State of Inuktitut interpretation in healthcare unacceptable, says MLA

ᐅᖅᑯᕐᒥᐅᑦ ᒪᓕᒐᓕᐅᖅᑎ ᐅᖃᖅᐳᖅ

Uqqummiut MLA says she had to help with an emergency due to lack of interpreters at health facilities

By Trevor Wright Northern News Services Nunavut

Uqqummiut MLA Mary Killiktee said not enough is being done to address access to Inuktitut interpretation in Nunavut’s healthcare system at the Nunavut Legislature on March 13.

“Mr. Speaker, seven years ago a report by Nunavut’s Languages Commissioner was tabled in this house,” said Killiktee.

“On the front cover it states, If you cannot communicate with your patient, your patient is not safe.

“Being able to speak in one’s mother tongue when it concerns health is not asking a favour of healthcare professionals and organizations, it is a basic issue of accessibility, safety, quality and equality of services,” she continued, reading the report.

As of this year, there hasn’t been enough progress, she added. “Inuktut-language speakers still struggle to receive health services in their mother tongue.”

Later during question period, Killiktee referred to an emergency she herself had to attend to, to assist with language due to the lack of interpretation in the evenings and weekends.

“An emergency arose in the evening, and I had to deal with that,” she said, later adding “in order to improve the active offer of quality health care services in the official languages, a culture change must be implemented across our government, and especially within the department of health and our health facilities.”

Language minister Joanna Quassa referred to recently released Microsoft Inuktitut translation as one example of ongoing language translation work and later said any lack of critical language services can be directed to the Nunavut Languages Commissioner.