Chiefs of Ontario push for fair funding

The Chiefs of Ontario held a press conference in Toronto during their Special Assembly on Nov. 29, 2012. Gordon Peters, grand chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, the Education portfolio holder with the Chiefs of Ontario, wanted to set the record straight about the First Nations rejection of the proposed federal legislation on education.

“It’s a unilateral act by the federal government that has not had our participation and has not had our consent,” Peters said. One of the major areas of disagreement between First Nations and the federal government in terms of education is funding.
“We say very clearly from some of the studies that have been done that we are grossly underfunded with respect to the standard that has been set in other areas in Canada.”

Reports from the Auditor-General of Canada and the Parliamentary Budget Officer do not support the federal government’s claims that First Nations are at par or better than par with non-First Nations education systems. The reports clearly indicate there is a long-term funding inequity with First Nations education, Peters said.

He added that the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination said in 2012 that Canada must improve First Nations access to education, and that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has twice asked Canada to take action to address the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in the basic areas of child development, including education.

“We’d like Canada to come clean,” said Peters with regard to the education funding figures the federal government has refused to share. “Our proposition to the federal government is clear. Let’s sit down and talk about the numbers as a pre-requisite to any other engagement.”

Peters talked about the public campaign being waged by the federal government designed with one purpose in mind – to put First Nations in a negative light by saying they’re not accountable for the dollars they receive.

Goyce  Kakegamic, deputy grand chief of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN) and Alternate Education portfolio holder with the Chiefs of Ontario said, “We have a plan how we should move forward to address our education challenges. We have experienced educators who are articulate. We have a plan, we have a vision,” he said. “They say Native people are failing, but it’s not the Native people who are failing. It’s the system that is failing our people.” He spoke about the over 400 “sons and daughters” in the NAN territory who have been lost to suicide since 1987 and “a lot of these are people that have dropped out,” he said.

Kakegamic is himself an educator. A residential school survivor, he’s also earned degrees from Lakehead University and has been a teacher, school principal and director of education. He’s also one of the visionaries behind the Northern Ontario School of Medicine where he has served as a board member.

“As parents, as communities, we have a solution…and we do have people who have the heartbeat to deal with this,” Kakegamic said. “We need to design our own curriculum for students to feel comfortable with their language, their culture. Residential Schools, they took away our culture and our language.”

Peters said, “For 145 years, Canada has run the education system…145 years and the system has failed and yet Canada wants to move ahead with another piece of legislation that’s going to put the education of our children back into the same system…”

“No unilateral imposition is going to work in our communities,” Peters continued. “The Chiefs have said those are no longer acceptable and will not be tolerated and we will take every action necessary to prevent that from happening.”

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In a statement released Dec. 13, 2012, Grand Chief Gordon Peters addressed misleading media reports released by the federal government that First Nations and the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs have agreed to a collaborative approach to overhaul First Nations education. Peters was at the meeting with the minister and confirms that no such agreement was reached on any matters, issues or process related to education reform.

Caption: Deputy Grand Chief Goyce Kakegamic, Nishnawbe-Aski Nation and Alternate Education Portfolio Holder with Chiefs of Ontario, speaking at a press conference in Toronto on Nov. 29, 2012

Grand Chief Gordon Peters, Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, and Education Portfolio Holder with Chiefs of Ontario.