May 28, 2020 Prof. Fernand De Varennes Special Rapporteur On
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May 28, 2020 Prof. Fernand de Varennes Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland Fax: + 41 22 917 9006 Dear, Professor Fernand de Varennes Please accept this letter of allegations submitted by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) that by its actions and inactions, Canada has failed and continues to fail to fulfil its international obligations in relation to Inuit as an ethnic and linguistic minority under international instruments to which Canada is a party or signatory. Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) is a not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of Canada, democratically controlled by and representing the Inuit of the Nunavut Settlement Area (hereafter Inuit, except where the context requires otherwise). Our mandate is to safeguard, administer and advance Inuit rights, benefits and opportunities under the Nunavut Agreement, and generally as an Indigenous people and an ethnic and linguistic minority within Canada, so as to promote our economic, social and cultural well-being through succeeding generations. 1 The Nunavut Agreement is a treaty (lands claims agreement) under section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982,2 prevailing against all other Canadian laws to the extent those laws are inconsistent. The Agreement is enforceable under both public and private law. It is based on and reflects the objective of encouraging self-reliance and the cultural and social well-being of Inuit.3 I. Inuit of Nunavut Inuit of Nunavut are an Indigenous people of the Arctic. Approximately 150,000 Inuit live in the circumpolar Arctic, with over 65,000 in Canada, and 28,000 in Nunavut. Inuit and our predecessors, with our distinct language and culture, have used and occupied 1 Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated Consolidated By-Laws, Article 2. https://www.tunngavik.com/documents/staffdocs/29%20-%20NTI%20By-Laws.pdf 2 Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-16.html 3 Preamble to the 1993 Nunavut Agreement. https://nlca.tunngavik.com/?lang=en Nunavut since time immemorial, and still use and occupy it today. 4 Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982, recognizes Inuit as one of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.5 Nunavut is a sub-national jurisdiction, created by division of the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, through the combined legal force of the Nunavut Agreement, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, and the Nunavut Act. According to the 2016 Canada Census, approximately 85% of the population of Nunavut are Inuit.6 The language of Inuit is Inuktut.7 II. NTI’s Allegations NTI’s allegations to the SRMI are as follows. By its actions and inactions, Canada has failed and continues to fail to fulfil its international obligations in relation to Inuit as an ethnic and linguistic minority under international instruments to which Canada is a party or signatory. Without limitation, by its actions and inactions: • Canada has been and is in breach of the duty to not discriminate against Inuit.8 • Canada has not taken and is not taking adequate action to ensure the recognition and realization of the Inuit right to receive public education in our Inuktut language.9 • Canada has not taken and is not taking adequate action to ensure the recognition and implementation of the Inuit right to health services in Inuktut.10 • Canada has not taken and is not taking adequate action to ensure the recognition and implementation of the Inuit right of the Inuit to administration of justice in Inuktut.11 Canada has also failed to uphold the standards set out under the 1992 U.N. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities,12 (DRM): 4 Freeman, M., Inuit Land-Use and Occupancy Project (Ottawa: Thorn Press Ltd. 1976) (ILUOP). The ILUOP detailed the comprehensive, verifiable basis for the claim that Inuit used and occupied an area in excess of 2.8 million square kilometres at the time the ILUOP was completed. 5 Supra, note 2. 6 See https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-656-x/89-656-x2016017-eng.htm 7 ‘Inuktut’ is a recently agreed upon term to describe all dialects of the Inuit language in Nunavut, including Inuktitut and Innuinaqtun. The term ‘Inuktitut’ was historically used in the same manner. Unless otherwise stated, citations using the term ‘Inuktitut’ should be considered to include all dialects of the Inuit language in the same manner as ‘Inuktut’ is used now. 8 E.g., International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Art 2(2), Art. 14(1). International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Art. 5(e)(v; International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) Art. 26; and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Art 2. 9 E.g., ICESCR Art 13; ICERD Art. 5(e)(v); CRC Arts 28-30. 10 E.g., ICESCR Arts. 12, 15); ICERD Art. 5(e)(iv); CRC Arts. 29- 30. 11 E.g., ICCPR Art 14(1); ICERD. Art. 5(a). 2 • to protect the ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity of Inuit, and to encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity (Art.1(1)); • to protect the ethnic and linguistic rights of Inuit to enjoy our culture and use Inuktut freely and without interference or any form of discrimination, and to participate effectively in cultural, social, economic and public life, and in decisions at the national and regional levels (Art.2); and • to protect the exercise of the rights of Inuit set forth in the DRM without discrimination (Art.3). Canada has also failed to take active measures to fulfill its obligations and to uphold standards under the DRM: • to adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to achieve the ends of the DRM Art.1(2); • to take measures to ensure that Inuit may fully and effectively exercise our human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law (Art. 4(1)); • to take measures to create favourable conditions to enable Inuit to develop our culture, language, traditions and customs (Art. 4(2)); • to take appropriate measures so that Inuit may have adequate opportunities to learn, use, protect, and advance our mother tongue, to have instruction in schools in Inuktut and to receive public services in Inuktut (Art. 4(3)); and • to take appropriate measures to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of Inuit in Nunavut, and to provide adequate opportunities for Inuit to gain knowledge of Canadian society as a whole (Art. 4(4)) and to participate fully in the economic progress and development of Nunavut and of Canada (Art. 4(5)). Canada has also failed to uphold the standards set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP): • to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of our rights, in particular those based in our indigenous origin or identity (Art. 2); • to establish and control of all levels of our educational systems in our own language, in a manner appropriate to our cultural methods of teaching and learning (Art. 14(1)); • to determine and develop priorities and strategies for exercising our right to development and to be actively involved in developing, determining and administrating through our own institutions’ health, housing and other economic and social programs (Art. 23); and • to access, without any discrimination, all social and health services (Art. 24(1)). Canada has also not taken necessary and effective measures, in order for Inuit: 12 UN General Assembly Res. 47/135, 18 Dec. 1992. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/Minorities.aspx 3 • to have access to an education in our own culture and provided in our own language (UNDRIP Art. 14(3)); • to have continuing improvement of our economic and social conditions (Art. 21); and • to have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Art 24(2)). More detail on Canada’s violations of international law with respect to the Inuit as an ethnic and linguistic minority can be found in the recent report by Skutnabb-Kangas et al., attached as Appendix I.13 In particular, the Human Rights Committee has observed that Article 27 of the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights poses specific obligations on States to ensure the survival and continued development of the cultural and social identity of minorities. Canada has violated these obligations by failing to ensure, within Nunavut, the provision of Inuktut language education, health care and administration of justice and other services. As described in greater detail below, the above failures flow principally from three categories of action and inaction: • the damage inflicted on Inuit language and culture by past discriminatory treatment of Inuit through various assimilationist colonial policies and measures, which continues to the present, and Canada’s failure to take remedial action to correct this damage; • Canada’s failure to provide adequate Inuktut-language education, health services, administration of justice, and other publicly available government programs and services, on an equal basis with that received by the vast majority of Canadians whose first language is one of Canada’s official languages; and • Canadas’ failure to adopt effective legislative and other measures to protect Inuit cultural and linguistic identity and to remedy discrimination and other injustices. III. Damage to Inuit Language and Culture Attributable to Canada’s Assimilationist Acts and Policies Prior to the coerced movement of Inuit into settlements and residential schooling in the Arctic, Inuit societal educational goals included health, skills, survival, isuma (thoughtfulness), land-skills, gender-appropriate knowledge, interpersonal skills, stories, 13 Skutnabb-Kangas, T., Phillipson, R.