Inuit Sign Language could open courts to the deaf (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

February 4, 2005

Inuit Sign Language could open courts to the deaf

Official recognition, interpreter training only way to guarantee Charter
rights

SARA MINOGUE
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/50204_10.html

The case of Bobby Suwarak, a deaf man from Baker Lake who communicates
with gestures not related to standard sign language, has raised the
possibility of an indigenous sign language known to Inuit for
centuries.

And that has raised the potential for training legal interpreters who
can assist deaf Nunavummiut, whether accused of crimes or victims of
crimes, in the courts.

According to David Kautaq, who grew up with Suwarak and has served as
his interpreter several times, Suwarak can hear if you stand directly
behind him and yell into his right ear at the top of your lungs.

However, he prefers to communicate with his friend using the language he
learned from Suwarak's family, which he describes as "basically like
charades," a gesture system made up of English and Inuktitut.

In court-ordered assessments, a hearing specialist from Montreal has
determined three times that Suwarak cannot communicate effectively in
court using his language through an interpreter unfamiliar with the
legal system.

But after meeting deaf people and their families in Baker Lake,
Pangnirtung, Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet in 2000, the same specialist
found that an Inuit sign language exists, and could be used to offer
trained court interpreters for deaf Nunavummiut.

Using video to capture signing, Jamie MacDougall found that signers in
two different communities shared similar gestures for certain words,
such as walrus or polar bear.

He also found that several people - not just the deaf - use, or recall
elders using, what one participant called "Inuk sign language."

The existence of such a language would be consistent with documented
cases of several aboriginal peoples that use a signing system to
communicate.

In a report presented to Justice Canada five years ago, MacDougall
recommended that, in order to meet the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
the court can and should provide trained legal interpreters for the
estimated 155 deaf people in Nunavut, who currently rely on family and
friends for the service.

He also recommends that work begin towards officially recognizing ISL as
a language.

MacDougall compares this process to the still recent recognition of
Inuktitut in the courts, and the steps that have been taken to document
and promote the language over the last 20 to 30 years.

"[ISL] is a language spoken by a small number of people, but under the
charter and so on, I believe it has to be recognized," MacDougall says.

Recognition of the language could have a huge impact on deaf people
across Nunavut.

MacDougall estimates that 30 per cent of Nunavut's deaf rely on ISL to
communicate. Many others, however, are sent south to learn American
Sign Language.

That has the benefit of offering them a legally recognized language, but
they often return home to find few people can understand them.

At the same time, MacDougall found that almost 75 per cent of the
population of Baker Lake can speak to Suwarak through signs.

Kautaq himself is an advocate. "You can communicate with him yourself if
you have the patience," he says.

And many people do.

Outside of courtroom number one in Iqaluit last week, Suwarak was
chatting, laughing and joking with a man who was also released from
custody last week.

"We first met in BCC in 2000," said Inusiq Shoo. "When I first met him I
didn't know the language."

Similarly, Suwarak has no trouble communicating with Kautaq's
16-month-old son in their hotel room the next day, just as the small
child will probably have no trouble learning to speak Suwarak's
language as he gets older.