EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Those are our priorities, and if this Bill is not passed then perhaps we can focus more of our time on things such as the Education Act, which I feel is more a priority than this legislation.
In the meantime we will still fall back on other legislation from the Federal Government.
When we are reviewing Bills, this is how the process is.
Many of the contents of these Bill are taken from other legislation from across Canada, and try to apply it to Nunavut.
Having said that, Nunavut will always be at a disadvantage until we start using our own priorities and using the newly appointed Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, which can lead the way in putting together Human Rights Legislation.
They have just started meeting and they have too many things to do at this time.
There should be more of an opportunity to review this Bill brought before the House.
Although I have said that I like the intent of this Bill, I am not ready to support it at this time, because we are just starting up as a Government and we not met our needs as Nunavummiut.
I was considering this Bill for quite a while and I am not opposed to it, but I did want to put some information together.
I do know that there are equality rights, and I know where we stand on the issue.
We have to have fairness, and I do support Bill 12.
I believe that we should have done this a lot earlier than now.
As the previous Minister of Justice, much earlier in this term, I was prepared to bring forward a strong, clear Bill to the House.
I think this action should serve as a clear signal to all that Nunavut is a safe, welcoming, hospitable and open environment where all people are shown respect, where it is acknowledged that human beings are equal and valued.
I feel, at this time, that both in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of my fellow Nunavummiut that we have a public responsibility to assure to all citizenry that we have a peace loving, progressive and empathetic homeland for all of our people.
We have an enormous responsibility to live up to those same high standards and always have.
I firmly believe in the clear separation of church and state, as has been done in all democracies.
I believe that fear, suspiciousness and discrimination against other people have no place in this new Territory we have worked so hard for so long to create.
I believe that as Inuit, we had always treated people with acceptance, care and consideration.
These very positive traits help to define who we are.
Our openness and respect for others has been the envy of many.
This is something to continue to promote and honour now and in the future.
Our willingness to work along with people who are different from us, to collaborate and to cooperate with others has taken us a very long way.
These characteristics are worth preserving and they are worth upholding in this situation.
I envisioned a place where people of all ages work together, not to work against any minority group.
I could see ahead to a society here in which people of all walks of life could cooperate as peers to problem solving, to initiate change to continue building and seeking innovative ways of living and developing.
Because as Inuit, we have suffered greatly in our own land I was sure that we would not want to inflict suffering upon others.
Do we want to see equality or do we want it the other way around?
Do we want them to suffer?
And we talk about religion and elders speak of traditional laws and beliefs, which included unity, cooperation, trust and respect.
I did not believe we, as Inuit, could ever set these aside and take a dislike to a portion of the population who we see as different.
Because we functioned in the most challenging environment in the world, I believed our ability to be flexible, accommodating, adaptable and progressive under our conditions formed the foundation of our success and that these were the keys to our very survival.
(interpretation ends) Mr. Chairman, I believed all these things as I reflected on the subject of Human Rights.
I was sure that they were to be accorded to all – not only to some.
You can imagine my surprise as I watched a host of other things being brought in to these considerations as I watched the Bill being watered down and being severely challenged even then.
I have watched issues dragged in this discussion, which are not even included in this Bill.
In this case, I mean the subject of same sex marriages which is currently so much a focus within the news media in southern Canada.
I have watched people work up a sweat about this without stopping to realize that is not what we are even speaking of in this particular Bill that is before us in this House today.
We are simply saying in this Bill that one of the categories that we will not discriminate against, is about their sexual orientation and I have watched pressure and judgment being exerted by religious groups suggesting in the strongest terms that if a person did not vote against this, they would be forever suspect and must be against God, even including our Prime Minister, by the way.
I have listened to hatred and paranoia coming out of the mouths of some people who should have known better.
In some cases they would even be the first to complain if they lost any rights.
I have listened to the confusion of some of those who do not seem to clearly understand what this is really about.
I have heard statements by those purporting to be leaders who seem to say that it is all right to be against some people and that it is okay that their rights should not be included.
When did freedom loving people become so selective?
Since when it is it okay to discriminate? When did it become acceptable to treat people as less and more according to how we perceive them?
When did we place more value on some than on others?
What makes it okay to assume the role in our society that says we love you so you can have rights like us and we don’t like you, so you can’t have any.
How did we get to chose who is equal?
Where did we get the power to give rights or take away rights?
When did we decide to set aside our time honored values and beliefs about the value and integrity of all people.
In other words, what are we doing as members of our society supporting such non-democratic behavior, judgment and attitudes?
