Sask. NDP calling for Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill’s job

After a back and forth over who did or didn’t apologize and when, the Saskatchewan NDP is calling for Jeremy Cockrill to resign as education minister.

NDP Leader Carla Beck put out the call Monday with NDP Education Critic Matt Love at her side.

She said Cockrill had proven “time and time again” that he’s not fit to be the education minister, explaining the final straw was an incident last week with Taya Thomas.

Thomas met with the minister over her concerns about funding in schools; her daughter had many troubles in school before she passed away in December.

Cockrill, when speaking about the teacher bargaining, reportedly asked whether the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation wanted him to give the union his first-born child.

Cockrill later apologized to her in the assembly and added an apology while speaking to media, but the dispute is what happened behind closed doors. Thomas said he didn’t apologize to her at that time, but Cockrill said he did.

“What happened with Taya was the last straw, but this has been a pattern of behaviour from this minister,” said Beck.

The NDP leader said Cockrill has had to come out multiple times to explain things he has said.

“We need a minister who is capable of a kind of self-reflection, the ability to build trust at the bargaining table as we’re seeing right now (and) to be accountable to the people of this province,” Beck said. “That’s not what we’ve seen from this minister.”

The NDP is pointing to several incidents, the first of which happened just minutes after Cockrill was sworn in as the education minister.

At the height of the dispute over the pronoun policy, Cockrill appeared to say that every single MLA had heard from parents about their kids wanting to change their pronouns while the next minister to speak, Everett Hindley, said he hadn’t heard from any such parents.

Government representatives later had to reach out to clarify Cockrill meant that MLAs had heard from people in that, and many different situations.

The NDP is also pointing to the minister saying he’d heard from thousands of people in support of or asking for the pronoun policy, while evidence filed as part of the court challenge appeared to show only 18 letters to that effect had been received by government before the policy was put in place.

Love referenced Cockrill’s dispute with the teachers’ union during negotiations where they were posting to social media about who did or didn’t show up to bargaining meetings, and who did or didn’t leave early.

Love says Cockrill has a believability problem.

“That started within minutes of being appointed the minister of education, saying things that his own colleagues say is false (and) sharing information with the people of Saskatchewan that they immediately need to go out and fact-check,” said Love.

At this point, Love said he’s surprised Cockrill is still in the ministerial position.

“I think it’s the premier’s job now to show that he’s going to reward that kind of leadership or reject it and remove (Cockrill) from that role,” said Love.

Premier Scott Moe is standing behind Cockrill, saying the minister and the work he’s doing have the confidence of Moe and his government.

“The effort and the advocacy that this minister of education does on his file most certainly continues to earn him not only my respect but my confidence in the work that he’s doing,” said Moe.

The premier wouldn’t say directly whether he did or didn’t believe Thomas when she said Cockrill did not apologize in their meeting, Moe cited several times the minister as having said he offered the apology.

“He’s indicated that he did offer that apology and, I mean, the staff members in the meeting also indicate that apology was offered,” Moe said. “What I would say is it’s offered on behalf of the government here today (and) it’s been offered by the minister on the floor of the legislative assembly at his first opportunity at a microphone like this.”

This isn’t the first time the Saskatchewan NDP has called for a minister’s resignation, nor is the first time the party has called for the resignation of an education minister.