National Aboriginal Caucus Campaigns and Issues

Campaigns and priorities are set by the National Aboriginal Caucus membership. For additional information on any of the following issues, or to request campaign materials, please contact the Caucus.

Access & Funding

The Canadian Federation of Students recognizes and supports as a right of Aboriginal people access to post-secondary education. Education at all levels is an Aboriginal and Treaty right recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982.

Although education is a provincial jurisdiction, education for status First Nations and Inuit students falls under federal jurisdiction under the Indian Act, regardless of whether schooling is pursued on or off reserve. At present, non-status First Nations and Métis students are not covered by the same federal policy, and as such, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada’s Post-Secondary Education program is not available to them.

Post-Secondary Student Support Program

The federal government provides funding for Status Indians (as defined by the Indian Act) through the Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP). Funding for the PSSSP is distributed by band councils under their own eligibility criteria. For example, some bands fund more students at a portion of the total cost of their education, whereas other band councils give a grant covering all of a student’s expenses.

When accounting for inflation and population growth, the value of the federal government's contribution to the PSSSP and other support programs has not been increased meaningfully since the mid-1990s. Funding for Indian and Northern Affairs’ Post-Secondary Education Program, which includes the PSSSP, has been capped at 2% annual growth since 1996.

In a 2004 report of the Auditor General, lack of federal funding was cited as the cause of preventing approximately 9,500 First Nations people from pursuing a post-secondary education in 2000. Between 2001 and 2006, the Assembly of First Nations estimates that 10,588 status First Nations students were denied funding from the PSSSP, and an additional 2,858 more were denied in 2007-2008 alone.

In 2005, the federal government announced plans to tax PSSSP funds as income, removing the funding from tax exempt status and violating the federal governments’ fiduciary responsibility to First Nations people. The Canadian Federation of Students, as well as many First Nations groups in Canada, successfully lobbied the federal government to halt the proposed taxation of the PSSSP.

The Caucus has been lobbying the federal government to increase funding to the PSSSP to ensure that no eligible student is denied funding to pursue post-secondary education. In addition, the Caucus is proposing that consultations begin immediately between the federal government and Aboriginal organisations with a view to developing a plan to include all Aboriginal students under the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Post-Secondary Program.

Tuition Fees

As with any non-repayable student financial assistance, skyrocketing tuition fees have dramatically depreciated the value of programs like the PSSSP. Moreover, the scarcity of education funding for non-Status First Nations and Métis students means that financial barriers to post-secondary education remain insurmountable.

The Caucus has a long-standing campaign to reduce tuition fees and student debt for all students. Contact your local students’ union for ways to get involved in the campaign.

Where's the Justice?

One of the Caucus’ long-standing campaigns is the ‘Where’s the Justice?’ campaign. The campaign addresses the federal government’s reluctance to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples completed in 1999. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the roots of violence, poverty, and discrimination faced by Aboriginal people, and encourage Aboriginal students to get involved in their local students’ union and the Federation.

Stolen Sisters

"There is one fundamental fact: her murder was a racist and sexist act. Helen Betty Osborne would be alive today had she not been an Aboriginal woman.”
- Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba

According to Canadian government statistics, young Indigenous women are five times more likely than other women of the same age to die as the result of violence. The Caucus has been active on a campaign called “Stolen Sisters” to fight violence and discrimination against Aboriginal women in Canada and to shed light on the numerous cases of violence against Aboriginal women that have gone unnoticed by governments.

The Caucus is working to push the federal government to work with Indigenous peoples’ organisations and policy to implement plans of action to ensure effective action is taken to stop violence against Indigenous women. Postcards to the Prime Minister, urging him to take action, can be requested from the Caucus for circulation on campus and in the communities, or by downloading and printing the link below.

Download the Stolen Sisters campaign postcard

Visit Amnesty International’s Stolen Sisters Campaign website

Resources

Aboriginal Peoples and Postsecondary Education in Canada. Michael Mendelson, Caledon Institute for Social Policy, July 2006

No Higher Priority: Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education in Canada. Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, House of Commons, Ottawa, June 2007.

Royal Commission on Aboriginal peoples,1999.