John Ivison: Former Prime Minister Paul Martin right to be angry over aboriginal education funding – National Post
April 30, 2015
The allocation in the federal budget of $200 million to improve aboriginal education has enraged Canada’s 21st prime minister.
“I don’t understand why this government makes it such a partisan issue as they did in this budget. I believe discrimination in education funding will be an (election) issue for Canadians,” Paul Martin said in an interview.
Perry Bellegarde, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, called the money in the budget an “outright snub and a missed opportunity.” The two men were speaking prior to a Canada 2020 symposium on aboriginal people and economic development in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Martin has devoted much of his time in the years since leaving the Prime Minister’s Office to raising education levels among the country’s First Nations children, the fastest growing segment of the population.
