TOM URBANIAK: Nova Scotia has a baby-naming problem

May 3, 2022

0 1 4 minutes read

This private story will not be earth-shattering.

However it’s a small window on inflexible bureaucratic methods that additionally typically lack sensible cultural consciousness, regardless of good individuals and high-level mission statements.

On Feb. 11, Alison and I had been blessed to welcome our new child son, Oliver Mikołaj Kasper Urbaniak.

Truly, that’s not but his authorized identify. The system obtained stumped by considered one of Oliver’s center names, Mikołaj. It’s Polish for Nicholas.

On Feb. 17, we tried to register Oliver’s beginning and his identify on the particular kiosk at RisePEI’s IWK Well being Centre, the place Oliver was being handled on the time.

Once I couldn’t enter the letter “Ł” in “Mikołaj” on the kiosk, I requested the workers for help. “Ł” is a Polish letter that sounds just like the English “W”.

The workers on the desk flipped by means of a handbook. They lastly decided that we must go to Entry Nova Scotia as a result of Oliver’s center identify had a letter that isn’t English or French.

Pink Tape

At Entry Nova Scotia (Bayer’s Lake), the workers had been equally pleasant. They gave us a kind to hand-fill and mail-in, saying that methodology ought to work. We despatched it by Categorical-post the identical day, explaining that “Ł” is a Polish letter.

On March 29, Alison obtained an e-mail from the Registration Unit of the Nova Scotia Important Statistics Workplace. The e-mail mentioned: “We want to inform you that your little one’s second identify, ‘MIKOLAJ’ which was written on the registration kind with a diagonal line by means of the ‘l’, won’t be printed as written as a result of the printer used for beginning certificates doesn’t have that character accessible. Subsequently, it will likely be printed as ‘L’ with out the diagonal line. Or the choice is to alter ‘L’ to ‘T’, so the kid’s second identify might be `MIKOTAJ’ as an alternative.”

The e-mail went on to clarify that there was a technique to get the proper spelling onto their file (although not onto the beginning certificates). We would wish to offer a “graphic presentation” of the identify.

Alison replied with a two-sentence e-mail to ask in the event that they had been in search of a jpg file.

The unit didn’t reply that query however got here again with a prolonged e-mail laying out choices for identify registration.

Extra purple tape

These choices had been unclear to us from the message, so we wrote again to ask for a Zoom assembly for clarification.

A supervisor within the division referred to as me promptly to say {that a} Zoom assembly was not doable, however that she could be glad to speak me by means of the choices on the phone.

The courteous supervisor mentioned that her unit’s unique e-mail had been incorrect: the issue was not with the printer. It was merely a matter of aligning the province with federal identification paperwork like passports. She was unsure if this was really prescribed in a statute or regulation, but it surely was the province’s customary observe. She mentioned she might verify with the workplace’s solicitor, however we shouldn’t maintain our breath.

The supervisor defined that our choices had been these: use an English/French letter rather than the “Ł”; or fill out a further, elective line on the unique kind and have an actual, licensed copy of the complete hand-filled kind develop into Oliver’s official beginning certificates.

Nonetheless, in that case, Oliver’s uncommon beginning certificates would sadly embody all the shape’s delicate private info, together with, for instance, our reply to the query about whether or not we used assisted conception.

Cape Breton University professor Tom Urbaniak: "We're really kind of beside ourselves about what's happening and just sort of reflecting a lot and praying a lot about how we can show solidarity and how... just sort of the power and unity and mutual aid of people of goodwill can somehow overcome the terror and cruelty that have been imposed by just a few terrible leaders." - Contributed — Cape Breton College professor Tom Urbaniak: “We’re actually type of beside ourselves about what’s occurring and simply kind of reflecting quite a bit and praying quite a bit about how we will present solidarity and the way… simply kind of the facility and unity and mutual assist of individuals of goodwill can someway overcome the phobia and cruelty which were imposed by only a few horrible leaders.” – Contributed

Uncaring ‘system’

This similar system has achieved extra hurt to others than it has to us. The issue of presidency workplaces rejecting or altering names was addressed in 2015 by the nationwide Fact and Reconciliation Fee, particularly in Name to Motion #17. Many Indigenous mother and father couldn’t register the newborn names they wished as a result of the letters, accents or name-structures had been from their languages. The “system” didn’t care that names are deeply intertwined with an individual’s identification and ancestry.

In reference to Oliver, we are going to gently nudge this ahead a bit of extra with our MLA, John White, and with the accountable minister, Colton LeBlanc. A optimistic final result in our small case would possibly assist others, too.

Within the meantime, Oliver is doing properly. I’ll preserve studying to him from my favorite Polish kids’s poet, Julian Tuwim. I’ll use the unique Polish, despite the fact that “methods” would possibly choose the English translation.

Dr. Tom Urbaniak is a professor of political science at Cape Breton College. He additionally chairs the Atlantic Canada District of the Canadian Polish Congress and Cape Breton’s St. Michael’s Polish Profit Society.

Source link