Moved second reading of Bill C-91, An Act respecting Indigenous languages.

He said: I rise today as the sponsor to Bill C-91, An Act respecting Indigenous languages.

This year, 2019, is being celebrated around the world as the International Year of Indigenous Languages and that is because with 370 million Indigenous people in the world spread among 90 countries with Indigenous communities, over 5,000 different Indigenous cultures — and 2,680 Indigenous languages are in danger.

According to the 2016 Canadian Census data 1,673,785 people identified as Indigenous persons in Canada that year, but only 263,845 said they knew an Indigenous language well enough to speak, just 15.8 per cent.

Languages play an important role in the daily lives of all people. They are an important part of our identity. Canada’s longest-serving French Language Services Commissioner once told me that Indigenous youth were the only Canadians he had ever met who claimed a language as theirs that they could not speak. He related to us at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he often heard young Indigenous people asserting, “I want to speak my language,” in reference to their Indigenous ancestry, whereas he did not hear similar sentiments from English youth who wanted to learn French and vice versa. The French and English, he observed, saw each other’s languages as the language of others, not as their language as Canadians, despite years of trying to get them to see otherwise.

But that fact makes an important point for all of us.

Senators, if each you had your child or your grandchild taken away and raised in another language and culture where they were forbidden or even punished if they spoke your tongue, you would well understand how deep their desire and need was to relearn the language of their birth and the language of their parents, their grandparents and their community. Language is about who we are and who we want to be. It is fundamentally about identity.

According to UNESCO, it is through language that we communicate with the world. It is the means by which we speak of our needs and have them fulfilled. It is the manner by which we define our identity, express history and culture, learn, defend our rights and participate in society. It is a means by which we assert ourselves and take up the roles we were taught to do.

But our speaking our language helps others as well. Through language, people preserve a community’s history, its customs, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking, meaning and expression. We use it to construct our future.

Language is pivotal to self-preservation, the protection of others, good governance, peace building, reconciliation and sustainable development.

Yet from the period of Confederation until the end of 20th century, a period of about 130 years, Canada did all that it could to eliminate Indigenous cultures and languages. Through the use of laws passed by our parliamentary ancestors, cultural practices and large gatherings where languages could be spoken were outlawed, education was taken away and access to justice was denied.

One hundred and fifty thousand children were forcibly removed from their families under threat of prosecution for those parents who resisted and were placed in institutions for the sole purpose of indoctrinating them into Canadian society. Hundreds of thousands more were required by law to go to non-residential schools where they were too forced to stop speaking their language and learn another.

Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald not only believed that Indigenous people who practiced their culture and language were savages, but that they needed to have them stripped away. In 1883, in Parliament he stated:

When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parent, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write.

The scale and intensity of these schools on the attack of culture and language was such that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that Canada had engaged in a process of cultural genocide in contravention of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Canada and its institutions of governance and social influence systematically worked to destroy the structures and practices that allowed the cultural continuity of Indigenous peoples.

Legislation to advance and recognize Indigenous languages as a right was first called for by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and by the First Nations Confederacy of Cultural Education Centres in the mid-1990s, then subsequently by the Assembly of First Nations in 1998. Federal legislation of this nature and scope was recommended in 2005 by the Indigenous-led federal Task Force on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures before being taken up again by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The last time I spoke on Indigenous languages in this chamber, it was to a bill that Senator Joyal introduced at the beginning of this session. Senators, this is the third session where our honourable colleague introduced a private member’s bill to advance, recognize and respect Indigenous language rights in Canada.

I want to thank Senator Joyal personally for his efforts as an ally of Indigenous peoples on this important matter.

Over the past two years, government and the three national Indigenous organizations have consulted over 1200 individuals and organizations to develop the bill that is before us today.

The approach used in the development of Bill C-91 departed from the practice that was very much rooted in the past policies of government making unilateral decisions regarding matters impacting the lives of Indigenous people.

This bill is the government response to decades of calls to action from Indigenous governments, researchers and advocates to address the critical state of many Indigenous languages in Canada. It specifically aims to address the TRC Calls to Action 13, 14 and 15.

Bill C-91 was drafted to provide flexibility. It does not prescribe or predetermine how or what Indigenous people must do to revitalize their languages. It is structured to accommodate a multitude of approaches to support the reclamation and maintenance of Indigenous languages — from language master-apprentice approaches to the promotion and use of the language by an Indigenous government and in the media.

The bill provides that the Minister of Canadian Heritage may enter into different types of agreements or arrangements in respect of Indigenous languages with Indigenous governments or other Indigenous governing bodies, organizations, communities and people.

The bill also grants federal institutions the discretionary authority to provide translation or interpretation services for Indigenous languages as part of their operations.

Finally, the bill would establish the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages and set out its powers, duties and functions.

The preamble acknowledges the importance to this country’s evolution of Indigenous peoples’ linguistic and cultural diversity. Substantive provisions recognize the constitutional status of Indigenous languages related to rights under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, while enabling Indigenous people, with federal assistance, to continue to tackle the various stages of language vitality and the damage to them that has occurred over the past decades.

