Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The legacy • 203Some languages are close to extinction because they have only a few remainingspeakers of the great-grandparent generation. The United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (unesco) lists 36% of Canada’s Aboriginallanguages as being critically endangered, in the sense that they are used only bygreat-grandparent generations; 18% are severely endangered, in the sense that theyare used by the great-grandparent and grandparent generations; and 16% are definitelyendangered, in the sense that they are used by the parental and the two previousgenerations. The remaining languages are all vulnerable. 87 If the preservationof Aboriginal languages does not become a priority both for governments and forAboriginal communities, then what the residential schools failed to accomplish willcome about through a process of systematic neglect.Language rightsIn interpreting Aboriginal and Treaty rights under Section 35(1) of the ConstitutionAct, 1982, the Supreme Court of Canada has stressed the relation of those rights to thepreservation of distinct Aboriginal cultures. 88 The Commission concurs. The preservationof Aboriginal languages is essential and must be recognized as a right.Call to Action13) We call upon the federal government to acknowledge that Aboriginal rightsinclude Aboriginal language rights.Government programsAt a time when government funding is most needed to protect Aboriginal languagesand culture, Canada has not upheld commitments it previously made to fund suchprograms. In 2002, the federal government promised $160 million for the creation of acentre for Aboriginal languages and culture and a national language strategy. 89 But, in2006, the government retreated from that commitment, pledging instead to spend $5million per year in “permanent funding” for the Aboriginal Languages Initiative (ali),which had been started in 1998. 90 The ali is a program of government-administeredheritage subsidies. It is not based on the notion of respectful nation-to-nation relationsbetween Canada and Aboriginal peoples. Neither does it provide Aboriginal peoplewith the opportunity to make decisions for themselves about how to allocate scarceresources and how to administer programs. Many who appeared before the Truthand Reconciliation Commission of Canada were skeptical about the government’s