Few teaching certificates are revoked in Quebec

In Ontario, 28 teachers had their certificates revoked in 2020 alone, 25 of them for sexual abuse. In Quebec, it took five years to revoke so many patents. Would a professional order of teachers make the difference?

Marie-Eve Morasse
The Press

In 2016, in a classroom in Ontario, a teacher told his students that he “slept with a girl in every university in Ontario because that was his goal”.

The following year, he called parts of a student’s body “sexy” and made other sexual comments about her in front of the whole class.

Nicholas Paul Demopoulos is found guilty of professional misconduct in 2021. His teaching certificate is suspended for four months, he receives a reprimand and he must take, at his own expense, a course on “respecting limits”.

This decision, like hundreds of others, is public. The Ontario College of Teachers is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and its very existence reveals what qualifications a teacher has, who have been censured by their college, or who have lost their license to teach.

Everything is available on the Order’s website: an alphabetical search allows you to find a member in a few minutes.

The Disciplinary Tribunal’s hearings are public, as are its decisions. The College’s 231,000 members receive these summaries through their monthly electronic newsletter.

“This is the most popular section. It educates the members: behaviors are not always black and white. It allows them to see where the line is, what to watch out for, what not to do,” said Gabrielle Barkany, spokesperson for the Order.

No order in Quebec

In Quebec, such an order does not exist. The Ministry of Education receives complaints and revokes teaching licenses. In five years, 26 patents have been revoked due to “a judicial record”, two were revoked following a complaint.

All of these dismissals – except six – were for “behavior of a sexual nature”, says the Ministry of Education

Other teachers were barred from the profession for criminal negligence, drug offences, assault, negligence and incompetence, as well as poor judgment and poor professional ethics.

In the past year, the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, himself announced on social networks that he was revoking the certificates of two teachers whose cases had been publicized.

They are Simon Lamarre, a teacher convicted of voyeurism, and Dominic Blanchette, accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl.

“Not in the priorities” of the CAQ

During the 2012 election campaign, François Legault had promised the creation of a professional order of teachers if the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) was elected. This promise was not retained in the 2018 election and the cabinet of Jean-François Roberge, it is indicated that the creation of such an order “is not among the priorities”.

The Federation of Education Unions (FSE) does not support the idea either. Its president, Josée Scalabrini, believes that there is everything needed in the Education Act to protect the public. The government must raise awareness of these remedies, she adds, however.

At the Ontario College of Teachers, we talk more about “transparency”.

Anyone can file a complaint against a teacher: a colleague, a parent, a student, the Registrar of the College, the Department of Education.

“Complaints against teachers are rare: not even 1% compared to the number of members we have,” explains the spokesperson for the Order, Gabrielle Barkany.

Of the 1,500 complaints received each year, approximately half are unrelated to professional misconduct. If a parent, for example, criticizes a teacher for not having organized a Halloween party for his students, he will be directed to a local authority, such as the school administration.

“I’m not saying that celebrating Halloween isn’t important, but we are dealing with serious issues related to the law,” laughs Gabrielle Barkany.

Jean Bernatchez, professor of educational sciences at the University of Quebec at Rimouski and specialist in school management and governance, observes that the idea of ​​a professional order is slowly gaining ground in Quebec.

“About 15 years ago, people were really allergic to it, but more and more people seem to buy into it,” he says.