quebec election - 04.09.2012 | Page 12

Tue, 2012-09-11 13:29

bouchecl

Brachina wrote:

Ippurigakko wrote:

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavik_election_turn...

28% Lowest voter turnout in Nunavik thats because they cant vote that day sept 4, their name list is missing.

i guess similar federal election 2008.

I can't help, but wonder how many people are being denied thier vote. Canada's turning into a banana republic when it comes to elections.

I would be careful about making statements about voter disenfranchisement, deliberate or otherwise. Turnout is traditionally low in Native communities for both provincial and federal elections and poll-by-poll numbers quoted in the story pretty well match turnout in the 2008 provincial election.

Then, there might be a second factor at play. There was a new voting scheme this year allowing temporary workers and students to vote in their electoral district of record instead of registering in the Ungava electoral district (the criteria was the 'domicile' per sections 76 and 77 of the Civil code.) Across Quebec, 14,000 voters took advantage of this write-in balloting scheme (explained here), many of them from the Ungava and Duplessis districts. Among them, construction workers at the Eastmain and Romaine hydro complexes, hospital workers, civil servants and teachers.

Having worked for the local returning officer in my district in a variety of capacities (as a electoral list revisor, PRIMO, and advance poll clerk) during the last campaign (which forced me to keep quiet in threads such as this one), I can testify to the popularity of this scheme among voters located in these remote ridings (when a ballot is cast remotely, the returning officer is immediately notified by phone and the remote voter is marked as having voted on the official electoral list).

For districts like Ungava, these 'remote' votes mean a declining turnout.

Wed, 2012-09-12 16:41

#553

Ippurigakko

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674kuujjuaq_parents_educ...

Kuujjuaq parents educate French first-language kids outside of Nunavik school system KSB (Kativik School Board) won’t support full-time French instruction

in French la presse

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/education/201209/11/01-4...

Fri, 2012-09-14 01:27

#554

love is free love is free's picture

just so people know, that's francophones wanting their children to be educated in french and not inuttitut. personally, i'd be absolutely thrilled if i could speak inuttitut, but obviously, i'd fear that my children would be at a serious disadvantage when it came to university if the focus on inuttitut meant that their french or english was not at the level that they could succeed at the highest level. i guess that in my view, the children should just work harder to learn the language at home and outside of school hours, the way many people have their children learn the parents' native language.

Fri, 2012-09-14 07:11

#555

lagatta

I suspect that the real problem lies with the inadequacies of the educational system in Nunavik - for Inuit kids.

Yes, I'd also love to speak Inuktittut - I have Inuit family members, but alas my cousins whose mum is an Inuk don't speak much of the language either, as they were raised in Ottawa. They speak both French and English, but only a few words and phrases in their mother's native tongue.

I think that far more should be done to promote Indigenous languages in general. The major ones at least should be given some kind of official status.

Fri, 2012-09-14 11:31

#556

Ippurigakko

I'd sugguest they should create a build french school who are francophone in Kuujjuaq.

Just like Iqaluit schools are English/Inuktitut and only one who has french school K to 12 separate English/Inuktitut school. In other Nunavut communities dont have french school, only English and Inuktitut.

Fri, 2012-09-14 12:03

#557

kropotkin1951

This is a story about a dozen or so kids whose southern parents want them to to be educated in Inuktittut and French not Inuktittut and English. It seems a lot like a local school board issue. If ensuring that this small group of children have their right to be educated in French respected is a Quebec government priority then they will provide a grant or some other funding mechanism.

I don't read too much into the story since for all I know this could be just a small town political story where the underlying roots run no deeper than the person leading the French parents efforts has personally pissed off the head of the school board. It sounds like the school board and this parents group need a bilingual mediator to help them work on their communication skills.

All the scenarios include the kids getting their primary instruction in Inuktittut. That is really great because it forces the children of immigrants from the south to learn the language of the people whose territory they have been invited into.

Fri, 2012-09-14 13:40

#558

Ippurigakko

problem is JBNQA (James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement) vs Bill 101

Sun, 2012-09-16 15:45

#559

love is free love is free's picture

^ exactly.

