The evidence offered in these translated transcripts is a true and faithful record of witness testimony given during the Quebec City hearings of the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI). Hearings took place in eight Canadian cities from coast to coast from March through May 2023.
Raw transcripts were initially produced from the audio-video recordings of witness testimony and legal and commissioner questions using Open AI’s Whisper speech recognition software. From July to November 2023, a team of volunteers assessed the French AI transcripts against the recordings to edit, review, format, and finalize all NCI witness transcriptions.
The testimonies in Quebec City were presented primarily in French. To provide greater public access, a small and dedicated team translated the transcripts into English, employing human resources with the aid of digital translation tools.
With utmost respect for the witnesses, the volunteers worked to the best of their skills and abilities to ensure that the translated transcripts would be as clear, accurate, and accessible as possible.
Many testimonies were accompanied by slide show presentations or other exhibits. The NCI team recommends that transcripts be read together with the video recordings and any corresponding exhibits.
We are grateful to all our volunteers for the countless hours committed to this project, and hope that this evidence will prove to be a useful resource for many in future. For a complete library of the over 300 testimonies at the NCI, please visit our website at https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/testimony/.
TRANSLATION TEAM
(French to English)
Managing Editor
Erin Thiessen
Translation
Susan Burns, Jeanne Chabot, Lucy Narbaitz, Val Sprott,
Erin Thiessen, Elizabeth van Dreunen
Copyediting and Formatting
Jodi Bruhn
Final Review
Erin Thiessen