AFN Chiefs Debate Reformation of Education Bill

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Canada’s aboriginal chiefs have started an extremely intense debate on Tuesday about whether or not to support a proposed federal bill to overhaul the First Nations education system. Several sources claim that many chiefs still insist that there was no point of calling for amendments since the best course of action would have been outright death of the legislation.

The chiefs from the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) have convened for a special meeting at a time of discord within the group. The group’s national chief, Shawn Atleo, made an unexpected announcement to quit from his position in light of several ongoing internal complaints about him publicly supporting the Conservative government’s bill, C-33, which makes major changes to education on reserves. The group’s meeting on Tuesday was headed by the AFN’s senior leadership, known as the executive council, which presented a resolution calling upon First Nations to discuss their concerns about the contentious bill and “develop solutions and a plan to meet the conditions of success.”

According to the resolution, “Canada must engage in an honourable process with First Nations to substantially amend or withdraw Bill C-33 and co-develop a bill that truly supports regional and local diversity and First Nations control of First Nations education.” However, it was visible that there is very little support among the group to urge Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government to amend the bill. Chief George Beardy was heard saying that “the government in Canada is a dictatorship,” and that we want them to “kill the bill. Then we’ll start.”