B) The Language of Television

    Pressure for television service in the Canadian North came from the Qablunait, the Euro-Canadian (mainly English) minorities living in Northern communities. Therefore, the choice of an almost all-English version did not come as a surprise. When before television's arrival Rankin Inlet's pupils were asked what language they would like to "hear mostly" on television, only 29% answered "Inuktitut". It was clear that most of the schedule would be in English but there was some hope of having a relatively considerable amount of Inuktitut segments. This expectation was dispelled with television's arrival for the only segment in Inuktitut was at that time a five-minute spot (later expanded to fifteen minutes) immediately following the CBC National News on Saturdays (around 22:30).
    In the first place, it is not an exaggeration to say that five or fifteen minutes a week was just a "token presence". Next, the format of Tarqravut was definitely tedious in comparison with the global program offer (e.g. sports or US series). When in December 1973 Rankin Inlet pupils were asked how much Inuktitut they would like to hear on television, 71% chose the "more than now" answer. As for adults, they were invited to express the amount of Inuktitut they wanted on television. There were no multiple choice questions, so respondents were free to put their thoughts as they pleased. The result was that Rankin Inlet's Inuit, regardless of how their individual knowledge of English may have been, wanted more (than fifteen minutes a week) Inuktitut on television and that nearly half of them favoured an hour or more daily, i.e. a 2800% increase, which was not realistic at the time being.
    The reasons for this unanimous wish were that most elders (i.e. grandparents or parents of younger bilingual Inuit) were monolingual and that there was a real concern for the preservation of Inuktitut by the younger generation. In l'acquisition de langue étrangère, Wolfang Klein explains that in any society, language serves as a vehicle for ethnic continuity:

Pour un enfant, l'acquisition de la langue n'est que l'un des aspects de son développement pour devenir un menbre de la société à laquelle il appartient. Avec la langue, il apprend à exprimer des sentiments, des représentations, des désirs, selon certaines normes sociales; il apprend que l'on n'a pas toujours le droit de parler quand on veut, comme on veut et à qui l'on veut; il apprend comment on se fait des amis et des ennemis par la parole; il apprend que l'on ne doit pas toujours dire la vérité; c'est par l'intermédiaire de la langue que les représentations culturelles, morales, religieuses et autres d'une société sont transmises. Toute l'acquisition de la première langue pour l'enfant est placée sous le signe de la maxime: "Deviens (à peu près) comme les autres".(6)

    However that may be, in Rankin Inlet as anywhere else in the Canadian North, the Inuit population was on the whole rather enthusiastic about television even though they knew that Inuktitut would not be the main language to be used. On the contrary, Inuit associations were far more sceptical or even quite hostile.
    One of these associations was the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC), an association founded in August 1971 by Tagak Curley with mainly federal funds, whose aim is to stand up for joint Inuit interest across Canada. The Inuit Tapirisat of Canada has organised inter-regional conferences focussing especially upon such issues as land claims (leading to the creation of Nunavut) and frequently acts as a voice of protest, standing for the Inuit aboriginal rights and the preservation of traditions. The ITC has often complained about the cultural invasion caused by the overwhelmingly English-language television. As soon as August 1973 (two months before television's arrival in Rankin Inlet), the ITC had strongly objected to CBC's programming during its third annual conference held in Baker Lake:

Television is coming to the Northwest Territories in the next few years. Inuit Tapirisat of Canada recommends that any applications from CBC to the settlements for licenses to broadcast be turned down until such time as adequate provision has been made for the programs to be broadcast in Inuktitut by Inuit.
And Inuit Tapirisat of Canada further recommends that a minimum of 80% of programming be in Inuktitut to be acceptable to the Inuit of the Northwest Territories.

(quoted in Watson, 1977, p. 45)

    However as Watson comments:

in actuality, the bulk of Rankin's Inuit were far from agreeing with such a stand regarding television, in which the ITC either had misread the attitudes of their ostensible constituents or were deliberately attempting to make a polemic gesture, regardless, in order to exert some influence toward more militantly critical popular attitudes.

(Watson, 1977, p. 46)

    At all events, even though television had come uninvited by Native people, it was warmly received and Rankin delegates opposed the recommendations of the ITC (they had already approved CBC's application). An 80% Inuktitut television was totally unrealistic for two reasons:

    - it supposed the creation of a new channel instead of a regular CBC adaptation

    - pressure for television in the Canadian North had come from the Qablunait who on the whole did not care at all about Inuktitut.

    Another association, the Northern Quebec Inuit Association also asked for an Inuktitut service and contrary to what had happened in the Northwest Territories, SRC's applications for a French service (Quebec's only official language according to the "loi 101") to the CRTC were turned down in three Inuit settlements.
    This last example shows that the preservation of Inuktitut was a false argument. English (and not French) is Quebec's Inuit second language; had the applications been for an English service, they would have been approved as it had been the case in the Northwest Territories. Associations had found an opportunity to assert their political influence by exploiting a concern shared by most Inuit.

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