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Justice March 19, 2008 The following statement was issued by the Honourable Jerome P. Kennedy, QC, Minister of Justice and Attorney General. It was also read in the House of Assembly: First Graduating Class of Aboriginal Legal Interpreters I rise today to congratulate the first graduating class of Aboriginal legal interpreters. This eight week course was recently completed in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and is a major step forward to further the understanding and engagement of Innu and Inuit people in the justice system. This inaugural graduating class is proof positive of our commitment to enhance Aboriginal understanding of the justice system. The graduates, who are from Innu and Inuit communities, have just completed their work terms and are now available for employment in the justice system as legal interpreters. The 17 students were given instruction on interpreting skills and key terms of Innu-aimun and Inuktitut used in legal matters so they can interpret these terms for Aboriginals during court proceedings. In conjunction with this course, handbooks containing a translated glossary of 500 key criminal justice terms have been published in both Innu-aimun and Labrador Inuktitut. The last two weeks of the course involved a combination of on the job experiences within various sectors of justice, and on-going group learning activities. Students have been assigned to placements within Provincial Court, Corrections and Community Services, Crown Attorneys� Office and the RCMP. These placements were in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Sheshatshiu and circuit court in Natuashish. The interpreter�s course was developed as part of a series of interpretive service improvements under our government�s Northern Strategic Plan and has been a collaborative undertaking with the Department of Education, the Linguistics Department at Memorial University, the College of the North Atlantic, the Public Legal Information Association of Newfoundland and Labrador and interpreters from Labrador. These initiatives demonstrate our government�s commitment to Labrador Aboriginal justice matters and I ask all members of the House to join me in congratulating the inaugural graduating class of the Aboriginal Legal Interpreters Course.
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