Big drum singers from Lloyd S. King Elementary School sat circled around the instrument, beating time as their young voices filled the community centre with the Eagle Song.

The singers were part of an opening ceremony on Monday morning for the first day of a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal hearing over alleged underfunding of First Nations schools.

The Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) alleges the federal funding model for on-reserve schools discriminates by providing funding comparable to that of provincial schools to First Nations schools on reserves, where both needs and costs are higher, per the June 2020 complaint.

In his opening address on Monday, MCFN lawyer Kent Elson said funding that doesn’t meet needs leads to inequitable delivery of services, educational disparit

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