Anishinabek lead ‘No’ chorus on education act

Quinn Meawasige leads the march along Paris St. in Sudbury to rally against the proposed First Nations Education Act. – Photo by Priscilla Goulais
Quinn Meawasige leads the march along Paris St. in Sudbury to rally against the proposed First Nations Education Act. – Photo by Priscilla Goulais

Anishinabek Nation leaders, youth and citizens were front and centre Dec. 4th in rallies across Ontario  that championed the argument for First Nations Control of First Nations Education, and condemned the Harper government’s proposed First Nations Education Act.

“The main reform  needed is to ensure that First Nations students have access to the same quality of education as other students in Canada,” said Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee. “That is not happening and the proposed act would make the situation worse than it already is.

Madahbee was participating in a downtown Toronto rally that saw several 300 participants gather at the St. Clair Ave. offices of Indian Affairs and post quarantine notices.

First Nations opposition to the proposed FNEA is growing across Canada, with youth and community members saying the legislation is a throwback to residential school days, when the federal government took Native children away from their families and forced them to attend schools where their language and culture were forbidden, and where thousands suffered abuse and death for which Stephen Harper apologized five years ago.

Quinn Meawasige, Serpent River,  who is a youth council representative for the Anishinabek Nation, carried the nation’s Eagle Staff  at the head of 100 First Nation supporters who marched through downtown Sudbury and stopped noon-hour traffic with a round dance at the city’s major intersection. The rally included participants from the Union of Ontario Indians, and students from Brunswick House near Chapleau – over three hours away – and from Kengjewin Teg Educational Institute and Lakeview School in McChigeeng First Nation. Chief Joe Hare showed up to support his community members before catching a flight  to participate in the Toronto rally.

“Education is our treaty right, and the Constitution gives us the right to run our own affairs,” Meawasige told the rally, which wound up at N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre. Meawasige said that the Anishinabek have been  negotiating with Canada for 19 years to produce a  self-governed system like one created by the Mi’Kmaq in 1998.  This year students at 11 Mi’Kmaq high schools achieved an 88 per cent graduation rate, he said. He pointed to funding discrepancies of thousands of dollars for students in provincial schools and the federal schools operated on First Nations.  “This is bullshit, pardon my language,” the youth said.

“Show us the money!”, NDP Aboriginal Fairs critic Jean Crowder demanded of the Harper government, who told the crowd former Auditor General Sheila Fraser estimated it could take up to 28 years to eliminate the education gap between First Nations and others in Canada.  “First Nations schools need adequate funding so they can have gymnasiums and schools as good as other students in Canada,” she said.  “Under the Conservatives, this gap has been widening,” said Crowder, the Member of Parliament for the B.C. riding of Nanaimo-Cowichan, who noted that the annual  two-per-cent  cap that has left First Nations trailing cost-of-living indicators was first imposed by a Liberal government in Ottawa.

At the annual fall assembly of the Chiefs in Ontario, leaders were unanimous in their rejection of the proposed federal legislation.

“First Nations in Ontario vow to stop the federal First Nation Education Act and will refuse to abide by or implement the Act if is unilaterally pushed through parliament,” Regional Chief Stan Beardy told a Nov. 27 news conference. “Action is currently underway garnering public and political support for our position. We continue developing strategies based on all available options including challenging resource extraction, direct action and litigation.”

The conservative government released the federal government document “A Proposal for a Bill on First Nation Education” in October. Prior to the public release of the proposal, Indian Affairs minister Bernard Valcourt told the National Chiefs Committee on education that he would not proceed with the act, if there was enough First Nation opposition.