Right from wrong
Couple will hear from court Friday after four-year fight with bus driver, school board and education department
Jeremy and Niki Pike know right from wrong.
Once they determined that what was happening to their family was wrong, they were sure the government would be on their side. Their faith in that simple, innocent belief has been shattered.
The original sin in their fouryear odyssey was committed by a public employee. Others in the system covered, first for him then themselves, and as more backsides were exposed, the bureaucratic wagons circled, and the Pikes were not only on their own, they were branded troublemakers.
Most people would have thrown in the towel long ago, and come away cynical or bitter. The Pikes are neither.
The school system is supposed to put the interests of students first, and when it doesn’t it must be held accountable. They remain determined that it will be, and that determination took them into the justice system.
The Strait Regional School Board failed them miserably. The education department left it with the board. The wheels of justice are still turning.
The story began when the driver of their young daughter’s school bus told them, in December 2013, that through the winter of 2014, the bus wouldn’t travel down their public road. They would need to bring her out to the bus.
They accepted his word, and so began a series of events marked by official duplicity, drastic changes in the family’s life and a lonely pursuit of justice that will pass another milestone Friday, when a Nova Scotia Supreme Count judge is expected to rule on whether they have received equal benefit of the law, as guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The judge is also asked to determine if the Provincial Court acted properly when it stayed the private prosecution Jeremy Pike brought before it.
It’s a long and twisted road from one bus driver to the Supreme Court, but along the way the Pikes encountered first a school board and then a public prosecution service that seemed less concerned with right or wrong, but just wanted to move on.
Through that first winter, Niki drove her daughter to 10 different stops around Pleasant Bay, Inverness County, all at the direction of the bus driver. It was a stressful winter, not because of road conditions, but by the almost daily uncertainty.
The next winter, again faced with discontinued school bus service, she told the driver they had to establish one constant location, but when that went awry, the Pikes started asking straightforward questions and getting crooked answers.
They discovered that their road wasn’t closed to the school bus or any other traffic. They were entitled to bus service, and daily road conditions were supposed to determine whether the bus arrived.
Through this process, various school board employees gave different answers to the same questions. The board was unable to produce basic documentation about the bus service.
The Pikes’ trust in the driver was destroyed, and as they went up the chain of command, rarely hearing the same story twice, confidence in the board was shaken, too. Mediation failed, and when the provincial Ombudsman got involved, the education department disappeared.
They now had two school-aged kids, removed from the Pleasant Bay school and enrolled in another school an hour away. Ultimately, the family moved back to HRM where they now live during the school year.
At some point in their bureaucratic nightmare, Jeremy had begun documenting the various encounters with officialdom. That documentation, including recorded telephone calls, is evidence of a school board bureaucracy interested only in making a problem go away.
The board dangled private conveyance contracts and retroactive payment to the Pikes. But it was clear, payment was conditional on the Pikes dropping their complaints.
When their story hit the news in late 2015, the board cut a cheque without conditions. Bus service ran on their road all that winter, but no students got on at the stop near the Pikes’ house. They were not about to entrust their kids to a driver they couldn’t trust.
Jeremy had seen and heard more than enough. He took all his evidence and documentation to the local RCMP. A Mountie agreed there appeared to be evidence to support a charge of fraud against the driver. Later, the Mountie informed Jeremy that the Crown prosecutor told the RCMP to back off.
Jeremy is a quick study. He’s educated himself to the relevant law, and he pursued a private prosecution against the driver, because that was the only way to bring the issues into open court. A Port Hawkesbury lawyer and federal prosecutor also saw a case in the evidence.
But not Nova Scotia’s Crown Prosecutors. They intervened and asked for the stay, which was granted by the Provincial Court. No evidence was presented.
Jeremy and Niki should find out Friday if they will ever be permitted to bring their evidence to court.
They can’t let it go, because they want their kids to grow up trusting that if you do the right thing, eventually you will be supported by those in authority.
In the 2015 school year, the Pleasant Bay elementary school was emphasizing how to combat bullies. “Speak up” was the message for the kids, while the school board’s message to the Pikes was the opposite.
The Supreme Court will speak on Friday, but not on the evidence. It will only determine if the Provincial Court acted correctly. And given that prosecutorial discretion is virtually absolute, and opaque, this may be the end of the line.
The Pikes may discover you really can’t fight city hall. Even when its wrong and you’re right.
Jim Vibert is a journalist who formerly consulted or worked for five Nova Scotia governments. He now keeps a close and critical eye on provincial and regional powers.