COLUMN: Think Again – Shifting narrative undermines Kinew’s credibility

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

Premier Wab Kinew might want to reflect on this famous line from Sir Walter Scott. Because he’s created quite a mess for himself and his government.

It started last week when it was revealed that Bobbi Taillefer, the province’s independent commissioner of teacher misconduct, was doing at least some of her work remotely while in Florida. This wasn’t a good look for a premier who openly supports boycotting American products.

As a result, Education Minister Tracy Schmidt claimed to be surprised by this revelation and announced that Taillefer had resigned from her position.

However, the following day Premier Kinew clarified that Taillefer had been fired rather than resigned. Of course, anyone with even the slightest knowledge of employment law knows that there’s a world of difference between resigning and being fired. One is voluntary while the other is not.

The plot thickened further when Taillefer released a statement of her own flatly rejecting the premier’s version of events. According to Taillefer, not only did the government know all along that she was doing some of her work while outside of the country, but the education minister offered Taillefer a new contract in which she would provide transition services until July 13.

I’ve never heard of any organization firing someone and then immediately signing them to a new contract to provide “transition” services. When you fire an employee for cause, the first thing you do is walk them out of the building and take their keys away. You certainly don’t rehire them to provide transition support to their successor.

Even more telling is the fact that the education minister won’t repeat Kinew’s claim that Taillefer was fired. In a media scrum on Tuesday, Schmidt gave a truly baffling explanation for Taillefer’s departure.

“I think Manitobans understand that resign, terminate, fire, call it what you will, there was a concern, we’ve addressed that concern, and we’re moving forward,” explained Schmidt.

In other words, the education minister thinks there is no difference between resigning and being fired. That is certainly news to her boss, since the premier went out of his way last week to contradict his own minister’s previous claim that Taillefer had resigned. Kinew thought it important enough to state that Taillefer had been fired that he made sure to state emphatically that Taillefer had not resigned.

Incidentally, considering that Taillefer’s commissioner position is only part-time and that nothing in her contract prohibited remote work, it’s entirely likely that she told the truth when she said that government officials were fully aware that she was spending significant time outside of the country.

It’s particularly telling that Kinew’s own education minister won’t support the premier’s version of events. The fact that Schmidt is now trying to claim that there’s no difference between a resignation and a termination shows that she knows her boss has been caught in a web of lies. Since she cannot publicly back up the premier’s version of events, she’s reduced to playing semantic word games.

What’s particularly unfortunate is that this whole fiasco distracts from the important work that’s been done to improve teacher professionalism in Manitoba. The previous PC government passed important legislation that created this commissioner position while the NDP government turned it into a huge mess.

Instead of trying to look tough by pretending that you fired someone who actually resigned, it would be far better to focus instead on strengthening teacher professionalism.

Hopefully, Premier Kinew finds out sooner rather than later what it really looks like to be fired from your job.

Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.