Sun, 2012-09-16 17:17

#560

lagatta

Yes, though La Charte de la langue française hasn't been "Bill 101" for decades, no more than the JBNQA is the draft agreement thereof.

Sun, 2012-09-16 17:34

#561

Bärlüer

I fail to see a legislative conflict between the two instruments.

S. 88 of Bill 101 clearly sets out that, in derogation to the normal provisions of Bill 101, instruction in schools that are under the jurisdiction of the Cree School Board or the Kativik School Board is in Cree or Inuktitut (or possibly other First Nations languages).

However (paragraph 4 of s. 88), francophone children whose parents are not Crees or Inuit (I understand that this corresponds to the current situation in Kuujjuaq) have the right to receive instruction in French, and the applicable school board (here, the Kativik School Board) has to take the necessary measures to insure this instruction takes place per the normal provisions of Bill 101 (that is, in that case, in French).

Thu, 2012-09-20 16:32

#562

mark_alfred

It's a good thing the PQ has won. So far, they've cancelled the tuition increases and have promised to stop asbestos exports (inspiring the federal government to follow suit). Great stuff.

Thu, 2012-09-20 19:47

#563

Boom Boom

Not to mention a ban on fracking.

Thu, 2012-09-20 20:00

#564

mark_alfred

Hopefully the NDP will win the next federal election and then the rest of us can enjoy some decent social democracy.

Thu, 2012-09-20 20:08

#565

Boom Boom

Quite a gap to fill: 165 Cons, 102 NDPs (not sure I have the numbers right...)

Fri, 2012-09-21 13:14

#566

Ippurigakko

it is 163 cons and 100 ndp, 3 vacants. hopefully cons seats going down 160, like 154 something. ;)

Fri, 2012-09-21 14:07

#567

Boom Boom

Thanks. I posted a link a week ago that indicated the NDP are targetting seats in Atlantic Canada - a potential for 30 new NDP seats. Not sure who holds all those seats right now - probably both Libs and Cons.

Sat, 2012-09-22 15:32

#568

love is free love is free's picture

Bärlüer wrote:

I fail to see a legislative conflict between the two instruments.

S. 88 of Bill 101 clearly sets out that, in derogation to the normal provisions of Bill 101, instruction in schools that are under the jurisdiction of the Cree School Board or the Kativik School Board is in Cree or Inuktitut (or possibly other First Nations languages).

However (paragraph 4 of s. 88), francophone children whose parents are not Crees or Inuit (I understand that this corresponds to the current situation in Kuujjuaq) have the right to receive instruction in French, and the applicable school board (here, the Kativik School Board) has to take the necessary measures to insure this instruction takes place per the normal provisions of Bill 101 (that is, in that case, in French).

trick isn't the conflict in law, per se, it's obviously the conflict in its application. in the context of limited resources and few children, there's no clear mechanism - short of an extremely unpleasant judicial or government intervention - by/through which these 9 francophone children can compel the inuktitut school board to allocate the funds, and it's just not the sort of conflict that the government wants to get into.

Sat, 2012-09-22 16:02

#569

autoworker autoworker's picture

love is free wrote:

Bärlüer wrote:

I fail to see a legislative conflict between the two instruments.

S. 88 of Bill 101 clearly sets out that, in derogation to the normal provisions of Bill 101, instruction in schools that are under the jurisdiction of the Cree School Board or the Kativik School Board is in Cree or Inuktitut (or possibly other First Nations languages).

However (paragraph 4 of s. 88), francophone children whose parents are not Crees or Inuit (I understand that this corresponds to the current situation in Kuujjuaq) have the right to receive instruction in French, and the applicable school board (here, the Kativik School Board) has to take the necessary measures to insure this instruction takes place per the normal provisions of Bill 101 (that is, in that case, in French).

trick isn't the conflict in law, per se, it's obviously the conflict in its application. in the context of limited resources and few children, there's no clear mechanism - short of an extremely unpleasant judicial or government intervention - by/through which these 9 francophone children can compel the inuktitut school board to allocate the funds, and it's just not the sort of conflict that the government wants to get into.

Perhaps a French language section might be established within FN school boards, similar to what existed in Ontario within confessional boards, before independent Francophone school boards were established?

quebec election - 04.09.2012

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