It didn’t take long for the controversial subject of the Hidden Valley School sex abuse scandal to make it back to the legislature.

The Department of Education failed to notify parents of the school community about a former teaching assistant’s 2019 arrest, and later jailing, for sexual interference involving a student. In September 2021, more charges were laid against the man.

During last Thursday’s first day of the spring sitting, Hidden Valley was the subject of the first question asked. It came from Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon.

“Just over four weeks ago, the Rogers report was released, and unfortunately, it confirmed what many of us already believed,” Dixon said of Vancouver lawyer Amanda Rogers’ investigation.

“It confirmed that the government’s response to the matter was entirely inadequate, that the government failed, and that parents and Yukoners were justified in their outrage.

“Despite this, the Liberals’ response was that enough people across enough departments made mistakes that no one should actually be held responsible. The result of this is that not a single person in the entire government has received even the slightest reprimand for this failure,” Dixon said.

“They have avoided responsibility, and they have avoided accountability. How can the premier think that this is acceptable?”

Premier Sandy Silver initially evaded answering the question, with Education Minister Jeanie McLean answering for him.

“I ask that we always keep at the heart of this that there are children at the heart of the matters we are speaking about,” McLean said.

“So, I keep that in the forefront always, and know that there are still families going through incredibly difficult processes within systems in our government and with other institutions,” she added.

“There is absolutely nothing more important, Mr. Speaker, than the safety and well-being of students when they come into our care. We acknowledge that there have been breakdowns of trust between families at Hidden Valley School and the Department of Education.”

Dixon wasn’t happy that the premier hadn’t risen.

“My question was for the premier, about leadership and accountability,” he said.

“What we do know is that Yukoners expect accountability from their government. The buck has to stop somewhere. So, my question is to the premier: where does the buck stop in his government?”

It was McLean who answered again.

The independent review “revealed significant long-standing policy gaps in the Department of Education and government as a whole,” she noted.

“We are implementing all of the report’s recommendations to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The government’s action plan, McLean said, “provides tangible next steps for us to improve the co-ordination of government department responses, address gaps in internal policies, and enhance oversight mechanisms.

“We are committed to making system-wide changes to ensure that we respond swiftly and effectively to incidents in our schools. Supporting our students is a top priority as we move forward on a long and important healing journey.”

Dixon wasn’t any happier with that.

“This is about accountability and it’s about leadership,” he said.

“Sadly, we’ve seen neither of those things from this government. How can the premier tell us that no one should be held responsible and that no one should be held accountable and expect us to believe that’s leadership?”

That finally moved Silver to answer.

“The member opposite should be accountable for his own words,” the premier said.

“The Yukon Party has been completely unreliable when it comes to this issue. They have jumped to conclusions, disregarded the facts.

“They ought to correct the record and apologize for misleading Yukoners, including comments about addendums to briefing notes that absolutely did not exist.”

That comment about being misleading earned Silver a rebuke from Speaker Jeremy Harper.

After the chastisement, Silver said, “the independent review report made it clear that the information did not flow up to the minister’s office or to anyone in cabinet.

“The decision about informing parents was not made by anyone in cabinet. As soon as officials learned about the incident in 2019, the individual was removed immediately to prevent any further harm.

“The independent review found that there was a prior incident with this education assistant in 2014 and 2015. It was not properly documented or reported.

“Can the members opposite explain why that incident was mishandled?” Silver asked.

“Will the members opposite go back and take a look at Hansard at what they said in October (2021) and correct the record if necessary?”