If anything, as leaders, we should be confronting this unacceptable way of thinking loudly and clearly.
We should be very busy reaffirming and protecting the rights of all.
We should be rushing, almost tripping over ourselves, to say loudly in no uncertain terms that we will never accept hatred or discrimination against any group in our society for any reason.
We, as the leadership, should be very busy reminding everyone in the population that if any one person’s rights are ignored or weakened, then everyone’s rights are at risk.
We should be leading the way in educating ourselves and making our society more responsible and more aware that human rights are for all humans, not just the ones you happen to agree with.
And while we are at it, we should be equally aware of the hundreds of people within our own population here in Nunavut whose sexual orientation may be different from our own.
Whether you are in agreement with them or not, the reality is you must, in fact, you are obligated to serve them and to advocate for their rights too.
No one gives us the right to organize against them or to promote exclusion or hatred towards them.
Some select people have totally failed to understand this point and feel there is some divine right now bestowed upon them to mercilessly attack, ignore or spread ignorance and fear of them.
As former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once said, the state has no business being in the bedrooms of the nation.
He went on to say that where there are two consenting adults of equal power and persuasion that it is not up to the state to judge.
Yet many years later tiny little Nunavut, the last to come on board in the map of Canada is kicking up such a fuss about this subject as if it was new and unknown.
We seem to all be in the bedroom pointing our fingers and not in the boardroom using our heads.
Some of the statements being made in the House purport to speak for everybody when, in fact, many of their constituents are offended that anyone would assume that they thought like that.
In some cases the wall of ignorance stands firm and refuses to let any new information in, nor does it stop and consider some very important facts, despite some of the pressing issues we are dealing with.
(Interpretation begins) Mr. Chairman I would like to have the opportunity to conclude my statement since my ten minutes are up.
Chairman (interpretation): Any nays?
Mr. Anawak (interpretation): I thank my colleagues.
Chairman (interpretation): Please recognize the chair.
Mr. Anawak (interpretation): My mike went down.
It is well know that there is a much higher incidence of suicide attempts and completions among youth who are grappling with their own sexuality issues.
This fact is born throughout Canada and the US and is documented throughout much of the world.
Nunavut leads this entire continent in suicide completions, yet we can take harsh and cruel stands which place further pressures on the youth population that is already vulnerable.
The negativity and judgement that people see as appropriate, when directed against those they do not like, goes a long way towards causing both direct and indirect harm to others.
Isolation is often experienced and this is one more effective way of excluding them and discriminating about those whose lifestyle may be different from your own.
There are many people out there who do not think the way I do but in many cases, the people doing this do not even know that may of their own relatives, friends and co-workers are gay, bisexual or transgender.
They seem to have no idea that it was their lives that they’re taking away and that it was they who were being harmed.
The group they many have targeted are in fact our own sons, daughters, nephews and nieces, sisters and brothers, close friends, and colleagues whose lives we made absolutely miserable through our judgement and total ignorance.
Who put us on this earth to cause such pain and suffering?
Who set us up to refuse to treat people equally and respectfully and why do we think we get to be treated just as badly?
It is time Nunavut and its leadership take a significant leap forward, not backward and immediately rethink what is coming out of their mouths on this issues.
People have had to struggle throughout southern Canada to overcome such unacceptable levels of discrimination and fear.
It has been a long road to educate the public and achieve awareness that human rights cannot be denied, altered or set aside.
We have to reconsider this in Nunavut.
(interpretation end) Mr. Chairman, I do not think we can get away with the way many in this House are talking.
We should not be so comfortable in demonstrating our ignorance.
We have no authority to do harm.
We have no license to cause or contribute to unrest, social divisiveness and/or lynch mob mentality.
No matter which culture we are, we do not get to act out against others or to isolate or refuse to offer the same rights and protections that are afforded to all other citizens.
There are those who wish to speak out against negativity but they are afraid because through careless reactionary remarks, including those in this House, they have been made afraid.
Teaching people to know fear and suffering in silence is not a lesson we should be teaching in Nunavut.
I do not wish to teach my children hatred.
I do not wish to pick and chose who I may be comfortable discriminating against.
I do not wish my friends and neighbours to know fear and hatred against any group who is seen as different from us.
I do not wish to sit here quietly in fear allowing my very silence to appear to lend support to those who withdraw people of their rights in a democracy.
I do not want people to start to think we have lost our minds and not support exclusion, hatred and differing reasons to those we agree with versus those we chose to fear and misunderstand.
I do not want to sit among law makers who are in such a hurry to disrespect the law that says we are equal on this earth and deserve to receive equal treatment, equal access and equal respect.
