Implementing laws to out offenders

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This article was published 26/11/2024 (634 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hiding in plain sight is going to get a lot harder for sexual predators and those with a history of intimate partner violence, thanks to provisions within two pieces of legislation hopefully coming into effect in the new year.

Starting in January, a new online teacher registry will be launched that is intended to inform the public of any history of disciplinary action or sexual misconduct involving teachers. It will also establish a framework for handling complaints.

The mechanism for this registry came through provisions in Bill 35, the Education Administration Amendment Act, introduced by the former PC government in April 2023, and supported by the NDP government. This past September, the NDP minister announced the appointment of Bobbi Taillefer, an educator and union executive, to be the inaugural commissioner tasked with the implementation of this crucial initiative. The government also confirmed the registry would be up in January.

This new commissioner will have the authority to investigate complaints against a teacher, order a hearing and appoint a panel, enter into a consent resolution, or dismiss a complaint deemed to be frivolous or vexatious.

The legislation also calls for teachers to report to the commissioner if they have ever been charged or convicted of an offence relating to the sexual or physical abuse of a child. Further, employers are also obligated to notify the commissioner if a teacher has been suspended, dismissed or otherwise disciplined for professional misconduct or incompetence.

Under this new framework, anyone can make a complaint to the commissioner about the professional misconduct of a teacher, which presumably includes allegations of workplace harassment or assault even if it doesn’t involve a student. For example, if a teacher sexually violates another teacher, or any other human for that matter, it should be subjected to the commissioner’s investigative powers and included in their annual report.

If it’s currently not in scope, the legislation allows for the minister to broaden the parameters to include it. After all, I think most people agree that any history of sexual violence should be publicly available before a teacher enters a classroom or begins coaching students.

Undoubtedly, the most crucial aspect for any of this to work is transparency.

For example, if the commissioner dismisses a complaint, the public needs to know why. If a clause to withhold information about an offending teacher is exercised, the public deserves to be informed why and how that information could be damaging to the victim or exploiting a student’s privacy.

We all want to protect victims’ identities, but the commissioner must find the balance between privacy for victims and exposure for predators.

To the thousands of hard-working, ethical teachers with increasingly difficult challenges in the classroom, understandably this new public registry and complaints mechanism may feel like an attack. Yet sadly, we live in a society where predators have taken advantage of vulnerabilities for far too long, and we are all paying the consequence.

This legislation will prevent sexual abuse and make the classrooms safer.

The other measure that should soon be implemented is the ability to inquire about a partner’s history of intimate partner violence and child abuse. These new protective measures come from disclosure legislation, often referred to as Clare’s Law, that passed in the Manitoba legislature in 2022 and was supposed to come into effect by proclamation within 18 months.

Named after Clare Wood, a British woman who was murdered by her partner in 2009 after her family sought information about her partner’s abusive history and was denied, this legislation contains two essential components.

The first is the right to ask, whereby intimate partners and family members can seek information from the police about someone’s history of violence towards children and domestic partners. The second element is the right to know. Here, police and other professionals can proactively disclose information about another person’s history of intimate partner violence. For example, a support worker can provide a warning to a client about potential for violence in their relationship based on their partner’s history.

When passed in 2022, this bill was well received by police agencies, justice advocates, and even some privacy experts. Implementation is now long overdue.

In a province with some of the highest rates of intimate partner violence, and after a particularly heartbreaking year of innocent women and children being killed in their own homes, this should be a priority for the NDP government. As a new legislative session begins, hopefully overdue measures to prevent intimate partner violence come into effect soon.

Rochelle Squires is a recovering politician after 7 1/2 years in the Manitoba legislature. She is a political and social commentator whose column appears Tuesdays.

rochelle@rochellesquires.ca