FULL STORY: Failing Canada’s First Nations Children

Summary

The report examines the risks and inequities faced by First Nations students who must leave their home communities to attend high school. More than half of First Nations reserves lack a high school, so many teenagers move to cities and board with strangers. An Ontario coroner’s inquest is investigating the deaths of seven First Nations students who went to Thunder Bay to study between 2000 and 2011; six attended Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School.

The story follows Shonda Mamaka, who left Kingfisher Lake First Nation at 14 to attend school in Thunder Bay. She describes missing her family, culture, and traditional foods, as well as struggling to adjust to city life. She also recounts racist abuse. School staff try to support and protect students, but loneliness, grief, and alcohol use remain serious concerns. The school runs evening safety patrols and checks that students have returned to their boarding homes.

Shonda’s family says sending her away was painful but necessary because there is no local high school and few prospects without further education. Meanwhile, her community’s elementary school faces serious maintenance problems, including unreliable heat, a lack of running water in some facilities, leaks, and sewage smells. Community members also describe low educational attainment, unemployment, poverty, and other social challenges. Some students struggle academically after leaving, partly because their local schooling has not prepared them for high school elsewhere.

The report places these problems in a longer history of unequal education for First Nations children. It highlights the campaign by Shannen Koostachin, who advocated for a safe school in Attawapiskat after years of studying in cold, mouse-infested portable classrooms. She died in a car accident at 15, but her campaign inspired other young people to continue pressing for equitable education.

Cindy Blackstock describes a human-rights complaint alleging that federal funding for on-reserve child and family services was discriminatory. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that inadequate funding was discriminatory and must change. The report also notes Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s funding commitments for First Nations education and infrastructure, while questioning whether promised investments will close longstanding gaps.

The report’s central argument is that unequal funding and poor conditions deny First Nations children an equal chance at education, with serious consequences for students, families, and communities.

Presenters and Contributors

• Vassy Kapelos — Presenter/reporter
• Shonda Mamaka — Student
• Jonathan Kagami — Principal, Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School
• Steve Johnson — School safety patrol member
• Chris and Priscilla King — Shonda’s parents
• Chief Mamaka — Kingfisher Lake First Nation chief
• Shannen Koostachin — Student activist, featured in archival material
• Cindy Blackstock — Executive director, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada
• Carolyn Bennett — Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, represented by a written statement