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The Ontario government house leader, Paul Calandra, this week moved to amend a standing order that previously required lawmakers to use either English or French. Following a vote, that order now allows for an “Indigenous language spoken in Canada” to be used when addressing the speaker or chamber.
Sol Mamakwa, a member of the New Democratic party who represents the Kiiwetinoong electoral district, recalled being punished for speaking Ojibwe (Anishinaabemowin) in his youth.
“I am very honoured to be able to speak today on behalf of the people of Kiiwetinoong, on behalf of the people that were never allowed to speak their language in colonial institutions,” Mamakwa told the legislature. “These racist and colonizing policies led to language loss.”
About time.
I do wonder, though, from a practical standpoint, how difficult it might be to get translators for languages that now have very few speakers, like Oneida or Cayuga.
According to StatsCan, there are about 237,000 speakers of all 70 indigenous languages combined in Canada. That number declined by 4.3% between 2016 and 2021. The most common indigenous language is Cree (86,000 speakers).
For comparison, there are 667,000 Punjabi speakers, a number that increased by 33% over the same time period. I wouldn’t be surprised if that number is close to a million now, given how fast our population is growing.
It isn’t about which language has the most speakers, it’s about acknowledging history. (I mean, if “who has the most speakers” were the only important thing, French wouldn’t be allowed either—Ontario is not required by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to provide provincial government services in French, but does so to some extent anyway, for historical and practical reasons.)
How the languages of large immigrant communities should be handled in official contexts is a completely separate matter from this.
I don’t think they’re disputing that. They’re just giving numbers to answer your question. There’s very few speakers of these languages, so it’s probably not going to be an easy task.
Okay, bud. I was just supporting the conversation with what I thought was interesting contextual info, partially in support of your point. But I guess you couldn’t miss the opportunity to virtue signal. Good job.