The First Nations University of Canada has found itself in a particularly distressing matter lately. In a nutshell, it comes down to money, the misuse of it, whose fault it is and how to remedy the situation.
Let’s start with the money. In November 2009 chief financial officer Murray Westerlund wrote a report and delivered it to the university’s audit committee. A month later, he was no longer working at FNUC. He says he was fired. They say it was a mutual break. Neither have been vindicated. The report stated he was worried there was inappropriate and extravagant spending occurring within FNUC by board members and senior staff.
Among the expenses were several conference trips to Las Vegas, Hawaii and Montreal, $98,000 in unclaimed vacation pay to FNUC president Charles Pratt over four years and, according to the CBC, from the $2.57 million that it cost to build the teepee structure at the Regina campus, “$216,000 was paid to First Nations war veterans and others to consult on the construction of a massive teepee veterans’ memorial at the school.”
Let me be clear: I am not against veterans. They provided a valuable service for our country, and helped show that Aboriginals are people, and have rights as well as anyone else. What I am against is the misuse of funds that a post-secondary institution is given in good faith. Even more so when it is a fledgling university that still has to prove its worth to the world.
But what gets me angry to the point where I just want to scream and take action is the fact that I had to look into the teary eyes of a student as she spoke to the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations assembly at Dakota Dunes in Whitecap First Nation on Feb. 3, and wept in front of all the chiefs. She spoke from the heart; she moved to Saskatoon to attend class at FNUC, hours away from her family, her community, because she believes in the program and wants to set an example.
Because of this misspending and the mistrust it has generated, her children may not be able to attend the same school. Students and faculty spoke to the assembly, demanding action be taken, and that these wrongs be made right.
If we allow this institution to be brought down, we will be marginalized even further, and with risk of losing more of our cultural identity.
Did you know that half of the Aboriginals in Saskatchewan are under the age of 21? Half. That makes 60,000 kids with the potential to educate themselves, to want to go to post-secondary education facilities — a generation that has the ability to change things for the better.
Minister of Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Rob Norris seems oblivious to the fact, and announced Feb. 3 that the provincial government would be cutting funding for FNUC after April 1. Not to mention the federal government, who have remained tight lipped regarding the situation.
If we allow this institution to be brought down, we will be marginalized even further, and with risk of losing more of our cultural identity. “You can be whatever you want, just not self-determining.” The main issue with FNUC is that the board of governors is too large, and that it must be dissolved. Those seats have been occupied by Chiefs, and has made the board unnecessarily politicized.
On Feb. 3, as students from FNUC Regina left for Saskatoon, there were people trying to stop their bus from moving. This is disturbing; there are people out there who want us to fail, and the closure of FNUC campuses would only fuel that ignorance.
I know most of you don’t relate with the Aboriginal issues of today, but I’d like you to try something for me. Imagine listening to a leader of tomorrow — a student, a mother, daughter, granddaughter — speaking to the leaders of today, crying because they are unsure if they will be able to continue their education because of the actions of the leaders of today. Now imagine that someone is important to you, a family member, a friend, a loved one. Now imagine the leader of today telling that leader of tomorrow “Sorry, you can’t have your chance.” Because of a few making choices for the many.
I fear for FNUC. I fear for our people. I fear that self-determination is a lofty dream that will never come to be realized. I fear for our nation, because this will have a decidedly massive impact on the policy of provincial and federal governments towards the treatment of Aboriginal post-secondary educations. For those who think that I am writing this just to vent or to address Aboriginal contacts, this note is addressed to you, too.
I’d like to leave you with a quote that has driven me over the last few years and I hope that it moves you in some way. I’ll let the Office of the Treaty Commissioner explain: “When the Treaties were negotiated, they bestowed rights and responsibilities on both First Nations and Euro-Canadian settlers – we are all treaty people.”
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photo: Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0