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IQALUIT, Nunavut — To the Nunavut government, it’s an update to old legislation that needs to acknowledge reality. To others, it’s a dagger to the territory’s heart.

“Why have Nunavut?” asks Sandra Inutiq, the territory’s former language commissioner. “Why have we created the territory if we’re not going to protect Inuit rights?”

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Her anger is over proposed changes to the Education Act, passed in 2008, that promises all Inuit children guaranteed access to bilingual education by 2019 so as to produce graduates equally fluent in Inuktut and English.

Inuktut refers to all languages spoken by Inuit, including the Inuktitut dialect spoken on Baffin Island.

Amendments to the act that have been tabled in the legislature would delay that promise by 10 years for students up to Grade 9 and indefinitely for high schoolers.

Why have we created the territory if we’re not going to protect Inuit rights?

Education Minister Paul Quassa has dismissed the earlier target as “aspirational.”