Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan just announced that people living on First Nations reserves will now have the same human rights protection as other Canadians. Previously, the Canadian Human Rights Act which prevents discrimination on grounds of race, religion or gender did not apply to the Indian Act. This is another encouraging example where past grievances are being put behind us, and both govt. and aboriginal leaders are beginning to embrace working collaboratively for the benefit of everyone involved especially the young whose future is at stake. Kudos to the Canadian government for prioritizing this.

This new approach is very good news for all aboriginal people but especially the youth where the high school graduation rate is still a dismal 41% versus 77% for Canadians as a whole. My congratulations and whole-hearted support goes out to all those like Roberta Jamieson of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation http://www.naaf.ca/ who are working very hard to change these troubling statistics.

I’m also beginning to get alot of great feedback from the aboriginal youth community out there and I really appreciate all your positive comments. Why not send me some of your thoughts of what you think will work better to improve educational outcomes for yourselves and your friends.