Opposition leader calls on premier to fire Education Minister Karen Casey

HALIFAX – After a day of confusion, protest and closed schools, the leader of Nova Scotia’s official opposition is calling on Premier to relieve Education Minister Karen Casey of her duties.

Jaime Baillie stepped up his efforts Tuesday morning by launching an online petition calling for Casey to be fired.

“Like teachers, parents and students across the province, the members of the Progressive Conservative Caucus have lost confidence in Karen Casey’s ability to lead the education department,” said the PC Leader in a release.

The conservative boss accused Casey of using Nova Scotia students “as pawns in a political game, risk their education and more pressingly, their safety.”

Baillie further accused the liberals of misleading the public to believe talks had resumed with the teacher’s union on Monday morning when the tabling of Bill 75 was initially delayed.

NDP Leader Gary Burrill echoed Baillie’s sentiments.

“Everyone has been in a panic trying to figure out some kind of way of dealing with childcare,” said Burrill. “They’ve put the whole province through that today, and then they announce at the end of the day it was really all for nothing.”

“There never was any safety concern, and under public pressure they’ve removed it,” added Burrill.

In a press conference Monday, Casey told reporters the Nova Scotia Teacher’s Union had on Friday – a day prior to the minister’s announcement schools would be closed to students – sent out a directive to administrators asking them to ensure students would be properly supervised outside of the 20 minutes before and after school teachers were told to arrive during job action.

Casey did however assert the directive was not made available to government by the union, but rather the education department managed to get a copy on its own.

When asked during Monday’s press conference if she felt McNeil still had confidence in her, Casey said “you’ll have to ask him that,” while asserting her department has handled the education file “very effectively.”

Baillie continued: “One thing is perfectly clear. This Minister no longer has the moral authority to carry this file and negotiate with teachers going forward. The onus is now on Premier Stephen McNeil to do the right thing and remove his Education Minister immediately.”

On The Rick Howe Show Tuesday morning, the premier responded saying Casey has his 100 per cent support for doing an outstanding job on a difficult file and suggested Baillie’s motivations were political.

“Superintendents across the province told the minister and the premier of this province they could not guarantee the safety of kids, what would he have done?” Stephen McNeil questioned. “Would he have sent them to school in an environment that was not safe?”

“This gentleman wants to be the premier of the province and he can’t even bring himself above using politics around children.”