Shannen’s Dream to be voted on in House of Commons

Tuesday February 21, 2012

A motion calling for the federal government to support Shannen’s Dream will be voted on in the House of Commons on Feb. 27.

All parties have expressed their support for the motion, which would increase funding of on-reserve schools at least to the level provinces run schools.

Motion 202 was first introduced by NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) in September 2010 and then re-introduced in October 2011, following the last federal election. The motion calls for the government to “declare that all First Nation children have an equal right to high quality culturally-relevant education” and “implement policies to make the First Nation education system, at a minimum, of equal quality to provincial school systems.”

The motion was nicknamed in honour of Shannen Koostachin, a 15-year-old Attawapiskat youth who initiated the biggest letter writing campaign in Canada urging the federal government to build a new school in her community. She died tragically in a car accident in 2010. Shannen’s Dream is a campaign named in her honour and aims at ensuring that all First Nations in Canada have “safe and comfy” schools.

The motion was debated in the House of Commons on Feb. 17, with several MP’s who support the motion highlighting the statistics and reports showing that educational standards and facilities in First Nations communities are drastically below those off reserve.

Angus said that the poor standards of on-reserve education is the result of decades of systemic negligence and abuse.

“This was never a priority until children made it a priority,” he said, referring to Shannen. “That is what makes today's motion different.”

Angus highlighted that Shannen was recently selected by CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos as one of five teenage girls in history who made in difference alongside Joan of Arc, Anne Frank and Mary Shelley.

“Shannen did not want to make history,” he said. “She did not set out to be a hero. She wanted to be on a volleyball team. She wanted to have a locker. She wanted to write notes in the classroom. She had a dream that she could have what she called ‘a comfy school.’”

Conservative MP Greg Rickford (Kenora) said he and his party will support the motion.

“This motion…represents a relationship here in this place between all parties,” said the parliamentary secretary to the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. “It demands partnerships here in this place and non-partisan, substantive discussions about how we can work with First Nation communities, First Nation leadership and organizations and the provinces to improve the fortunes of First Nation students and the education they receive.”

The vote for the motion will come just weeks after Shannen’s Dream spokesperson Chelsea Edwards, a 16-year-old from Attawapiskat, was among six First Nations youth ambassadors who spoke to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child on Feb. 6 about the inequalities facing Aboriginal youth in Canada.