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Forimm mediatereleas se The eFNECaccus sesthefedera algovernmen ntofdevising gaplantoassimilateFirst tNationsby imposingeducationlegi islation Wend dake, Octobe er 29, 2013 The First Na ations Educat tion Council ( (FNEC) was g given access t to the co ontents of the draft billWorking W Toget ther for First N Nation Students: A Propos sal for a Bill o on First Nation N Educa ation by the Minister M of Aboriginal Affa airs and Nort thern Develop pment Canad da (AAND DC)onOctob ber22,2013.Itisobviousthat t thedraft tbilltakesno oFirstNations spointofview intoaccount. a Since the beginnin ng of the pro ocess to dev velop legislatiion, governm ment officials have publicly stated d that they are a listening to First Nati ions and tha t they are ta aking their comments int to accou unt. However r, the draft bill b does not reflect any o of the concer rns raised by y First Nations, includ ding the ones s of exerting control over their educat ion, having a access to suff ficient funding, andre eceivingadeq quatesupport tfortheirlan nguagesandc culture. The federal f gove ernment say ys it is purs suing the o bjective to improve the educational achiev vement of First F Nations children. Despite the f fact that the e governmen nt has all th he neces ssary means to do so, including the expertise e of several l First Natio ons educatio on organ nizations acro oss the country as well as numerous re eports and re ecommendations presente ed in rec cent decades, , it has chose en to unilaterally develop p legislation w without prior r consent from m FirstNations N ontheconsultatio onprocess. Asaresult, r thefed deralgovernm menthasentr rustedtheres sponsibilityfo ordeveloping gabillthatwill haveconsiderableimpactonth hefutureofFi irstNationst oafewdozenAANDCcivilservantswh ho often have no kno owledge of th he realities First Nations c communities face. The go overnment ha as refuse ed to cowrit te the bill with w First Nat tions and to benefit from m the expert tise of several organ nizations such h as the FNE EC with its close c to thirt ty years of e experience in n First Nation ns educa ationandqua alifiedpersonnel. As for a model of f a governan nce structure, the draft b bill is recomm mending that t First Nation ns schoo olsbecontrolledbyprovin ncialschoolbo oardsorFirst tNationsscho oolauthoritie es.Theywould be he eld responsibl le by AANDCto act as Firs st Nations pollicing organiz zations. Their role would b be to ap pply legislatio on that does s not take into i account t what First Nations me ean by qualit ty ncludes a ste educa ation for their members. In addition, th he draft bill in ep backwards s; the return o of schoo olinspectorswhose w manda atewouldbetoensurethe elegislationi isupheld.
TLPHONE:4188427672 7 TLCOPIEUR R:4188429988 8 SITEWEB:www.cepn w fnec. .comCOURRIEL: info@cepnfnec c.com 95, 9 RUEDELOURS,WENDAKE(QUBE EC)G0A4V0

 Minister Bernard Valcourt is lying to all Canadians when he states that improving the quality of education and the graduation rate among First Nations students is accomplished by implementing legislation. This smokescreen organized by the federal government gives the impression that First Nations are incapable of governing themselves and ensuring the sound management of their education. Added to this is the threat to maintain the status quo and to ceasefromconsideringeducationapriorityifFirstNationsdonotadheretothebill. The FNEC concludes that this is a new form of assimilation policy developed by the federal government and supported by a campaign aiming to discredit the capabilities of First Nations acrossCanada. Forinformation: FirstNationsEducationCouncil 95DelOursStreet Wendake,QCG0A4V0 Tel.:4188427672 www.cepnfnec.com