Permanent funding needed to fulfil recommendations of First Nation student death inquest, lawyers say

"Progress is stagnating" on some of the long-term goals set for governments, police and First Nations organizations after an inquest into the deaths of seven First Nations students in Thunder Bay, Ont., according Aboriginal Legal Services, which issued its fourth annual report card on Wednesday.

The overall grade for all of the parties to the inquest went down from an A- to a B+ between 2019 and 2020, using the grading system developed by Aboriginal Legal Services to track the progress of the inquest recommendations. The tracking system itself was one of the 145 recommendations issued by the inquest jury in 2016.

"Every year this report card is a stark reminder of the privilege of having secondary education close to home," said Caitlyn Kasper, one of the lawyers with Aboriginal Legal Services, who represented the families of six of the seven students who died after having travelled from their remote First Nations to attend high school in Thunder Bay.

"The status of the recommendations reminds us of how far we've come and also reminds us that we can't stop now," Kasper said.

Six of the young people who died in Thunder Bay between 2000 and 2011 were attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations high school. They are: Jethro Anderson, Paul Panacheese, Robyn Harper, Curan Strang, Reggie Bushie and Kyle Morrisseau. Jordan Wabasse was a student at the Matawa Learning Centre when he died.

• FIRST NATIONS STUDENT DEATHS INQUEST

Canada received the lowest grade in this year's report card, a C+, with only 53 per cent of the recommendations it is responsible for marked as complete, and six per cent where nothing has been done.

That's in part because Canada was tasked with the most long-term recommendations, many of which take significant investment, said Jonathan Rudin, program director with Aboriginal Legal Services.

"Those long-term recommendations are recommendations to bring the situation in remote fly-in communities to a standard that the rest of Canadians would expect, and that they have a right to expect," Rudin said in a video-taped statement shared with media. "That is work that has to be done."

For example, in recommendation 24, the jury attempted to address the disparities they saw as contributing factors in the students' deaths with plans to increase and stabilize funding for all aspects of life in First Nations, including "health, economic wellbeing, social services, living conditions, and so on."

"Until Canada works with First Nations to develop a comprehensive and holistic plan to close outcome gaps between First Nations people and other Canadians, Canada cannot receive a passing grade for recommendation 24," the report card states.

"There needs to be permanent funding" for educational supports, suicide prevention and cultural programs for First Nations high schools, Rudin said. "And kids who come to these schools need to have an education in their communities in Grade 1 to 8 that is commensurate with the education they would get anywhere else in the province."

"Things are not going to get better until those things get better."

The inquest jury also recommended that First Nations that want a high school in their community receive the funding to build one. Progress on that has also been slow.

Education providers get top marks

There is good news in the report card as well, including evidence of some significant work that has already been done.

Both Matawa Learning Centre (now Matawa Education and Care Centre) and Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, which operates Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school received top marks with more than 80 per cent completion of the recommendations directed at them and none that are not at least in progress.

Some examples of other work done to increase First Nations safety include:

1. Canada increased the rates for students staying in boarding homes to $12,000 per student per year and Nishnawbe Aski Nation has completed a review of the boarding home placement system.
2. Federal funding for First Nations education increased by approximately four per cent in the 2019/20 fiscal year.
3. The incidence of substance or alcohol misuse "continues to be at an all-time low" among students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school, according to Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, thanks to additional funding from Canada for harm reduction and mental health supports that have "made an enormous difference in helping stabilize youth with mental health issues and mental illnesses."
4. Construction is underway to add student accommodations to the Matawa Education and Care Centre and Northern Nishnawbe Education Council is completing a feasibility study on a student accommodation building for Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school.
5. Nishnawbe Aski Nation's suicide prevention program, Choose Life was established in 2017 and extended until 2022, providing more $200 million so far to support community-based mental health services and supports to meet the urgent needs of the children and youth.
6. Memorial scholarships have been set up in the names of five of the students.

Work on some recommendations has been delayed by the pandemic, including visits to First Nations by police or school officials, and orientation programs for First Nations students coming to Thunder Bay.

COVID-19 causes delays

Dennis Franklin Cromarty high school is offering online classes only until at least the end of October and there are travel restrictions in place for some of the communities that would ordinarily send students to Matawa Education and Care Centre because of the risk of COVID-19.

Rudin says the pandemic shows why investments in remote First Nations are so critical.

"They are essential to make and we see that now, as people are wondering whether to send their kids to school here in Toronto where our offices are, imagine what its like if your children live in a fly-in community where there is quite naturally a huge fear of COVID coming into those communities," Rudin said. "But many of these communities don't have fully-functioning high-speed internet, one of the recommendations of the jury."

All of the parties to the inquest were given a grade by Aboriginal Legal Services: Canada (C+), Ontario (B-), the education providers (A+), Nishnawbe Aski Nation (A-), and the City of Thunder Bay, (B), except the Thunder Bay police.

Police not issued grade

Rudin said the jury made the recommendations to the police assuming that the investigations into the student deaths were done fairly, but the Office of the Independent Police Review Director report in 2018 showed there were significant problems with the investigations and that systemic racism played a role in the lack of investigation into the deaths.

The deaths of Jethro Anderson, Curan Strang, Kyle Morrisseau and Jordan Wabasse are being re-investigated as a result of that report. The investigations are expected to be complete by the end of the year.

"Once that work is finished we'll be consulting with Indigenous organizations in and around Thunder Bay to get their sense of whether the Thunder Bay Police Service has now regained the trust of the community and if that is the case we'll go back to issuing grades for the Thunder Bay police," Rudin said.

"As we get on into year 5 or 6 [after the inquest], we want to continue to see progress," he said. "There were some thoughts from some of the organizations that maybe its time to stop issuing these report cards...but much of the important work is not done."