During the Second World War, some of us are aware of the horrible treatment experienced by the Jews who were targeted and saw their entire careers, houses and possessions taken from them after they had become subjects of fear, hatred and discrimination.
They and their families were carted off to concentration camps where they were worked to death, were stripped of all their rights and died and were killed by a majority who thought they were less than themselves so they deserved no protection and no respect.
I am reasonable sure we all agree this was a terrible thing.
Well, unknown to many people, there was a second group of people who were sent to those same camps, who were targeted along with Jews.
This second group suffered the same treatment and daily indignities, loss of rights and personhood and eventual death.
They were gay.
After the war, when the extent of these atrocities became fully known, the World Court agreed that this must never be allowed to be repeated.
That humankind must never again sit back in silence when any group is targeted and seen as less than deserving of the same rights, protections and freedoms enjoyed by others.
World Governments were united that this must never be allowed to happen again, that all persons are created equal.
There was an agreement at every level that all citizens must remain vigilant and be prepared to defend the rights of all people, in case, in the future, anyone could ever again have their rights down-graded, withheld, restricted or ignored.
(interpretation) Mr. Chairman, I stand here today, not in silence, for that would condone what is wrong.
I stand here and loudly proclaim the true need of every person to feel safe and secure in their society, to make a positive contribution, to be heard, to be acknowledged, to be respected, to have the same access and services, to be just as valued and connected as everyone else.
I implore you to remember our long struggle in Nunavut for our rights and to remain firm in your belief that no one else should ever be denied their rights either.
I urge this House to move forward in the spirit of respect and cooperation of unity and of connectedness and support this Bill to ensure your children and mine can grow up in a world that takes care of and serves all of its citizens equally well.
We can fight this Bill and show our smallness, our paranoia and our disdain for our fellow human beings, or we can embrace this Bill and lead the way as progressive, empathetic, and forward-thinking members of society.
Let’s do the right thing, Mr. Chairman, human rights, respect, and equality for all.
I have stood in this House many times and quoted from the Nunavut Vision Statement.
It calls upon us to create a government that is open and fair to all its people, that belongs to the people, that is accountable to the people.
This is the Nunavut we fought for.
This is the Homeland that protects, acknowledges, defends and takes good care of its people.
Before we proceed, I would like to welcome all the people who are in the Gallery, and who are here to listen to the debate on Bill 12.
I welcome you all.
We apologize that although we realize that they want to voice their opinions in this House we can’t allow them to at this time because we using the British Parliamentary Rules.
We have Ms. Williams, Mr. Puqiqnak, Mr. Netser, and Mr. Alakannuark on my list.
Since one of the Members had more than ten minutes, we will be fair to everyone; anyone who wishes to speak more than the allotted ten minutes; then they may do so.
I envy the Members from Iqaluit, MLAs having the constituents here in the House.
Okalik’s constituents, Ed Picco’s constituents, and Mr. Tootoo’s constituents are here, and I envy that.
I wish that we could have our constituents here as well too.
I'm sure that they will do an excellent job of representing them.
I would like to say, Mr. Chairman, in regards to Bill 12, the Human Rights Act, I would at this time to say to the elders and the people who are married to non-natives, there are many people out here that are married to non-natives, myself, for instance, I use myself as an example; we marry non-natives nowadays.
When we talk about the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, we talk about the Inuit being very respectful to other people.
It does not matter what colour or religion or sexual orientation they are.
Say for instance, if a person has, if my spouse has a business or goes out hunting, some people do not like them.
A little while ago somebody said that the people, Inuit a long time ago were not respected by the Federal Government.
It is a good thing we were not respected at that time because we can now stand strong and protect our rights because we learned from being mistreated that way and anyway, we were learning from that experience.
What we are dealing with today is not an easy task, but our Chairman mentioned that, this legislation is going a little bit too fast.
Mr. Chairman, Inuit and the
Caucasians and Afro-Americans, Chinese people and any people that who in Nunavut in November, today this month, November 2003, is not acrimonious.
It does not matter what colour you are, you are able to get a job here in the Nunavut Government.
We give the same thing, the same treatment for everybody, whether it be health services or other services because we already know that as people they have to be, there cannot be discrimination.
Bill 12, we are discussing it today is not very clear to some people.
Like the Minister stated that and also the Chairman stated that they talked about same sex marriages.
There is nothing in that legislation that deals with that, but it states, in the legislation, that there is something that deals with employment, medical treatment and other things.
Everybody has to be treated equally here in Nunavut.
