The Nunavut Territory celebrated its tenth birthday on April 1, but there were some awkward silences at the birthday party, because no politician wants to admit that they forgot something as important as a people's language.

In the rush to create Nunavut ten years ago, Parliamentarians forgot they were creating a territory that would not conform to Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada’s Official Languages Act. In the lead-up to April 1, 1999, Parliament passed dozens of amendments to federal legislation, but Ottawa chose to ignore the fact that it was creating a jurisdiction that was going to relegate both English and French to minority language status.