Janine Metallic, DISE, on Legislating Indigenous Languages in Quebec in the Montreal Gazette

Assistant Professor of Indigenous Education in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education's Janine Metallic was featured in the Montreal Gazette article: First Nations leaders want Quebec to drop plans for Indigenous language law.

"By virtue of their inherent right to self-government, First Nations elect their own government and have the legitimacy to adopt their own laws."

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government plans to table legislation to protect First Nations languages and cultures. However, leaders from the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) and the First Nations Education Council (FNEC) are urging Premier François Legault to scrap those plans as they maintain that it is up to First Nations themselves "to teach and legislate on our own languages."

Excerpt from Montreal Gazette:
Janine Metallic, an assistant professor of Indigenous education in the department of integrated studies in education at McGill University, said it’s too early to say whether such legislation would help, because nobody knows what scope it would have.

“Would it apply only to the communities on reserve or in northern communities or in other spaces?” Metallic asked. “There’s a large number of Indigenous Peoples in the city. If any kind of legislation can be applied, it would have to be portable.

“We’re Indigenous regardless and we carry our language and culture with us.”

But one thing is clear, said Metallic, who is from Listuguj in the Gaspé and has retained her fluency in Mi’kmaq:

“It can’t be done without the input of Indigenous people,” she said. “What Indigenous communities are looking for is recognition that we have a right to speak our languages.”

Read the full Montreal Gazette article here.