Speaker of the Alberta legislature Gene Zwozdesky has apologized to Innisfail students, teachers and parents who witnessed rude and surly behavior by MLAs during a school visit to Edmonton last fall.
“I have apologized to them for what they saw and heard, and I said in my letter to them I offer my sincere apologies for what they experienced in the assembly on the day in question and I hope that it wouldn't be repeated again,” said Zwozdesky in an interview with the Province.
The Speaker, who has telephoned Innisfail Middle School principal Jay Steeves and sent a followup letter, was referring to what 90 Grade 6 students, along with their teachers and at least 10 parents, witnessed during the legislature's question period on Nov. 5.
The rowdy session included then-Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths uttering, “It's amazing how the Opposition finds the ability to suck and blow every single day”, as well as then-Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk challenging Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith to “bring it on” in a fight after she asked the Tory minister about a confrontation with a journalist.
The testy outbursts triggered a Nov. 22 followup letter of complaint by the four Innisfail teachers who escorted the students. The teachers and school said while they would continue to bring students to the legislature for tours they will no longer attend question period.
“The good they see out of it is not enough from the negative they see,” said Tom Stones, one of the teachers who attended the Nov. 5 session. “I don't think we are interested in going to question period.”
Zwozdesky said he held onto the letter for three months before deciding to refer to it in the legislature last week. He said the concerns raised by the Innisfail school, that the legislature was not the place to conduct such inappropriate behavior, finally forced him to take action.
“They were very upset at the behaviour and lack of decorum that was demonstrated by the elected representatives. There is a message in that, and the message is, ‘please clean up your act',” said Zwozdesky, adding he has brought up the issue of appropriate conduct for MLAs in the legislature numerous times in the past two years. “Because without that you are reinforcing negative behaviour and negative language and negative actions in students, and that is entirely the wrong way for the assembly to be viewed.”
Zwozdesky said he intends to visit the school in the future to personally talk to staff and students about the issue.
Meanwhile, Steeves said he's proud of the way his students and teachers handled the issue.
“We recognize that there are debating standards and things can get a little heated, but we did want the kids to understand there can be an intelligent way to make an argument,” said Steeves. “We have been able to connect with the kids the last couple of days about real-life experiences and they are seeing the democratic voice being heard. We live in a pretty good country to have our voice heard.”
The school's stance to no longer take its students to question period is being supported at the highest level within the Chinook's Edge School Division.
“If our teachers as professionals and our administrators feel that it is not in the best interests of young people in their development as ethical citizens then we fully support them restricting access to those kinds of situations that they are just not comfortable with,” said Kurt Sacher, the division's superintendent of schools.
Kerry Towle, the Wildrose MLA for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake, agreed the behaviour of some MLAs on Nov. 5 was inappropriate but added it was “a particularly raucous day” in the legislature and that it would not be wise to deny children the opportunity of experiencing how the legislature operates because of one bad day. “Maybe don't come to question period but perhaps come after it is done when we are debating bills,” said Towle. “That is when real work is done well, and that is when you see a whole different portion of how the legislature works.”
Towle said she spoke to Steeves about the issue last January and has offered to come to the school to speak to students.
