TORONTO – ANISINABEK – “Our children are the centre of our nations and their protection and success is our greatest responsibility,” Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy said. “We are primed and ready to engage in discussions at the AFN Confederacy of Nations and Annual General Assembly to ensure our children will thrive and have a sense of ownership over their education despite the inter-generational impacts of the residential school era.”
Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy says next week’s education meeting during the Assembly of First Nations AFN Annual General Assembly in Halifax is crucial to the future of First Nation communities and that First Nations in Ontario will attend to ensure deliberations on First Nations’ education remain focused on their rights and responsibilities to educate their own peoples.
The national meetings come on the heels of an AFN Special Chiefs Assembly in May 2014 where there was unanimous agreement by First Nation leadership across the country to reject and demand the withdrawal of federal Bill C-33 erroneously named the First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act.
Chiefs of Ontario Education portfolio holder Grand Chief Gordon Peters said, “We are looking forward to working together with our counterparts across Canada on a national solution to take the place of the bill we soundly rejected at the last national gathering. Our solution will acknowledge our regional diversity while centring on revitalizing the language and culture components of our education systems that have been relentlessly attacked through federal policy for generations.”
