Government language study released (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

December 12, 2004

Government language study released
By BRUCE CHEADLE
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/12/12/779599-cp.html

OTTAWA (CP) - A government study on language training in the federal
public service says natives can't learn in black and white.

The draft document, part of a $700,000 report completed in 2001 and
obtained under an Access to Information Act request, points to
particular difficulties in teaching French to employment equity groups.

"Furthermore, black and white presentation materials carry no meaning to
aboriginals," says the study, commissioned by the Public Service
Commission and Treasury Board Secretariat.

"Earth tones and aboriginal designs will immediately attract their
attention."

The description was panned as "extremely racist" by Taiaiake Alfred, a
Mohawk author, scholar and activist who teaches at the University of
Victoria.

"What are we, monkeys?" Alfred said after an incredulous hoot of
laughter.

"I could probably write a whole dissertation on how racist that is. It's
the worst sort of pandering to romantic notions of what it is to be
indigenous.

"Earth tones? Where does that come from, (the movie) Dances with Wolves?
What it's saying, obviously, is that we can't read, that we need
pictures."

The paragraph was flagged as potentially offensive by a Treasury Board
official in a July 2001 memo.

"There are some rank generalizations about aboriginal learners that I
find questionable and may be inappropriate," Sharon Smith wrote in a
critique of the draft report.

But a further draft in October 2001 maintained the offensive paragraph
verbatim and added more:

- On group training and role-playing: "Impersonal story-telling would be
more appropriate. Furthermore, aboriginals tend to be introverted,
making adaptation to the learning environment and testing methods all
the more difficult."

- On language aptitude testing: "Aboriginals are visual thinkers and
learners, therefore the auditory nature of this test is a problem for
them."

Finally, in a copy of the report that included hand-written editing
notes dated December 2001, the sentence referring to earth tones and
aboriginal learners was scratched out without comment, although an
attached annex repeated the entire paragraph.

The "permanent draft" placed on file as a departmental reference
document later that month made no mention of aboriginal learning
problems.