Let’s Not Call in the Lawyers: Using the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Decision in First Nations Education

• Main Author: Ron S Phillips
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brock University 2016-12-01
• Series: Brock Education: a Journal of Educational Research and Practice
• Online Access: https://brock.scholarsportal.info/journals/brocked/home/article/view/497

In January 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal released its decision regarding the provision of Child and Family Services to First Nations living on reserves and the Yukon. The Tribunal found that the government of Canada had discriminated against First Nations children on the basis of their race. Many of the arguments made by the government of Canada to describe their actions in the provision of First Nations child and family services can be easily transferred to the provision of First Nations education programs and services to First Nations children throughout Canada. This article has replaced child and family services terms and phrases with education terms and phrases in the decision. Hopefully, the federal government of Canada will see the futility of fighting First Nations in education as they did in child and family services. It is time to provide First Nations students on reserves a comprehensive system of education.