBC, and regular hosts, who are a  
part of the daily lives of Inuit across the North, are sorely missed,  
not just for their humanity, but for vital survival information  
transmitted over the airwaves.

As fall and winter loom inevitably on the horizon, that survival  
information becomes more critical. Flight information, Medivacs, school  
closings, weather conditions, high tides, low tides, winds and sunrise  
and sunsets are no longer part of broadcasts. Inuit hunters rely on  
this information before setting out.

The daily morning radio programming broadcast from Toronto by CBC  
management staff is the palest of the pale in comparison with regular  
CBC Radio morning shows originating from Goose Bay, Iqaluit, Rankin  
Inlet, Inuvik, and Yellowknife (to name a few).

 From those locales regular programming provided critical information  
for each day, cultural sustenance in the form of the Inuktitut language  
spoken in a somewhat official "newspeak," and, more colloquially, in  
current affairs interviews and on-air banter between regular CBC hosts  
(northern personalities) and their guests.

Gone are well-known radio shows such as Labrador Morning, Qulliq,  
Tuttavik, and Tausunni, with no replacements. The sole CBC Television  
news show in Inuktitut — Igalaaq, broadcast from Yellowknife — is also  
off the air. Inuit elders are literally missing the news.

  Local, national and international news has dropped off the radar  
screen. Each day world news was translated into Inuktitut and was the  
lifeline to the global community for Inuit elders. The lockout has made  
major news events such as hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the spike in gas  
prices, the Gaza pullout, and the announcement of a new governor  
general invisible for unilingual Inuit.

Current affairs in the Arctic covers the political developments taking  
place in the four Inuit regions, as well as the infinite variety of  
daily life and the trials and tribulations of living in the Arctic.  
It's frequently a lifeline in cases when emergencies develop.

  Radio is there to keep the community together, and communities within  
regions connected. This has been lost. Events which would be part of  
regular newscasts are not being covered. One example is the signing of  
a recent overlap agreement between the Labrador Inuit and the Innu of  
Labrador. It went uncovered by CBC radio or television broadcasters.

The CBC lockout sets Inuit communities adrift into a broadcast vacuum  
unable to be filled by management replacement shows, regardless of  
their origin. The last time a major labour dispute hit the CBC in the  
Arctic, many thought that the CBC in the Arctic should be deemed an  
essential service. This is still the case today.

  The CBC Northern Service is a vital lifeline for Inuit across the  
Arctic. It ties our communities together, it ties our regions together,  
and it ties our home and native land together.

This lock-out needs to be settled soon for the sake of Inuit, and  
millions of Canadians who live in small and remote communities who rely  
on local broadcasts from the CBC. Furthermore, the CRTC should  
legislate that the Northern Service of the CBC as an essential service,  
a situation our national broadcast regulator may be oblivious to.

As MPs and senators return to Parliament thousands of names of  
northerners will be on hundreds of pages of petitions from the Arctic  
demanding an end to the CBC dispute. These pages will land with a thud  
on the steps of Parliament and will be impossible to ignore.

Jose Kusugak is president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's national  
Inuit organization.
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