Work for the Student Ombudsman

Quebec has revoked almost as many teaching certificates in five years as Ontario in 2020, colleague Marie-Eve Morasse told us this week.¹. Between 2017 and June 2022, 33 teachers lost the right to teach in Quebec (including 4 in 2020), while the penalty applied to 28 Ontario teachers in 2020 alone.

How to explain such a difference between the two provinces?

Are Quebec teachers more virtuous than their Ontario counterparts? Does the Quebec system manage more effectively to avoid issuing a teaching certificate to an individual who does not deserve it? Are Quebec parents more satisfied with the work of teachers?

It would take a detailed analysis of the disciplinary mechanics between the two provinces to understand why, apparently at least, Ontario teachers are more often punished than their Quebec counterparts.

However, let us remember an elementary principle: for a behavior to be sanctioned, it must first be brought to the attention of the competent authorities.

And in Quebec, as we know, the school complaint process is notoriously obscure and tedious.

In Quebec, complaints about educational services are mostly managed by local authorities, either the school or the school service centre. The Ministry of Education inherits very serious, even criminal cases – so the teaching certificates in these latter cases are not necessarily revoked because of a complaint, but often as a result of court decisions. In fact, the majority of patents (both on the Quebec and Ontario sides) have been revoked because of “criminal records” or “behaviours of a sexual nature”.

Very few complaints of serious misconduct by a teacher land on the minister’s desk. In 2020, the Quebec Ministry of Education received five complaints “against teachers who allegedly committed serious misconduct or an act derogatory to the honor or dignity of the teaching profession”. The other complaints for less serious behavior were handled by the regional authorities. How many complaints? Of what nature? We ignore it.

During the same period in Ontario, the Professional College of Teachers investigated 625 complaints against teachers. The big difference with Quebec is that the hearings and disciplinary decisions of the Order are public – which allows everyone to understand exactly what the teacher is accused of. Or, more simply, where is “the line”, “what to be careful of, what not to do”, explained to our journalist Gabrielle Barkany, spokesperson for the Ontario College of Teachers.

In Quebec, it must be remembered, there is no register of complaints against teachers.

To find out how such behavior was sanctioned (or not) by the management, you have to take steps with schools and school service centres. There are more than 3,000 schools (primary, secondary, vocational training centres) attached to some 70 school service centres… And each has its own “student protector”.

Of course, the future National Student Ombudsman, who will take office in 2023, must precisely fill these gaps. Its role will be in particular to ensure that the regional protectors (who will no longer come under the service centres) work together to harmonize their decisions and, above all, to make them known to the public. The Department also hopes to reduce delays in processing complaints.

Since the CAQ has given up on subjecting teachers to a professional order, it is therefore to be hoped that this National Student Ombudsman will be able to win both the trust of citizens and the respect of the people to whom they entrust their children.