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By Mary Agnes Welch

WINNIPEG—First Nations from Ontario and Manitoba are suing the federal government for $100 million over education funding, saying students on reserves are forced to leave home to attend school, cope with inexperienced teachers, disintegrating schools and far less funding than other Canadian schools.

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The court action was launched by six bands in northern Ontario and covers all 28 bands in the Treaty 3 territory, which includes southeastern Manitoba.

Several chiefs, who announced the case Wednesday morning in Winnipeg, say the treaty explicitly guarantees a school on every reserve. Instead, per-student funding is thousands of dollars less than it is off-reserve, schools are in woeful disrepair, students rarely have access to the same kind of programs and teachers — often fresh graduates — leave quickly for better-paying jobs.Worse, many reserves don’t have junior or high schools, so teens are boarded out.

Chief Kim Sandy-Kasprick of the Northwest Angle No. 33 First Nation said her community has no school, meaning every child must be sent away for an education.

The chiefs say they are turning to the court in desperation and hope the government negotiates instead. They are asking the court to enforce their treaty rights and pay bands an estimated $100 million in damages for generations of substandard education.

Winnipeg Free Press

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