We should not be discriminating against other people.  I would also like to state that at the last Minister’s lengthy consultation.
I do not think they went to the communities.
What they did was they asked for submissions, they got submissions from NTI and other organizations, but we did not go to the communities to do consultations on this legislation.
Whenever there is a very controversial legislation, we have to go to the communities to conduct consultations with them.
In regards to the Wildlife Act, we did some community consultations in Nunavut communities because it was a controversial bill.
Same with the Education legislation.
I think the people of Nunavut have every right to be able to hear about the Human Rights Act because it touches upon their daily lives.
It has to do with everybody in Nunavut and they should be consulted.
When, as a community, as a Committee, all the things that we are not sure about, what we do is we consult the communities on it. I feel that this Human Rights Act should be brought to the communities and consult with the people because it’s as important as the Education Act and the Wildlife Act.
We had a public meeting on October 1st but there were only 13 people who attended the consultation process.
Maybe it was because we didn’t really inform the public on it.
Maybe that’s why there weren’t that many people who attended.
Mr. Chairman, today, we talked about love and it really hit the spot.
It’s good to have love but we have to teach our children and grandchildren properly on the rights of all humans because we have to be able to provide them good legislation.
We’re trying to make good legislation for our children.
Somebody said that there is no relation between the church and the legislature.
I wonder how much money the government would have left if the church did not deal with social issues.
Our government would probably be short $800 million if the churches were not involved with social work and counselling.
We have to look at them equally because there are many communities in Nunavut that go to church and we represent those individuals.
They elected us.
Even though some people did not elect us, we have to be able to represent them equally.
We did not put ourselves over here; we were put here by our constituents.
We were elected by them and we have to have a voice for them whether they go to church or they don’t go to church, it doesn’t matter what they do, we have to represent them equally as a government.
There are many churches that deal with social issues and they also go to the hospitals and the correctional facilities and help out with counselling people.
They also have rights too.
Mr. Chairman, I will not be supporting this Bill at this time because I feel that the people of Nunavut will have to be consulted again to get their views.
Mr. Chairman, when I started campaigning, I wasn’t thinking that we would be dealing with legislation as important as this.
If any legislation passes, then we know that the people of Nunavut will be using it.
We’re dealing with Bill 12 at this time and these are very good discussions that the members are having because this legislation deals with people having to have equal rights.
To be able to look after people who live in poverty, who are widowed, anybody, everybody in Nunavut, I’m very happy about that legislation dealing with those parts.
I grew up on the land and we survived off the land.
We did not have any counsellors and we did not have any written legislation and we were not taught any legislation.
What we did was we worked very hard to try to keep ourselves fed and to keep ourselves warm.
We did not have any laws down, like there was various ways of dealing with people who lost their parents.
What they did was the younger siblings would sew for them, feed them when they lose their parents and clothed them.
Even though there was no law dealing with having to take care of your fellow man.
My mother or my sisters were mistreated, abused by some men.
That is why I favour Bill 12 when it is dealing with people so that they cannot be abused, but there is always a but, in this world the people of Nunavut and people who live in the provinces, like we said numerous times and Members of this House said numerous times that we have a unique Government here and we are in a unique world where it is harsh weather.
There is no discrimination here in this House amongst the Members or the people of Nunavut.
So, for that reason, I would like to say that Bill 12 deals with having equal rights for all the people of Nunavut.
It is good that way, but there is always a but, it was mentioned earlier about the churches and the Government and the religious people helping the Government by doing counselling in the churches, in the hospitals and in correctional facilities and somebody said that, like to me, this is not so.
If I am baptised, the Government has to take my baptismal certificate.
Same with the churches, they have to have the same papers as the Government does.
They have to be able to work together in order to share those paperwork.
They have together on those.
So with that, Mr. Chairman, as elected people, we were put here in the House, we did not come here by ourselves, we have to be elected by the electorate out there.
The people who put us here, say for instance, I will use my chair, which belongs to me, I always think that this is the chair that belongs to the people of Netsilik because I represent them.
This chair is not just mine, it also belongs to the people who voted for me and if I try to go against their wishes and I made an oath, I would break that oath if I do not represent them properly and I also told them that I would be working for them in this House.
I wanted to be, I have to be able to follow their wishes and I have to be their voice.
If I do something against their will, it won’t be right.
And if I try to do things that I want myself, then I would break the law because I would not be representing my people.
There are some communities in Nunavut that opposes same sex marriages.
There are twenty seven communities in Nunavut and that is what has been discussed on the radio throughout Nunavut.
Some Members are saying that they will be supporting this.
You can’t just try to use your own opinions.