OUR LANGUAGE RIGHTS BIWEEKLY
Canadian. Language. News.

Indigenous Languages - June, National Indigenous History Month

• As a member of the Secwepemc Nation, Ron Ignace, the first Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, was the elected chief of the Skeetchestn Indian Band for more than 30 years. He holds a BA and MA in sociology from University of British Columbia, PhD in anthropology from SFU (dissertation focusing on Secwepemc oral history).

• One of four people working as directors in Canada’s first federal office of Indigenous languages is Inuk. Nunavik’s Robert Watt, a former school board commissioner, will now be working to preserve Inuit languages and dialects across Inuit Nunangat in his new role as director in the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, Steven Guilbeault, the minister of Canadian Heritage, announced Monday in a news conference.

• For the Love of Language - more than 30 years, the Inuit Heritage Trust’s (IHT) Place Names Program has recorded Elders’ knowledge of the land and hundreds of traditional place names all over Nunavut. Preserving these names that are at risk of being lost due to the effects of Eurocentric naming conventions and colonization is critical work, and is reflected in the warm welcome the project has received in communities over the years.

Francophone

• The research, titled 'A portrait of the challenges of French-language research in a minority context in Canada,' points to the pressure to publish in English, the increasing use of English for grant applications and a disadvantage, in some cases, when applications are submitted in French.
• In Budget 2021, the Government of Canada proposed $392 million for official language minority communities across the country. This funding aims to achieve greater levels of bilingualism, make high-quality post-secondary minority-language education available across Canada, support the construction, renovation and expansion of the educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities and modernize the Official Languages Act. 
• Montreal is getting its own French-language commissioner, Mayor Valérie Plante announced during an executive council meeting on Wednesday morning. The appointment is part of the city's action plan for promoting the French language, which will run from 2021 to 2024. The executive committee has provided the position of commissioner with a budget of $275,000 to support its actions starting in 2021.

Language Rights, Revitalization and Advocacy

• The online, interactive map divides the province up into Indigenous territories, including some areas where there is overlap, with sections featuring language, art and culture. "No other map weaves together Indigenous languages, arts and cultural heritage information in one space creating a shared context between languages, arts and culture.
• Ellen Gabriel, a Mohawk Indigenous human rights activist and artist from Kanehsatà:ke, said the Canadian government treats the revitalization of Indigenous languages like establishing a third language, instead of recognizing Indigenous languages as the first languages spoken in Canada. “I think there’s a lot of lip service said to Indigenous peoples,” Gabriel said. “I don’t think people really understand the importance of languages in regards to strengthening identity.”
• High school students in Saskatchewan will be able to take Nakoda language courses starting this fall. It's the fifth Indigenous language class available at high schools across the province, which also offers Cree, Nakawe, Dene and Michif. 
• Just five years ago, the Tsuut’ina language was identified as critically endangered by the federal government following the 2016 census, which recorded only 150 speakers among the Tsuut’ina Nation’s community of 2,400 registered members. Today, Ngatai Crowchild, language education coordinator for the Tsuut’ina Gunaha Institute, sees the state of her language differently.

Immigration/ Settlement and Emergency Communication 

• During wildfires and hurricanes, a language gap can be deadly - living along the path of a wildfire, hurricane, or tornado is a terrifying experience under the best of circumstances, but it can be a particularly dangerous situation for people who primarily speak languages other than English.
• Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino says Canada is offering two new paths to permanent residency for Hong Kong residents who work here or are recent graduates already living in the country.  "With young Hong Kongers casting their eyes abroad," Mendicino said in a media statement, "we want them to choose Canada."
• Saskatchewan's Filipino community has more than doubled in the past decade and this week both Regina and Saskatoon city halls were flying the flag of the Philippines for Filipino Canadian Heritage Month. In 2011 there were about 16,705 Filipino people in the province. In 2016, it jumped to 32,340. Tagalog was being spoken by 25,955 speakers in 2016, twice as many people as in 2011. 
• A unique Halifax drive-thru Saturday saw hundreds of people agree to be vaccinated for COVID-19, although not always in English. The Ummah Masjid mosque off Chebucto Road hosted the clinic throughout the day in partnership with the provincial health authority and a local pharmacy.

The Politics of Language and Technology 

• The Langauge of Conspiracy - We have all come across plenty of conspiracy theories on the internet, from faked moon landings to the idea that 5G radiation is worsening or even causing COVID-19 symptoms. But belief in conspiracy theories is no longer reserved for the fringes of society.
• How your body language may have changed during the lockdown - But it’s not just the masks that hamper communication and cloud our interpretation of others’ intentions; it’s also the distancing, the new protocols … and the fear. Small wonder that people’s body language — the back-and-forth of micro expressions, head tilts, hand movements and stance — has changed so much in these past 15 pandemic months.
• Language is a barrier to reporting hate crimes. … I faced barriers reporting my own hate crime where I waited on the phone for over 30 minutes and could only find online forms in Chinese,” he posted. Ngo started by asking friends for help in drawing attention to the issue. He has also been getting support to press government officials and discuss anti-Asian discrimination at national, corporate events.
• The Language of Privilege -  as a language, wokeness is self-consciously engineered to be easier to exploit and use to bully your way to the top if you are a member of a “marginalized group” (to use woke parlance). That is, in a community where everyone speaks wokese, the intention is that a trans woman of color will have her ideas advanced and her enemies thwarted, and will generally be advantaged by the milieu she finds herself within, because that is how the rules are structured.
• The “doctrine of discovery,” a policy originally emanating from decrees issued by the pope in the 15th century authorizing Christian explorers to claim so-called “terra nullius,” or vacant lands, based on the notion they had racial and religious superiority. Now, a new landmark piece of legislation will see the Canadian government overtly reject the doctrines of discovery and terra nullius as “racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust.
• Growing up, Hangama Amiri was always on the move with her family, searching for peace and security. And the UNHCR was always part of the young Afghan refugee’s journey. So, when the United Nations refugee agency invited her to design the 2021 World Refugee Day emoji for Twitter, she says, she just jumped at the opportunity.
• Twitter introduced an “Arabic (feminine)” language setting enabling the social media site to speak to users using feminine grammar, part of what it said was an inclusion and diversity drive.