Ontario to disclose names of educators involved in sexual abuse, other serious criminal investigations

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce speaks at a COVID-19 vaccination site in Markham, Ontario on Monday January 24, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Parents and guardians in Ontario will now be able to know if their student’s teacher has been involved in a sexual abuse investigation, the provincial government announced on Tuesday.

“These changes are some of the ways we’re making and taking action to make the education profession more accountable to families,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce said at a news conference in Maple.

Ontario is the first Canadian jurisdiction to impose the measure, according to Lecce.

Starting today, the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) and the College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE) will have the authority to release information to the public about criminal proceedings involving their members.

“We believe parents have a right to know if an educator is charged or convicted of a serious crime because we take zero tolerance on this,” Lecce added.

The move builds on the provincial government’s previously announced commitments to protecting children in the classroom, including a mandatory sexual abuse prevention program that was introduced on Jan. 1 which all teachers in Ontario must complete.

Currently, any educator in Ontario who is convicted of engaging in physical sexual relations with a student, or who is involved in any way with child pornography, faces a lifetime ban from the profession. That measure also applies retroactively to teachers and early childhood educators whose memberships were reinstated or were not revoked in the first place.

Private and independent schools are not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and, as such, are not subject to the lifetime ban, the ministry confirmed.

The OCT and CECE are required to provide funding for therapy and counselling to students and children who are victims of sexual abuse. Both groups must also make public all disciplinary actions taken by the colleges’ discipline committees against an educator in connection with an incident.