AFN rejects Harper government’s education bill, calls for immediate injection of $1.9 billion – APTN
OTTAWA–The Assembly of First Nation called on the Harper government Tuesday to withdraw its First Nation education bill while also demanding the federal government immediately inject the $1.9 billion promised for 2015 in the last federal budget.
Chiefs from across the country gathered in an Ottawa hotel conference room to hash out their position on the First Nation Control of First Nation Education Act, Bill C-33 and to decide when to hold the next election for AFN national chief as a result of Shawn Atleo’s resignation.
After much procedural wrangling, driven by regional tensions over the direction of the AFN, the chiefs unanimously adopted a statement calling on Ottawa to scrap the bill and begin a new process of talks to craft another option.
“Canada must withdraw Bill C-33 and engage in an honourable process with First Nations that recognizes and supports regional and local diversity leading to true First Nation jurisdiction of education based on our responsibilities and inherent Aboriginal and Treaty rights,” said the statement, which was tabled by Kahnawake Grand Chief Mike Delisle, whose Mohawk community sits by Montreal.
