Friday, March 06, 2020

SASKATCHEWAN 
NDP accuses Premier Moe of interference and intimidation in school division teacher transfers

CBC March 5, 2020

The Saskatchewan NDP says Premier Scott Moe's attendance and advocacy regarding teacher transfers at a school board meeting in his community last June was "wholly inappropriate."

In June 2019, the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division, based in Prince Albert, held a closed-door meeting. The meeting was attended by MLAs, including Moe who is the MLA for Rosthern-Shellbrook.

On Thursday, NDP education critic Carla Beck said emails the party received through a Freedom of Information request showed the premier was pressuring the school board to overturn its decision.

Moe denied he was attempting to pressure the board. He said the issue resulted in the most feedback he had received from constituents during his time as an MLA and that is why he wanted to hear from the SRSD.

Beck said Moe's role in the meeting amounted to political interference in a human resources matter.

"I do think that that intimidation by the premier was wholly inappropriate in this case."

Beck said she drew that conclusion from what was in the redacted emails and the fact the premier "holds the purse strings" for school divisions.

In response to the allegations, Moe said he would not apologize for taking part in the meeting and said he was performing his role as the area MLA.

"The premier believes he is also the MLA for Rosthern-Shellbrook," Moe said during question period Thursday.

Moe said he could not recall if he said he was there in his role as an MLA but said it was not unusual for him to attend meetings.

"I can't recall exactly how they reacted. I expressed my point on behalf of the constituents. They expressed, I believe, that they weren't going to change this policy."

When asked if he raised potential consequences for not changing the decision Moe said, "absolutely not."

The board ultimately transferred the four teachers.

Redacted emails reveal little detail

One of the emails written following the June meeting was from Robert Bratvold, the director of education for the school division. He wrote, "a much more urgent topic is the Premier's position on [redacted]."

A second email written after the meeting from another official said, "we had a very interesting meeting with the premier and MLAs for our area. We could tell the premier was anxious to get through the agenda and move on to the [redacted]."

The email ended, "don't stress over this. Think of the civil rights mantra 'we shall overcome.' Tomorrow is another day."

Bratvold said Thursday that because the meeting was closed he was not going to comment on the discussions. He also did not say if he was intimidated by the premier but said, "it's a really rare thing for me to feel intimidated or pressured."

Bratvold said the board has "open, honest and frank" discussions with MLAs and "sometimes we see things differently."

He said it is common for the board to meet with MLAs at least once a year.

"Our MLAs do a really good job of making clear they are there as MLAs representing their constituents," Bratvold said.

No comments:

Post a Comment