Our Language Should Not Be A Barrier

On April 14, 2007 an unfortunate incident at the Vancouver Airport resulted in the death of a Polish man after police were called to an incident.

The man, Robert Dziekanski, did not have a good grasp of the English language, the police attending the incident did not speak Polish, and that language barrier was a major contributing factor in his death.

At this point you may be wondering what this has to do with Inuit. The answer is simple, there are many communities in Inuit Nunangat where people being served by the police do not necessarily share a common language with them, and as the Dziekanski incident shows, that has the potential to create very serious problems.

The Deputy Mayor of Clyde River, Nunavut, has recently brought this issue into Municipal discussions however it is one that all Inuit should be concerned with.

When the police are called to deal with a problem in one of our communities effective communications can quite literally mean the difference between life and death, and Inuit have the right to expect that their language will not be a barrier.

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