For Indigenous kids in Thunder Bay, promising change
Before we get into the good news — this column is about how so many are pulling together to welcome First Nations students to Thunder Bay this September — I’m going to borrow some words from Jonathan Rudin, the lawyer for the families of the Seven Fallen Feathers.
“People should not have had to die for any of these things to happen,” Rudin said. But they did. Nothing will ever erase the pain for the families who have lost their teens after putting them on a plane and sending them to the city just so they could access a high school education — a fundamental right of every single child in this country. As you read this, First Nations kids all across northern Ontario — and Canada, for that matter — are gearing up to go away from home for another school year. Kids as young as 13, leaving their families, their language, their homes and communities.
Yes, this year, we once again hold our breath and cross our fingers. But families should feel marginally comforted by the widespread changes and awareness happening right now — changes to make the city a more welcoming, friendly, safer place after three years of work to address the 145 recommendations that were the result of the inquest into the deaths of seven students between 2000 and 2011.
To be clear, this is not a panacea. We have much to overcome and many hard truths to continue to confront. But this is a start.
This week, Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto released its third annual report card on the progress in meeting recommendations made in June 2016. ALS represented the families of Jethro Anderson, Paul Panacheese, Reggie Bushie, Robyn Harper, Kyle Morrisseau and Jordan Wabasse. (Curran Strang’s family was not represented by ALS at the inquest.)
An overall grade of A-minus was given when work by all parties — among them Canada, Ontario, Thunder Bay, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, Matawa Learning Centre and Keewaytinook Okimakanak — was examined and averaged out.
There are some standouts among the changes underway.
This summer, I stood inside the brand new Matawa Education and Care Centre and was overcome with intense joy and sorrow.
The Matawa of today is the school all of our children always deserved to attend.
At the time of his death in 2011, Grade 9 student Jordan Wabasse went to Matawa and he took the bus from his boarding home to get there. Then, it was a dated, lowrise office building without any green space that overlooked a parking lot.
Now, Matawa, which is run on behalf of the Matawa Tribal Council of nine northern communities, has been transformed at a new location, in a newly constructed space. In March, Ottawa approved $16 million in funding to complete renovations on a student residence that can accommodate 100 kids. Matawa’s children will no longer have to live in boarding homes with strangers who are paid to take care of them.
The school is beautiful, inside and out — designed and meticulously planned by First Nations educators. It has sports fields, light-filled spaces for elders and students to meet, and an office for Indigenous language instructors who are transforming the school with their traditional knowledge and teachings.
There are also three new “safe sobering sites” where First Nations students can safely detoxify, supported by Ontario and developed with Keewaytinook Okimakanak, Matawa and the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council. One of the sites, nurse Mae Katt told me, is affectionately called Robyn’s House in honour of Robyn Harper, the only girl of the Seven Fallen Feathers, who passed away after she spent a night in the park drinking with friends. Robyn had arrived in Thunder Bay from her northern community of Keewaywin First Nation only days earlier; she was picked up by education counsellors but left at the entrance of her boarding home — where she died — instead of being taken to the hospital.
There were 31 recommendations directed at the city of Thunder Bay. Of those, 20 have been implemented and the others are in various stages of completion, according to the city’s corporate report responding to the inquest. One initiative in particular will help build bridges — $5.6 million for a youth inclusion program, which will focus on safety and recreational activities for Indigenous youth with role models and mentors in communities.
All eyes have been, and should be, on Thunder Bay.
It is beyond short-sighted for some to believe the national media focus is on Thunder Bay because we have an agenda about sullying the city’s reputation. It is the complete opposite. This is about love for our children. About opening eyes to the hard truths of inequity that still occur in this country every single day. About the existence of the Indian Act, of kids growing up without clean water or working plumbing, the lack of safe housing, the right to be raised by your own family, the right to access to medical care or a high school education.
The memories of the seven students got us here. We all must continue to work in their names to keep all our children safe.