Unfortunately, they're only considering it out of a misguided sense of fairness.
Faced with a government order to stop making aboriginal students pay fees, both Yellowknife Education District No. 1 and Yellowknife Catholic Schools said they may end fees altogether because it's not fair to charge some students and not others.
"We're having a really hard time with the equity issue across the board," said YCS superintendent Kern Von Hagen.
Yellowknife 1 superintendent Judith Knapp and board vice-chair Dave Lovell had similar arguments.
Fairness has nothing to do with it. This is a simple case of constitutionally-supported Treaty Rights trumping school board rules. The school boards, we might add, sit on traditional Dene lands for which compensation is still being negotiated between the Dene and the federal government.
What are the school boards telling their non-aboriginal students with such comments?
That aboriginal students are getting more than what they're due? Shame.
Especially troubling is that both boards disregarded a ministerial directive sent by former Education Minister Jake Ootes last November, ordering them to stop charging fees. They conveniently believed it only takes effect next year.
They had to be told in January by the present minister, Charles Dent, to repay fees collected from students with Treaty Rights this year.
School boards aren't the only ones to blame.
Both city school boards have suggested they'll be looking to the territorial government for the funds to make up for the lost fees.
They should get it, too.
The territorial government said nothing for years. This unspoken approval for school board policies allowed fees to be demanded from First Nations students who didn't have to pay.
Still unanswered is what about fees collected in previous years? If it's wrong now to charge the fees, it was wrong then.
If governments don't pay, those Treaty Rights holders who have paid fees this year have every right to march straight to the courthouse and launch a class action lawsuit. That would be costly for everyone, and an unnecessary waste of education dollars.
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News
It was more than a little disheartening during the past few weeks to hear a number of male hockey players, young and old, whining about female players in "their" tournaments.
In fact, some didn't participate because a "girl" was playing on their team.
It's time to wake up and smell your sweatsocks gentlemen.
Since remarks were made at two vastly separate tournaments, let's deal with each on an individual basis.
For the senior mens recreational players who truly believe females have no right on the ice with them because they can't take the rough stuff, the last time we checked body contact was not allowed at that particular level of hockey.
So, if the gals are willing to suit up, and there are teams willing to add them to their rosters, they should have every right to do so.
In fact, at two recent tourneys in Rankin Inlet, the female players gave a good account of themselves.
There were a number of players from Chesterfield Inlet who did not come to the Avataq Cup because a female was playing on their team.
We can't help but wonder how those guys felt after learning not only did the female player earn a game star for scoring her team's only two goals (and neither of them cheap, we might add), she also skated away with a beautiful trophy for being the Avataq's most sportsmanlike player.
Not bad for a poor defenceless girl, eh?
The wrong message
The peewees were a different story, as a number of females participated, including a trio of fast skaters on the silver medal winning Repulse Bay team.
You guys must admit, a silver medal is a pretty impressive accomplishment for a squad obviously playing at such a disadvantage with a bunch of girls on their team.
There is no doubt in our minds that the peewee-aged players with such strong anti-female sentiment are having that message passed down to them by older hockey playing friends or family members.
The peewee tournament was, in fact, a full-contact event and every female we saw bodychecked got back up and continued on.
And, the gals gave some back as well.
There are at least two young male players with fond memories of being flattened by their female counterparts during the tourney. More and more females are discovering the joy of playing hockey and their participation should be encouraged, especially here in the North.
And, you never know, while none are likely to become the next Jordin Tootoo any time soon, one just might become the next Hayley Wickenheiser or Cassie Campbell a lot sooner than you think.
Editorial Comment
Jason Unrau
Inuvik Drum
I was talking to my friend who lives down south the other day. When I told him about homelessness in Inuvik, he couldn't believe it.
"How can people live on the streets in that weather?" he asked incredulously.
I asked the very same question before believing the exact same thing: Nobody could possibly survive sleeping rough in this climate.
That is, until I spoke to Frank (not his real name) and for what one could learn about anyone's life in a half-hour conversation about his life, more than half of it spent living homeless in Inuvik.
