By Thia James

POLL: Speaking tour aims to highlight funding gap for First Nations kids

Jun 3, 2014 | 6:56 AM

A handful of people gathered in the Indian Métis Friendship Centre in Prince Albert to discuss education for First Nations youth on Sunday.

The event was a part of a speaking tour held by Amnesty International, taking the organization to cities and towns across the province. The tour coincides with the sixth anniversary of Parliament’s apology for residential schools. Its aim is to raise awareness about a national campaign, ‘Our Dreams Matter Too.’ The campaign will be led by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

Craig Benjamin, Amnesty International campaigner, who led Sunday’s talk, said at its heart the campaign is about fairness for First Nations children.

“It’s about closing the gap in the funding available for basic services like education, health care, child and family services, and making sure those services that are available to First Nations kids on reserve are good quality, are consistent with their own culture and traditions and meet the needs for the next generation,” he said.

In Amnesty International’s view, there is a failure to meet the needs of First Nations children. Benjamin described what he called a unique arrangement between First Nations and the federal government for services.

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“Uniquely on First Nations reserves, the federal government is responsible for the services that elsewhere may be delivered by the municipality, it might be delivered by the province or territory. And what we have seen across the board is the federal government provides less money per person for those same services. And less money inevitably results in lower quality services.”

He added that for Northern communities, the cost of delivering these services is much higher, and the needs are often much greater.

And with June 11, the anniversary of the residential school apology, less than two weeks away, the main topic of Sunday’s talk was the legacy of that era.

“We believe that apology represents a commitment, not only to acknowledge the crimes of the past, but to set things right and to prevent similar crimes [from] happening in the future to end a pattern of children being torn away from their families and communities, and to ensure First Nations communities have the chance to rebuild, revitalize and we want to see this promise fulfilled.”

Amnesty International a non-governmental organization whose focus is on human rights is known for its work on a global scale. Benjamin said they apply the principle of speaking out against human rights violations universally.

“We see the situation facing First Nations kids, we recognize it as an injustice, and we feel a need to speak out. But even more than that, we think Canada does have the potential to set a positive example for the rest of the world.”

John Hanikenne with the All Nations for the Common Good of Prince Albert, also takes note of Amnesty International’s work on a global scale. He participated in Sunday’s talk and said it’s nice to see the organization in this community and look at the problems here.

Poverty is one of the problems he pointed to. Hanikenne said there are gaps between the rich and the poor that should be filled to give opportunities to all people from all walks of life.

“This is a centre for the whole North, and you know, it’s a melting pot [for] the whole North, and if we don’t do something here in the community, we’re at a crucial state, and I think if we can do some things that can really make a change, it can help everybody in all different lands and we can inspire other people…”

Amnesty International is reaching out to the average person through the speaking tour, because as Benjamin said, when they hear about injustices they will voice their concerns.

But, he said, “the reality is that we’re only going to see the change we need when enough people start speaking out.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames