Phil Fontaine toured Tobique schools on Monday

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By Robert LaFrance

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The students of Mah-Sos School at Tobique First Nation left their own building in April to attend school in what they and their teachers and parents hoped was a temporary move, but so far nothing has been done to repair the building's many problems and the Department of Indian Affairs has not yet decided to build a new school.

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A masked National Chief Phil Fontaine, left, seen here talking to Tobique Education Director Warren Tremblay and Chief Gerald Bear, right. He was visibly shaken at the information that many of the children attending Mah-Sos School until April 2008 had to use inhalers for breathing problems because of mould. Now, in their temporary home in the Training Centre, there is a strong smell of mould in the lower floor which houses the school’s office and grade 5.

The students have been attending school in the Adult Training Centre, but in the lower floor of that building there is also a strong smell of mould, just as there was in the school they vacated in April.

On Monday morning, Nov. 16, Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, arrived at Tobique First Nation to see the situation for himself and was upset that the situation was not only endangering the children's education but it was also endangering their health. In the temporary school, grade five students' classroom is in the mouldy smelling downstairs level as is the school's office and other rooms used by cleaning staff.

Fontaine arrived at the temporary school about 11 a.m. accompanied by Tobique Chief Gerald Bear, parents, band councillors, and others supporting the idea of a new school. Lori Paul and Shannon Perley of ‘Friends of Mah-Sos' a parent group that strongly supports new construction, were there as well. Lori Paul pointed out that a recent newspaper story that said renovations were going on at Mah-Sos School was wrong.

"There is absolutely no work going on there, they don't plan any as far as we know, and nobody (at the Department of Indian Affairs) will say when they will decide whether to build a new school."

After touring the present school and listening to some singing by grade two students, Chief Fontaine and the large entourage moved to the now empty Mah-Sos School where everyone was issued with a cloth mask to protect their breathing from the prevalent odor of mould.

"Is this the worst part of the building?" he asked Education Director Warren Tremblay as they were looking around a large former classroom whose windows were recently vandalized. Tremblay said that other parts, including one classroom that had been closed for well over a year, were much worse.

There was no sign of any recent work being done in the building, only books and equipment sitting on desks and in shelf. In the resource centre, or library, were hundreds of children's books but they are headed for an incinerator because the mould spores cling to the pages. Much of the other items will meet the same fate.

"It's a terrible situation," said Chief Fontaine after his tour of the vacant school. "Education is a very important issue for this community, for all our communities. If kids are being schooled in situations such as we've seen here today they're under a terrible disadvantage. Kids deserve better. These kids are our future, not just the future of the First Nations community, but Canada's future. No one deserves to be treated the way these kids are being treated.

"It was important that I see it for myself," he continued, and went on to say that efforts by the Assembly of First Nations to press the federal government about educational matter hadn't been successful so far. Asked what options were available, Chief Fontaine said that probably the best one is to file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

"I also believe that this community and other First Nations Communities are going to have to think very, very seriously about launching a class action lawsuit against what are obviously discriminatory actions against our people."