This first annual report is probably much bigger than I expect to do again for an annual report. The first part of the report looks at a number of issues. One thing we wanted to do was provide statistics for those people who need it. Any information that we could provide that would definitely show people statistics that prove that these languages are disappearing. We gathered as much information as we could. Since this report came out, other people have come to us and asked if we know about other sources of information. We are glad to find those out. But, all of those sources of information confirm the same conclusion, aboriginal languages are dying.
The situation here in the territories is not a lot better. If you look at the statistics in chapter one, you'll see that the aboriginal languages, despite all our efforts, are still declining. Now, they're not declining as fast as they are in the rest of Canada. We've done some comparisons to show that, compared to the Canadian average for aboriginal languages, the territories is better off. But, the trend is towards a decline. We wanted to put that information in there so that people who needed that kind of statistical information to convince them would say, all right, now there is some proof.
The other thing we included in there is some rationale about why we care. Why do we even bother? It is interesting, in the position I'm in, how many people come to me and ask why we are spending all this money on aboriginal languages and French, and why we don't just take the money and teach everyone to speak English to get rid of the problem. They see it as a problem. I have a big problem with that sort of attitude because I believe in human diversity. I think our world would be a terrible place if everybody was the same. I happen to believe in human beings being able to be different, one from the other, and language is only one of those many different aspects. I wholeheartedly support people trying to maintain whatever language it is they want to express themselves in because I think that's very important.
When you take a language away from somebody or away from a community, you take away a whole way of thinking. This is one of the things I talked a lot about in my presentation in Ottawa, which is why they asked me to go to Saskatoon to make the same sort of presentation. I have lots of examples to show from my own research where there are differences in the way people think. The language reflects that. Did they think differently in the first place and therefore, the language developed that way, or were they taught that language, and therefore they started to think in a different way? It is sort of a chicken and egg argument. It is hard to know which one came first.
The fact remains, people think differently and they behave differently in social contexts within their families and communities, based on the way that they think and the language they use. I wholeheartedly support people expressing themselves through whatever language they choose. Part of what we did in this report is to provide some rationale because I do, as I said, have many people coming to me saying, why not take all of that money and teach people to speak English and get rid of the problem. There are lots of countries, as we said in the report, where all the people speak English, but they are still fighting with each other, killing each other. So, I don't think getting rid of language differences is going to solve many problems.
I don't know if that's an answer to your question but those are the kinds of things we mention in the report about why we're trying to preserve these languages and why we feel it is important and what happens when you lose all of these languages. I'm trying, at least to the best of my abilities, to do what I can to help change people's attitudes. That is one of the biggest things we have to do so that people feel positive about wanting to learn another language or wanting to maintain the languages we do have. That's why we wrote quite a bit in the first annual report about those sorts of things.