Another day, and Education Minister George Abbott is standing by his mediator, Charles Jago.
The BCTF is determined to have Jago fired, and is working to figure out whether this will be argued before the labour board, or the courts.
Abbott says this isn’t about ramming legislation through “……..why on earth would we go to all that trouble when we could impose a legislated solution three weeks ago, or a month ago. why would we go thruogh that? our hope was that we would, through the very wise leadership of Dr. Charles Jago, be able to see the parties make some progress in what has been an utterly intractable dispute for well over a year?”
The BCTF says Jago is biased in favour of government and had a hand in drafting Bill 22.
But Abbott is again downplaying his role in the drafting of that document “…….the changes that he made were of a very minor character and they were ones that, if anything, improved the fairness and balance of the mediation mandate. i see absolutely no conflict of interest here”
Abbott says Jago’s role was limited to terms of reference for mediator and was “natural and appropriate”.
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