Mouldy schools, racism top complaints - Winnipeg Free Press

Mouldy schools, racism top complaints - Winnipeg Free Press
KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Kaydence Weenusk, left, and brother Elrick from Oxford House demonstrate outside federal offices in Winnipeg Friday.
Students at Oxford House First Nation have not attended regular classes since January because their school is contaminated with mould, while kids in an Interlake aboriginal community are studying in portable classrooms because their school is infested with snakes.

Aboriginal leaders cited those and other complaints at a Winnipeg rally Friday to make the case that Ottawa is shortchanging First Nation communities when it comes to education.

Ron Evans, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said the state of First Nation schools is "deplorable."

Three aboriginal schools, including two in fly-in communities, are closed, while others are plagued by overcrowding, mould and deterioration, the AMC said Friday.

Lake St. Martin First Nation kids learn in portable classes because their school has snakes. Another northern school has operated out of makeshift classrooms for 15 years.

"How do you attract good quality teachers in those kind of environments?" said Evans, who told more than 100 peaceful protesters outside the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) office on Hargrave Street that many First Nation schools receive 20 to 200 per cent less funding than neighbouring schools outside their communities.

"We want to be lawyers, we want to be doctors, we want to be plumbers, we want to be electricians. We want all of these things. But you can't have those things if you don't have the resources to get the education that you need," he said.

Brigette Weenusk, who attended the protest with her daughter, Kaydence, 5, and son Elrick, 2, said her four school-age children only attend classes once or twice a week at Oxford House because there aren't enough portable classrooms and other community spaces available for the kids. Students go to school in rotation.

A Winnipeg spokeswoman for INAC said Friday the mould-contaminated school won't be repaired until January, meaning the kids won't have attended regular classes for a full year.

Weenusk said she's also worried the mould problem will persist once the school reopens and her kids will get sick, as they did last year before it was closed.

The chief of Lake Manitoba First Nation renewed complaints Friday that the 80 high school students who are bused from his community to Lundar face discrimination and racism at the school and from the community.

Chief Barry Swan said the latest incident involved a non-aboriginal parent who demanded to know, in a visit to the school office last Wednesday, "What the F are they (Lake Manitoba First Nation students) doing in Lundar?" Swan has demanded a meeting with provincial officials and is threatening to file a human rights complaint.

Janet Martell, superintendent of Lake Shore School Division, which takes in Lundar School, attended Friday's protest. She did not comment on the alleged incident but said she will meet with Lake Manitoba First Nation leaders next week. "We work to teach our students about tolerance and acceptance, whether that is ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation..." she said.

Gerald Farthing, the deputy minister of education, said he is concerned. "We want those kids to feel welcome at the school and we want them to do well," he said. Farthing plans to travel to the area to meet with First Nation leaders and school officials.