Bureaucrats spent half a year searching for a bilingual Commissioner of Indigenous Languages – and failed, says Blacklock’s Reporter..The requirement was dropped with the appointment of BC anthropologist Ronald Ignace to the $216,000-a year post..“Our languages will no longer stand in the shadow of other languages here in our land,” Ignace said in a statement following his June 13 appointment..“Let us always honour our indigenous languages.”.Ignace, of Savona, B.C. is former chief of B.C.’s Skeetchestn Indian Band. The Department of Canadian Heritage confirmed he cannot speak French..“Ignace is a fluent speaker in Secwepemctsin and English,” said David Larose, spokesman for the department..Larose said French was not a requirement for a Commissioner of First Nations, Inuit and Métis dialects. However, in a June 16 briefing note, the department said it emailed more than 1,600 people in a failed search for a trilingual appointee..“Although many of the candidates put forward to the minister for consideration were indigenous language speakers, none were proficient in both official languages,” said the briefing note..The search for a fluently French appointee was abandoned after indigenous groups dismissed the requirement, said the memo..“Overwhelmingly participants called for a commissioner who is indigenous and bilingual in an indigenous language, and in either English or French,” wrote staff..Parliament two years ago passed Bill C-91, to appoint a commissioner “to support the efforts of indigenous peoples to reclaim, revitalize, maintain and strengthen their language” and “promote public awareness of the richness and diversity” of dialects..Statistics Canada in a 2018 study said more than a quarter-million Canadians spoke indigenous languages. Most common were Algonquin (144,000 speakers), Cree (83,000), Inuktitut (34,000), Ojibway (19,000) and Innu (11,000)..In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, a total 35,140 respondents in the 2016 Census identified Cree as the language most often spoken at home. Cree speakers outnumbered 20,850 Francophones in the two provinces..Other local languages include Atikamekw in Québec, Oji-Cree in Manitoba, Blackfoot in Alberta, Salish in British Columbia and the Métis dialect Michif in Saskatchewan..“Why is it so important? Because we’re losing indigenous languages in the country,” then-Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters in 2019..“They’re all threatened. Ninety-percent are threatened.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