Homelessness in warmer climates somehow seems more believable.
To allow this trend of rising homelessness to go unchecked in Inuvik, or anywhere in the territory, is unacceptable.
A place can have all the committees in the world working together to deal with this, but unless something knocks the wheels into motion, these are fruitless exercises.
Frank and his friends living on the streets across the territory need a bed tonight.
Not after such time when "the committee(s)" has (have) gone through the rigamarole of applying for, let's say, the necessary funding to hire a co-ordinator.
But of course, all these things are necessary in this bureaucracy-laden place known formerly as Rupert's Land, currently as Northwest Territories and Bob in the near future, perhaps.
To the Inuvik Interagency Committee's credit, they have managed to produce a fine report outlining the homelessness crisis in Inuvik.
That said, its report concluded what somebody who is familiar with the issue could have revealed at the get-go:
That the causes of homelessness are complicated and case-specific with a host of social ills contributing to the overall problem.
That co-ordination and co-operation of various resources and services already available is necessary, especially at the outset of attempting to address the issue.
In fairness to the Interagency Committee, it is also good to remember that Twin Lakes MLA Roger Allen -- former Minister Responsible for the Homeless -- held a somewhat contradictory position when it came to affordable housing.
At the November Ingamo Hall all-candidates debate, Allen expressed his confidence in market forces as a fair way of ensuring affordable rent in Inuvik.
Unfortunately, market forces don't do a whole lot to combat problems such as substance abuse and domestic violence. In fact, these tend to be exacerbated by "market forces" when a local economy experiences a boom, as Salvation Army Major Karen Hoeft noted about the rise in homelessness in Yellowknife in the wake of the city's economic boom.
And this is what is anticipated for Inuvik. With more workers and money flowing into the town as work continues towards realizing a pipeline, there will be those that benefit and those that will suffer.
Editorial Comment
Derek Neary
Deh Cho Drum
A Fort Simpson curriculum review by an Edmonton education consultant contains a few pointed conclusions. For one, without standardized testing it is impossible to gauge where little Johnny or little Suzie measures up.
While an A- or 74 per cent on a test or report card shouldn't become a fixation, those indicators are the ones that count when Johnny or Suzie wants to get into college or university.
(Some people feel strongly that there should be more trade schools for those who are not academically inclined, but that's another argument for another day.)
The education report also reveals that teachers are doing many things right, such as short- and long-term planning. It's just that they're not always right on target with the curriculum outlined in the Western Canadian Protocol. Even if the teachers were spot on, that doesn't guarantee that students will begin graduating fully prepared for college and university.
No, there's much more to the total picture than that. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and parents who don't participate in their child's education are still major issues.
This is truly a case of everyone having to work together for the children's sake.
Words get in the way
Is aboriginal an offensive word?
It is according to Roy Fabien, chief of the K'atlodeeche First Nation. During the Deh Cho leadership assembly in Fort Providence late last month, he repeatedly voiced his objection to the use of the term "aboriginal."
Near the end of the meeting, he explained that he thinks of aboriginal in the same context as "abnormal." Abnormal, of course, means that something is not normal. Fabien's reasoning is that aboriginal therefore denotes First Nations people are "ab-original" or "unoriginal."
Delegates around the table chuckled at Fabien's explanation, but acquiesced by changing the wording in a motion to read "Dene" instead of aboriginal.
In these politically correct times we live in, it's difficult not to upset somebody with a term or a phrase. Some words are clearly intended to be derisive while others can be interpreted in a number of ways.
Personally, I use the term aboriginal simply in an attempt to be inclusive and concise. There are Dene and Metis individuals sitting around the leadership table; to use only the term "Dene" is leaving out the other group. So I use aboriginal to describe both camps.
I also freely use the term First Nations. In writing, it's nice to have a number of synonyms so the reader isn't subjected to the words "Dene and Metis" over and over again.
What are readers thoughts on this subject? Please write a signed letter or e-mail.