Attawapiskat versus Ottawa

We are all treaty people, the Cree remind us. We debate what Canada is bound to by those treaties with First Nations that gave us Canada, but the educational promise at least seems plain: “to pay such salaries of teachers to instruct the children of said Indians, and also to provide such school buildings and educational equipment as may seem advisable.”

Charlie Angus, member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay for a decade and a school trustee before that, focuses Children of the Broken Treaty: Canada’s Lost Promise and One Girl’s Dream on that specific treaty promise. Everywhere in Canada, he observes, students go to schools where accountable local school trustees ensure they are decently funded and equipped. If schools in reserve communities such as Attawapiskat on Ontario’s James Bay shore must be controlled by Ottawa, he asks, should not the government at least meet standards taken for granted in the rest of the country?

There was an elementary...