Human rights body probing reports Inuit kids punished for speaking Inuktitut
MONTREAL — Quebec’s human rights commission has launched an investigation into the treatment of Inuit children in the youth protection system, citing reports that Indigenous youth were prevented from speaking their own languages and not offered adequate services while in care.
“It has been reported that youth living in shelters were not allowed to communicate in their own language, and some youth would have suffered reprisals for speaking in Inuktitut,” the commission said in a news release Friday.
Furthermore, the commission said, some of the children may not have been assigned a social worker when they were transferred from Quebec’s north, on the assumption that they were still being followed by staff in their home communities.
Spokeswoman Meissoon Azzaria said the commission began the investigation on its own initiative rather than in response to an official complaint. She said the probe will attempt to verify whether the rights of youth have been violated and take steps to rectify any failings by issuing recommendations to the relevant departments.