Report of shifting jurisdiction wrong

Page 13

A story published in the Edmonton Journal on Jan. 13 has many Native people wondering just what's going on with First Nation education.

After discussing First Nation education reform with the newspaper's editorial board on Jan. 8, Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault spoke to a staff reporter to explore the idea of educational reform. The news story that followed stated the minister was prepared to share jurisdiction for education with the provinces by setting up school boards for First Nation schools across the country.

"The boards would be set up across the country but would operate under provincial jurisdictions," the story read.

Windspeaker attempted to ask to the minister if this was true. Scheduling problems prevented an interview with Nault, but his director of communications, Alistair Mullin, who was present during the editorial board meeting, dealt with our questions.

"Was the story accurate in the depiction of what the minister said? To a large degree, yes," said Mullin. "There was discussions about thinking outside the box, about working with First Nations parents, working with First Nations educators and experts in the field. This is something we said we would do. We started this working group on First Nations' education. We're currently reviewing that and when we get to our announcement in mid-February, we should be responding fairly concretely to that report."

But a decision to share jurisdiction with the provinces has not been made.

"What the minister said was that we need to get past simple discussions of straight jurisdiction. We need to get to the heart of the problem. That means First Nations, the federal government and the provinces are going to have to work together," Mullin explained. "The provinces have a great deal of expertise with respect to education and the minister would like to see that harnessed. Does that mean that we will be abandoning any federal fiduciary obligation or treaty right? Absolutely not."

The minister assembled a working group of First Nation educators from all regions of the country several months ago to provide advice on how to get better results for First Nations students.

Drop out rates are alarmingly high, he said, and something needs to be done.

Dr. Michael Posluns, a veteran consultant on First Nations issues, thinks that's the wrong approach. His doctoral dissertation was based on a study of First Nations leaders' testimony before Parliamentary committees, going back more than 30 years.

"There have been three public inquiries into Aboriginal self-government. My question to the minister is, why is he setting up bodies that meet in private and ignoring the previous reviews?" Posluns said.

First Nations control of education is not a new idea, he added.

"The 1971 Watson Report on Indian Education favored increased Indian control, as it was then called, precisely because the evidence showed that provincially run schools achieved no more than those run by the federal government or churches. This report led to the National Indian Brotherhood position paper, which called for Indian control of Indian education."

Under the minority government of that day, the then minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chretien, testified that he would make that paper government policy. His bureaucrats then set about ensuring that that never happened," Posluns said.