The NWT’s speaker of the House and Nahendeh MLA, Shane Thompson, says he’s satisfied with the process that led to a complaint against him by a school principal being dismissed.
Ben Adams – the principal of the elementary school in Fort Simpson, a village Thompson represents in the territory’s legislature – said Thompson had unduly interfered with school operations and sought to have him fired.
Integrity commissioner David Phillip Jones ruled Thompson was free to advocate for his grandson, a student at the school, on a personal basis, and his actions had not broken the MLAs’ code of conduct beyond two emails that were sent from his legislative account when they should have been sent personally.
According to Jones’ report, Thompson’s daughter had formerly taught at the school before moving to a different role because of ongoing “issues” between her and principal Adams.
Approached by Cabin Radio for comment, Thompson said he was satisfied that the assembly “has a process and it was followed.”
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“I felt I followed the direction provided by the superintendent and integrity commissioner,” he said, referring to correspondence set out in Jones’ ruling. Jones, for example, had advised Thompson to remove himself – at least, in his capacity as an MLA – from affairs related to his grandson’s school and let another MLA act in his stead.
“As for the minor mistakes, they were not done on purpose and I felt I explained myself appropriately,” Thompson continued.
“I appreciate his findings and feel the final decision was appropriate.”
Thompson added he was in the process of travelling to the CPC, an initialism for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference, an annual meeting that describes itself as uniting “parliamentarians from across the Commonwealth to discuss global political issues.”
This year’s conference is being held in Barbados from October 5-12.
