Alfred Moses

In respect to the theme day we had today, a lot of our drug dealers in the communities are bullying and getting our youth to sell drugs for them. In some cases, when it comes to drugs, you do tend to have violent crimes, so it is good to hear that any youth that are participating in this kind of behaviour are going to be starting to get sentenced as adults.

In regards to that diversion, I know we look at a lot of diversion programs. Is the Minister looking at the diversion programs in terms of sentencing our youth, or will they be put on the crime bill, as well, in terms of getting sentenced to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In one time or other, a lot of us have been bullied. In some cases, some of us may have been the bully. Today we come into the House talking about bullying as a major topic within our schools, but it doesn’t only happen within the schools. It happens within our communities. Kids get bullied but more on top of that, adults get bullied. Elders get bullied. Co-workers get bullied. People in the work force also get bullied. This is not a problem that is only in the schools, but I am really glad that the schools have addressed it.

We did have a presentation in the House in the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I can honestly say that I’m very honoured to be standing in this House today, discussing an issue and a matter that’s important to a lot of people in the Northwest Territories; right across Canada, for that matter. This is something that we’re talking about and that legislation is on the floor now. I do hope that we get support from all Members today on something that affects everybody: our friends, our family, our youth, our kids. I feel very strongly about this, that this legislation should be put into place and that we start discouraging the actions of bullies everywhere...

Like I said, drug dealers preying on our youth to sell their product for them and some cases when the youth do get sentenced, it is usually just a slap on the wrist or diversion to another program where they are let back out into society and they continue to repeat the same type of actions. I want to get commitment from the Minister that he will speak on our behalf to ensure that if the drug dealers aren’t getting, I wouldn’t say punished or convicted, then the youth should understand that by them participating in this type of action, they are going to get convicted under the same type of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my opening Member’s statement I mentioned that I was going to have some questions today for the Minister of Justice in regards to the new proposed crime bill and how it is going to affect our Youth Criminal Act as well as our diversion programs.

How is the new crime bill going to affect how our youth are treated in the court system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday we had a Minister’s statement regarding Aboriginal languages and revitalization into our Aboriginal languages across the Northwest Territories. I wanted to briefly touch on that today. It really sparked my interest, and being someone who doesn’t speak their language, it’s something that I want to see brought forward over the next four years so that by the end of four years I’ll be able to stand here and do a Member’s statement in Gwich’in, and that some of our colleagues can do the same thing.

Aboriginal languages are the foundation of northern cultures. They...

I appreciate all of the efforts that Education, Culture and Employment is doing to revitalize our languages and taking our Members down to Alaska to look at best practices that we can incorporate here in the Northwest Territories.

With that said, moving forward in the strategic plan, can the Minister look at possibly creating a curriculum in the Aurora College to address these languages? That is one avenue to do it to get our adults back into the Aurora College system to start learning the language. Will the Minister please respond and let me know if that is one avenue that he is looking at, is...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It is in regards to the Minister’s statement that he mentioned yesterday and working to increase the number of Aboriginal language speakers, provide employment opportunities for elders and improve educational opportunities for our Aboriginal students.

Mr. Speaker, with this whole work plan in place, I wanted to ask the Minister, will he give priority to those languages that are being detrimentally declining over the last few years. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In regards to the revitalization of Aboriginal languages and he has also talked previously about Aboriginal student achievement. Can he combine the two and make languages in elementary schools part of a strong curriculum in the schools and enhance that and put more funding towards that? Will the Minister commit to those funding dollars? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I know we have to put the programs and services into place for all languages. However, we do have a couple of languages that are close to extinction here, specifically the Gwich’in language. We have some in the South Slave. Will the Minister see those results and put the emphasis and priorities to address those languages and cultures first, before moving on to the ones that are already doing well in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.