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<h1>Trudeau government preparing for long-awaited Indigenous Languages Act</h1>
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<span class="gmail-post-date" style="display:inline">May 10, 2018</span>
by <span class="gmail-post-author" style="display:inline"><a href="http://aptnnews.ca/author/investigates/" title="Posts by Investigates" rel="author">Investigates</a></span> |
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<p><em><strong>Martha Troian</strong></em><br>
<em><strong> APTN Investigates</strong></em><br>
The federal government is finally getting ready to live up to one of its
promises made to Indigenous people on the campaign trail.</p>
<p>Canadian Heritage will spend up to $100,000 for the next 10 months to
hire a supplier to assist and provide policy advice in the development
and drafting legislation to promote, preserve and revitalize Indigenous
languages.</p>
<p>To date, the government has the intention of awarding this Advance
Contract Award Notice to a former General Counsel with the Department of
Justice, if no other suppliers step forward. J. Paul Salembier’s name
is on the tender notice.</p>
<p>During his 2015 campaign, then-Liberal leader Justin Trudeau pledged
substantial new funding to communities to support Indigenous languages
and culture.</p>
<p>As prime minister in Dec. 2016, Trudeau announced the government
would work with national Indigenous political organizations to develop
legislation to create an Indigenous languages Act.</p>
<p><em><strong>Read: </strong></em><a href="http://aptnnews.ca/2016/12/06/pm-trudeau-ottawa-to-introduce-law-to-protect-indigenous-languages/">Trudeau doubles-down on promises made to First Nations, pledges new Indigenous languages law</a></p>
<p>In June 2017, Canadian Heritage, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN),
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Metis Nation launched the
co-development of Indigenous languages legislation. Since the
announcement, engagement sessions were held with the department,
national Indigenous organizations, Indigenous experts and with language
keepers.</p>
<p>In Dec. 2017, the AFN passed a resolution named the Support for
Continued Co-Development Work on the Indigenous Languages Act calling on
the federal government to officially recognize Indigenous languages
like the English and French languages. Since the 1980s, AFN has passed
close to 20 resolutions dealing with language preservation.</p>
<p>According to the latest census, there are 70 Indigenous languages in
Canada with 260,000 language speakers. Several of these Indigenous
languages are considered endangered.</p>
<p><strong>‘The masters of the long promise’</strong></p>
<p>Quebec NDP MP Romeo Saganash hopes the government will make
Indigenous languages official and that it’s not just mere window
dressing.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_93593" style="width:650px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-alignnone"><a href="http://aptnnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ROMEO-LANGUAGE-WEB-640-X-360-01.jpg"><img class="gmail-wp-image-93593 gmail-size-full" src="http://aptnnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ROMEO-LANGUAGE-WEB-640-X-360-01.jpg" alt="NDP MP Romeo Saganash" width="640" height="360"></a><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">NDP MP Romeo Saganash</p></div>
<p>“I think time is running out for them, like other promises that they’ve made,” Saganash said about Trudeau’s campaign promises.</p>
<p>“It’s a lot of talk and no action for most of the files…I call them
‘the masters of the long promise’ because that’s what it looks like to
me.”</p>
<p>Saganash said he was not advised of the contract coming out of
Canadian Heritage despite being an Indigenous speaker himself in the
House of Commons.</p>
<p>Earlier this year Saganash spoke his Cree language during a Procedure
and House Affairs Committee proceeding, which required the MP to first
receive permission from the House of Commons. The committee is looking
into how Indigenous languages can be heard and understood in Parliament.</p>
<p><em><strong>Read: </strong></em><a href="http://aptnnews.ca/2018/03/20/committee-considers-indigenous-language-use-parliament-hill/">Committee considers Indigenous languages use on Parliament Hill </a></p>
<p><strong>Punished for speaking the language</strong></p>
<p>Indigenous leaders say the perilous state of Indigenous languages has
its roots in government policy and the residential schools system.</p>
<p>More than 150,000 children entered these church-run,
government-funded residential schools, many of them were regularly
punished if they were caught speaking or practicing their language and
culture.</p>
<p>In June 2008, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to
survivors, acknowledging the profoundly negative and damaging impacts of
residential schools on people, language and culture.</p>
<p>The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation and its Calls to
Action, released in Dec. 2015, urges all levels of government to create
change as a means to correct past wrongdoings and includes specific
calls relating to languages.</p>
<p>Susan Blight, a member of the Couchiching First Nation in
northwestern Ontario and an Ojibwe language learner is concerned this
process will become bureaucratic and less about the people themselves.</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_93594" style="width:650px" class="gmail-wp-caption gmail-alignnone"><a href="http://aptnnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ROMEO-LANGUAGE-WEB-640-X-360-02.jpg"><img class="gmail-wp-image-93594 gmail-size-full" src="http://aptnnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ROMEO-LANGUAGE-WEB-640-X-360-02.jpg" alt="Susan Blight is a member of the Couchiching First Nation in northwestern Ontario and an Ojibwe language learner." width="640" height="360"></a><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Susan Blight is a member of the Couchiching First Nation in northwestern Ontario and an Ojibwe language learner.</p></div>
<p>“It needs to be designed by our people, by individual nations for
individual nations,” says Blight about the proposed legislation.</p>
<p>A media spokesperson with Canadian Heritage said currently the
department along with several national Indigenous organizations are
“developing common and distinction-based legislative elements” that will
form the department’s community-based engagement process.</p>
<p>This process will commence late spring to the end of summer.</p>
<p>The government intends to table the legislation in Parliament before the end of the current mandate.</p>
<p>When asked if the government intends to make Indigenous languages official in Canada, the spokesperson did not directly answer.</p>
<p>The contract for this bid will run 10 months from the time awarded to
March 31, 2019. So far the department has not received any formal
expressions of interest in the contract.</p>
<p>Bidding for the contract closes on May 15</p></section>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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