[LINK] On the ethics of actually teaching First Nations languages in Ontario

[rfmcdonald]

If the situation is as described by the CBC News' Jody Porter, I'm struck by the lack of sense in this decision. Why would you have someone teach a language they are not fluent in?

David Thompson believed his Ojibway heritage and his university degree with special qualifications in native language instruction would give him job security as an Ojibway teacher in Ontario's public school system.

He was wrong.

During a round of job cuts this year, Thompson was bumped out of his full-time permanent job teaching high school Ojibway with Lakehead Public Schools in Thunder Bay, Ont., by a man who is a specialist in business studies and has no professional qualifications in any language.

The teacher currently doing the job is not Indigenous and does not speak Ojibway, Thompson wrote in a complaint filed with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

"It's a total insult to our youth to put someone in front of the classroom to teach Ojibway, who is not Ojibway, who is not affiliated with the culture or brought up with it," said Thompson, who was raised by his grandparents at Rocky Bay First Nation in northwestern Ontario.