Key takeaways:
- Leaders state that Bill 96 ‘puts another load’ on Indigenous residents working to revive languages.
- Ghislain Picard, chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, stated Tuesday he and other First Nations leaders ask that Indigenous youth be excused from taking additional French courses because of Bill 96.
Quebec states it won’t revise Bill 96 to exempt Indigenous youth from having to take additional French courses in CEGEP, despite climbing calls from First Nations leaders who say their measures to rebuild their languages and cultures are in danger.
Kahnawake Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer had a press conference at the National Assembly Tuesday alongside Chief Ghislain Picard of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador and Gesgapegiag First Nation Chief John Martin. He stated her community would hold demonstration movements till it felt heard.
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“Any goodwill motion right now on behalf of the government will run a long way,” Sky-Deer told journalists.
Sky-Deer, Picard, and Martin are among the numerous First Nations leaders. The latter have condemned the clause in Quebec’s offered overhaul of the French language Charter that would push students attending English CEGEPs to take more second-language French courses.
Source – cbc.ca
