Retro Jack
Back during the 1980s and early 1990s, the Toronto newspapers had a nasty and hard-to-extinguish habit of failing to distinguish between Inuit and Innu. Stories about low-level flying or substance abuse in Davis Inlet would refer to "Inuit"; the residents of the Arctic archipelago would end up being called "Innu".
Well look what Jumpin' Jack Layton — or his speechwriter — managed to utter last year:
In Canada there is a very broad and complex aboriginal agenda and while we recognise that Innu and Métis face many issues today I will speak only of the issues facing the First Nations.Catch that?
Innu ARE "First Nations".
Jumpin' Jack meant, in his address to the AFN, an organization of which the Innu of Labrador and Quebec are members, to set aside Inuit and Métis issues. But true to good Toronto form, Jumpin' Jack — or his speechwriter — mucked it up.
There is no excuse in 2005 (when this speech was given) for anyone in Canada to confuse Innu and Inuit, any more than there is to confuse Guinea and Guiana or Iceland and Ireland. This is a bad throwback to the 1980s, which, like legwarmers and George Michael, should be relegated to the dustbin.
posted by WJM @ 2:20 AM
5 Comments:
Now that post is getting very close to being Kinsella’esq, not that you’re alone, looks like many Liberal bloggers are on the same war path. Is it the polls are not looking good, having to dig up stuff on Jack that is over a year old shows signs of panic me thinks.
As to mistaking Innu and Inuit, Jack, or his speech writers, are not alone. Many in positions in variuos Governments have and do make the same mistake. I have also heard residents of Labrador make the same mistake.
Jack Layton is a ninny. That's factual, not partisan! ;)
The only reason I "dug this up" is because, as I generally don't pay much attention to Jack Layton or the Dippers, I only discovered that particular turd more than a year after he laid it, quite by accident on Google. If I had seen it at the time, I'd have commented on it then, not now.
Thank you for clearing that up W.
Glad to hear that all the Lib friendly blogs that are attaching the dippers and their leader at this time in history is only a coincidence.
Lordy, this Labrador place sounds like a minefield of ethnic sensibilities.
Glad to hear that all the Lib friendly blogs that are attaching the dippers and their leader at this time in history is only a coincidence.
I can't speak for anyone else, but in my case it is, because I don't and haven't read enough blogs to know that there's some kind of conspiracy against Oily Jack, nor have I received the Prime Directive to attack him at this, or any other, time, nor any other Directive, Prime or otherwise!
As for the hypothesis that this anti-Jack conspiracy, if it exists, is driven by polls, the only ones I see are in the papers. The most recent Decima, SES, and Ipsos polls that have been reported in the press have the Dippers no higher than, or below, their support in the January election.
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