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Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
His latest skirmish is with the Department of Education over a legal opinion on his dismissal earlier this year by the South Slave Divisional Education Council.
Butler, chair of the Hay River District Education Authority, can't understand why the department won't release the opinion.
When the education council ejected Butler, it claimed he violated its code of conduct by misrepresenting budget decisions and publicly criticizing council employees.
Butler has been a longtime thorn in the side of the SSDEC, strongly arguing some budget decisions were unfair to Hay River students. The Hay River DEA asked Education Minister Jake Ootes for a legal opinion on Butler's dismissal. It maintains the dismissal was illegal because no SSDEC meeting was held to make the decision which also may have violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the right of free expression. In August, the DEA received a letter from Ootes stating legal opinions are for internal departmental use only and GNWT legal council does not provide advice to outside parties, including the DEA and the SSDEC.
"In order to maintain solicitor-client privilege, the GNWT has a longstanding policy not to make legal opinions public," Ootes wrote.
Butler notes the DEA received legal opinions from the department in 1999 on French first language education rights and just recently on a new drug policy at Diamond Jenness Secondary School.
He responded to Ootes with his own letter, asking how long the department's "longstanding" policy on legal opinions has been in place.
"I feel the legal opinion from the department would greatly assist in the mediation process that the minister has proposed," he wrote.
At its Sept. 3 meeting, the DEA discussed getting its own legal opinion, but Butler notes that would be very costly. The SSDEC has requested the Hay River DEA appoint a new representative, but the DEA has refused to do so.
