Nunavut Inuit sue territorial government over right to education in Inuktut
CBC
The organization that represents Inuit in Nunavut is suing the government of Nunavut over the right for students to be educated in Inuktut.
In a statement of claim filed Wednesday in Iqaluit, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) claims the Nunavut government is discriminating against Inuit by not offering education in Inuktut to the same degree as English and French — despite Inuktitut being the territory's dominant language.
"So the message to us as Inuktut-speaking Inuit in Nunavut when we're the public majority is our language doesn't mean anything, it's not important, and certainly it's not as important as English or French," NTI president Aluki Kotierk told CBC News on courthouse steps.
"We're tried very hard to work with the government to express how it has an impact on who we are and how crucial it is. But consistently, the message has been that the Inuit language is not as important as other languages."
NTI, which represents Inuit who were party to the Nunavut Agreement, is asking the Nunavut Court of Justice to step in and force the territorial government to offer a full slate of subjects and classes in Inuktut, across all grade levels, and to do it within five years of the end of the litigation.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of the passing of Bill 25 in Nunavut's Legislature last year, which NTI argues "further diminished Inuit language education in Nunavut schools."
Right now, education in Inuktut is mostly only available up to Grade 4, with subject matter taught primarily in English and French after then.
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