Manitoba chiefs invite UN rapporteur to investigate First Nations education

WINNIPEG – Manitoba chiefs want the United Nations to investigate aboriginal access to education.

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, with the Assembly of Manitoba chiefs, says he has sent a formal invitation to the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to education.

He says Canadians receive some of the best education in the world, but that’s not the case for aboriginal children.

Nepinak says First Nation communities are chronically underfunded when it comes to education.

He says the Canadian government is almost certainly breaching international standards and obligations to provide equal access to education for aboriginal children.

The UN’s special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples visited Canada in 2013 and called for an improvement in the living conditions of First Nations.