Inuit Language
Protection Act Proclaimed
The Bill 7 (Inuit
Language Protection Act) received Royal
Assent and will come into force on July 1,
2009. The Act recognizes Inuinnaqtun and
Inuktitut as Inuit languages. Among many
other clauses, the Act requires every
business to display its public signs,
including emergency and exit signs, and its
posters and commercial advertising in the
Inuit languages together with any other
language used; the text of which must be at
least equally prominent with any other
language used; and provide its reception
services and any customer or client services
that are available to the general public, in
the Inuit languages.
According to
the 2006 census, about 20,480 Nunavut
residents, or about 70 per cent of the
territory's population, identified Inuktitut
as their mother tongue. Data from the 2006
census reveal that Inuktitut is one of only
three Aboriginal languages in Canada spoken
by enough people that long term survival is
possible. The federal government has
indicated that it is not bound by language
policies of other levels of government.
