Indigenous language revitalization in Canada must be safeguarded now before a federal election, says leader

The federal government has a heavy workload ahead of it over the next 11 years as it focuses on fulfilling its commitment under the Indigenous Languages Act while serving in a leadership role globally when the International Decade of Indigenous Languages begins in 2022. 

“During the International Year of Indigenous Languages (in 2019) we introduced and passed the Indigenous Languages Act affirming Indigenous language rights and enabling the mechanisms and facilitating the partnerships needed to support those rights,” said Indigenous-Crown Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett on Jan. 29, the fifth and final day of a virtual Indigenous languages symposium hosted by Canadian Heritage.

“Our government has followed with an unprecedented commitment of long-term stable funding to protect these efforts,” she said.

According to Bennett, language revitalization “is good for Canada and is good for the world.”

Presenters voiced concerns about a looming federal election and the need for the Liberal ruling government to take the steps necessary to ensure permanent funding to implement the Indigenous Languages Act and all its programs.

“The concern we have is … the preservation of the funding. All it takes is another government to… come by and say, ‘That’s not important to us and we’re cancelling it. We’re cancelling the funding. We’re cancelling the program’,” said David Chartrand, spokesperson for the Métis National Council (MNC).

“There’s got to be a means, a way where that cannot be done. This program must be sustained. It must be there for decades,” Chartrand said in his closing remarks.

In the 2019 budget the Liberal government earmarked a starting amount of $333.7 million over five years along with $115.7 million to support the implementation of the language act. Consultation—including last week’s symposium—is underway to implement the act, which includes establishing the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages; a distinctions-based model for long-term, sustainable, adequate funding; and developing language programs that are community-centred.

The Indigenous Languages Act was adopted during the United Nations’ proclaimed International Year of Indigenous Languages.

That timing on Canada’s part, said Sébastien Goupil, secretary-general of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, was more coincidental than deliberate.

“Governments in Canada, starting at the federal level, did not, in my humble view, take the opportunity to seize upon the real public excitement about the year that we witnessed at the grassroots level nor did they take any major step or contribute anything noteworthy on the international stage, and, you know, at some point, it seemed coincidental that the Indigenous Language Act passed that year,” said Goupil.

That the United Nations had to commit an entire decade to Indigenous languages is not to be celebrated, added Goupil, but should be taken as an indication of the unwillingness of countries and institutions to stop the eradication of Indigenous languages.

Dr. Lorna Wanosts'a7 Williams, professor emerita of Indigenous education, curriculum and instruction at the University of Victoria and Canada Research, however, was “comfortable” with the work accomplished in the single year in Canada, and said the intensity had to continue.

“We need to focus especially in the first five years of the implementation of the Indigenous Languages Act,” she said. “This is critical that what gets established is what will promote and help Indigenous languages across the land to be successful.”

She said the Indigenous languages commissioner and the directors had to push for changes.

Neither the commissioner nor the up-to-three directors have been selected. The application deadline was Jan. 25, but submissions will continue to be monitored.

“We know that we can accomplish what we need to in a decade,” said Williams.

For the Métis Nation, that goal is to see “significant progress” in reclaiming the highly-endangered Michif language, said Clara Morin Dal Cor, minister of heritage, family and culture for the MNC.

“(MNC) President (Clement) Chartier has challenged the Métis Nation to use our national language more often in our own meetings and in our own communications,” said Dal Cor.

“Certainly before the end of the decade in 2032, we should be able to offer simultaneous translation in Michif. We should be able to produce bilingual editions of all our key publications. For the future of our language we have to be able to do this,” said Dal Cor.

Goupil emphasized the importance of reaching such a goal and that it be permanent.

“I think that for Canada, because we have enacted legislation, I think we should ensure that as a country we can do what has to be done within the boundaries of this decade in terms of putting in place the mechanisms that will not be revisited down the road because there is a change of government,” he said.

Dal Cor said the legislation was an important tool and that a joint implementation committee consisting of Métis, First Nation and Inuit representatives and Canadian Heritage had begun to examine how a national action plan in Canada could be developed for the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

If Canada can step up to the plate and do the work necessary nationally then it could also work internationally, said Goupil.

“Maybe as a country our ambition should be to go to the people down the road and say, ‘We no longer need another decade to ensure that the work gets done in Canada and we will help build what is necessary to support and sustain those efforts on the global stage,’” he said.

“Canada has … an obligation to be the strongest voice in this priority on the global multilateral stage.”

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.