In addition, Bill C-91 seeks to achieve the objectives of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

For all the efforts that past governments have put into denigrating Indigenous languages, even greater efforts and investments must be made to help revitalize them. Budget 2019 identified an investment of $333 million over the next five years to support this initiative. This is currently being discussed and studied as part of the Budget Implementation Act.

If this bill does not pass, that money will be lost and the state of Indigenous languages will become more vulnerable than they currently are. We cannot and should not allow that to happen. This bill is far from perfect, but it can be the battering ram that busts down the door and gets us into the room where we can do the work that is needed.

I intend to work, for example, with Senator Patterson to bring about amendments to our committee to address the need for access to services in Inuktitut for the Inuit.

The government has acknowledged that this bill is a starting point and included a provision for mandatory five-year reviews when necessary adjustments and improvements can be made as required.

In the absence of a long-term funding commitment and recognizing the critical state of Indigenous languages, I suspect the bill could be improved and strengthened to ensure that a shorter review period be put in place than the five years the bill now calls for. In this early stage of recovery and reclamation, problems and solutions must be identified as they arise.

During the consultation sessions for the 2005 Task Force on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures, it was noted that the urgent call for immediate action is required to stem the loss of languages. That was almost 15 years ago.

In many communities, the situation is critical as the last living fluent speaker may have passed on. The hope of the language being passed on by way of oral tradition to the younger generation is gone. In fact, according to UNESCO, none of the more than 90 Indigenous languages in Canada can be considered safe. If immediate action is not taken, Indigenous peoples, communities and nations stand to lose a most valuable treasure, their first-language speakers.

Over the last two decades, the number of people with the ability to speak an Indigenous language has steadily declined. In 1996, 29 per cent of Indigenous people were able to speak an Indigenous language well enough to conduct a conversation. In 2006, just over 22 per cent of the Indigenous population could converse in an Indigenous language. By 2016, this figure had dropped to 16 per cent.

When an elder dies, “it’s like a whole library is gone,” says language teacher Betsy Kechego.

National Chief Perry Bellegarde provided testimony to the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples and spoke about his support for Bill C-91. He stated:

It has been 20 years since the Assembly of First Nations chiefs in assembly declared a state of emergency regarding First Nations languages.

The situation of their languages has worsened since that declaration. The opportunity to pass this legislation cannot be missed, as the decline in First Nation languages will continue to worsen until concerted efforts are made.

Likewise, President Clément Chartier of the Métis National Council expressed that the Metis Nation is fully supportive and encourages Parliament to enact Bill C-91. He spoke of the urgency to act, as there are fewer than a thousand, perhaps fewer than 700, Michif speakers, all of whom are primarily over the age of 65.

This bill responds to the future of Indigenous peoples as a distinct and unique part of society. As Ellen Gabriel of the Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Nation, an advocate for the language and culture of her people, stated in her testimony before the committee:

We may call them ancient languages, but they are very much alive today. And I can tell you that, without a doubt, it enriches your life when you learn your own language. . . . When you are with a first-language speaker who thinks in the language, you get the breakdown of what these terms mean.

Allow me to close by recalling that reconciliation is not an end point. It is a mutually respectful relationship maintained and strengthened over time. This legislation has been called for by Indigenous organizations, commissions of inquiry and Indigenous people all across Canada for generations.

Honourable senators, if the preservation of Indigenous languages does not become a priority for us in this chamber, then what the residential schools failed to accomplish will come about through a process of systemic neglect. I urge you all to join me in supporting this bill so that we may see it passed before the end of the parliamentary session. Meegwetch.

Thank you, Senator Sinclair, for your great speech and supporting this important bill. I want to mention that today in the Le Droit Senator Cormier and I co‑signed an op-ed. I want to give you the translation of one of the paragraphs of this op-ed:

We cannot enhance the standing of French in Canada without considering the debate in Parliament on Bill C-91. As we saw in the Official Languages Act, the advancement of French which was made possible by Part 7 of the Official Languages Act played an important role in preserving and enhancing the vitality of French in several parts of Canada. As a linguistic minority, we should join in this fight to preserve Indigenous, Metis and Inuit languages and cultures.

That’s a translation of the article.

In your speech, you mentioned the commissioner of indigenous languages position. Have you given some thought to what powers the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages would have?

I realize I have a short time, so I’ll give a short answer. Yes. It’s in the bill. The bill itself contains a description of the powers. Let me point out very clearly that the role of the proposed Commissioner of Indigenous Languages is not anywhere close to the role and the powers that the French Language Services Commissioner has, and that’s one of the issues that Indigenous organizations wish to pursue.

Are you planning to read the forthcoming report of the Official Languages Committee on the role and powers of the Official Languages Commissioner and the limitations on those powers?

Yes, of course, I will. Thank you very much.