THUNDER BAY – Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler says the Conservative government had no consultation with Nishnawbe Aski Nation officials before arbitrarily rolling out Ontario’s First Nations, Metis and Inuit Studies curriculum at Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson, on hand for the announcement, confirmed that the consultation process ended with last June’s election, when the Conservatives stormed into power after 15 years of Liberal rule.
“I was perplexed during the whole announcement because there are a lot of points that she raised that didn’t register with me,” Fiddler said. “Including at the end when she said she’s had a meeting with me. That meeting has never happened.
“But even her assertions about consultations and working, at least with NAN, we’ve never had any meetings with her – and of our officials. And we were heavily involved with the (Truth and Reconciliation) team that started this work a few years back. They were abruptly halted last June.”
Fiddler added he was hopeful Tuesday’s news conference was going to restart the consultation process.
In part it did, though a ministry spokeswoman confirmed the changes won’t be put in place by this fall, when the new curriculum takes effect, despite a promised meeting next month.
Fiddler also wasn’t happy the curriculum is no longer mandatory, as it was when the Liberals first introduced it. Instead it will be an elective for students in grades 9 to 12, which the province says will provide up-to-date learning about First Nations, Inuit and Metis perspectives, cultures, contributions and contemporary realities in variety of areas, including art, law, politics and history.
His fear is they’ve lost a year in the process.
“We just saw the document which was introduced today. We haven’t read it. We haven’t gone through it with our educators, with our school boards, with our education authorities, to see if the content of the document reflects the work that’s been done,” Fiddler said.
“That’s my fear, that there was good work that has been done in the past with the TRC curriculum-writing team and they were just halted, for whatever reason, last May or June.”
The 298-page document is available online and acknowledges the separate standing enjoyed by Inuit, First Nations and Metis peoples.
Grade 9 students can learn about Indigenous art, while in Grade 10 they can explore the histories of First Nations and Inuit, starting with the pre-contact era, and Metis from the European arrival in North America.
In grades 11 and 12 courses examine cultural expressions, histories, world views and the current realities of the country’s Indigenous population. A Grade 11 course focuses on Indigenous writing, while three courses focus on social science aspects. Graduating students can study Indigenous governance and the global context of compulsory issues concerning Indigenous people.
“As we roll this out, I want to get feedback,” said Thompson, whose government is providing $3.25 million to school boards across Ontario to help with implementation.
“I represent a different type of minister who says, ‘Let’s see how these elective courses work,’ because I know in the schools in my riding, they want to take these courses as well. Let’s get good, constructive feedback on the curriculum and then see where we can go from there.”
Thompson said the formation of the process has been in the works for about nine years.
“We have taken the best of the best,” she said.
“There has been so much input and so much collaboration and consultation, leading up to when we hit the pause button. And then we just put the finishing touches on it and I am very proud of the end result.”
Tyrell Tibishkogijic, an 18-year-old Indigenous student at Westgate, applauded the introduction of the curriculum, saying it’s about time Ontario’s youth learned more about where they come from and understand more about who they are.
He is concerned it’s no longer mandatory.
“There are a lot of people who don’t really understand and I feel like if there was more of an understanding, there would just be a brighter future for everyone in general.”
