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Long awaited, post-secondary education policy changes announced by the federal government offer nothing but false hope, says a spokesperson for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).
The changes turned out to be a public relations ploy instead of a progressive step for Native people in Canada, Liz Thunder said during a phone interview from her Ottawa office Tuesday.
"The government is really giving us nothing new," she said.
The federal funding limitation for Native students across the country is still the same. But Indian bands will have "flexibility" to distribute their shares to Native students, according to an E-12
amendment put forward by Indian Affairs Minister Pierre Cadieux Sept. 12.
The initial policy places a $4 million limit on funding for Native education across the country and a limit on the years a Native student is permitted to receive the funding while attending a
post-secondary school.
The E-12 policy has been the focus of contempt by Native leaders since it was made public last year.
He said changes were made because of the growing pressure his office sustained from Native groups opposing the original policy.
Cadieux said were made as a direct result of several meetings with Indian groups.
Included in the nine amendments is a mechanism which calls for band administrations to provide education funding for their students out of band coffers. The amendments also state that students
must remain "successful" in their courses in order to receive the funding.
"But the new plan puts all the onus on Native bands to pay for the education of their people," Thunder insists. "There is no new money available."
"They're saying students can get more money, but it's up to the bands to decide. And the bands have to live within their own means."
She said that bands could be faced with more Natives wanting a higher education than they can afford to send to college.
"Then what are they going to do? They'll have to deny some of them (students). Well, that's not fair," she charges.
Thunder said Cadieux remains unwilling to afford Native people the right to education as specified in their treaties, and he is only "tricking" them into thinking they're getting something when
they're not.
A spokesman from Indian Affairs in Ottawa would not return phone calls.
"Now, Native students can go longer but they have to be at the tops of their classes in order to get money," she said.
AFN Vice-Chief Phil Fontaine lashed out at Cadieux for trying to deceive the public.
"This round of tinkering with the policy has not substantially changed the status quo for First Nations students in this "country," he said.
"It is evident that the department (of Indian Affairs) is merely trying to recoup some credibility in the public eye following the controversy created last spring with the decision to unilaterally alter
the Indian education policy."
Beginning last March, the AFN sponsored nationwide sit-ins and protests to show opposition to the E-12 policy changes. Native leaders demanded a moratorium on implementing the policy until
native communities could be properly consulted.
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