He was convicted for sexually touching a student. Years later, he still had a Manitoba teaching certificate

A man sentenced in Manitoba to six months in jail for sexually touching a minor wasn't stripped of his teaching credentials in at least three provinces until years after he was convicted.

CBC News has reviewed court records for teachers whose licences were suspended or cancelled after the province released a public registry with the certificate status of kindergarten to Grade 12 educators earlier this year.

That review found at least three cases between 2014 and 2024 in which it took more than 12 months after a criminal conviction before Manitoba's education ministry revoked a teaching certificate.

Court records show one of the former teachers was sentenced to six months in jail and a three-year probation in October 2013 for sexually touching a student under the age of 16. 

But for more than three years, his Manitoba teaching certificate remained in good standing. It wasn't revoked until April 2017.

The province has since made changes that include making the teacher registry public and appointing an independent education commissioner to investigate complaints about teacher misconduct. 

A spokesperson for the province said it can't disclose information on a specific teacher beyond what is listed in the public registry, including why the certificate wasn't cancelled for roughly three and a half years. 

However, the province said in many cases, a final decision on a teacher's certificate is made only after court proceedings finish, including any appeal. 

The former teacher appealed his conviction and sentence in 2013, but the appeal hearing didn't take place until early 2016, when it was dismissed. 

Anne-Marie Robinson, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and co-founder of the advocacy group Stop Educator Child Exploitation, says a conviction for sexual interference already clears a "pretty high threshold" for cancelling a teacher's licence. 

"That's a matter of weighing the rights of the person to an appeal versus the safety of children," Robinson said. 

While children are "the most vulnerable in our society," teachers "have power and control over [them] … so it is really important that these people not be shown to be in good standing on a teacher's registry" if convicted, she said. 

"I think there's no reason why you can't cancel the certificate sooner."

If a conviction was overturned on appeal, the province could restore the certificate, she said. But cracks in the system could allow teachers to still be in contact with children while waiting on an appeal, even after serving time in jail, she said.

Teachers may go to the private system, or into work with organizations like sports associations, where they may not be subject to the same level of scrutiny and oversight as in public institutions, said Robinson.

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection declined an interview on the matter but said in a statement it is crucial to ensure appropriate actions are taken in a timely fashion. 

But delays in information sharing between agencies and inconsistent screening practices between child-serving organizations are gaps that could lead to a person known to pose a risk to children being in contact with them, a spokesperson for the non-profit said.

Not necessarily back in classroom: province

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the province said there may be a gap between a conviction and a teaching certificate being revoked while other processes — like court proceedings or child abuse investigations — are underway, but that doesn't necessarily mean the teacher has been working in a classroom over that time.

Cameron Hauseman, an associate professor of educational administration at the University of Manitoba, said it's important to follow protocol to ensure a person's reputation isn't "thrown through the mud because of a false allegation." 

But when the province takes years to revoke the teaching certificate of someone convicted for "heinous crimes," the public trust in the education system, and its capacity to protect children, is called into question, he said.

"That's a gap in the legislation that our current government needs to alleviate," he said. "We don't want abusers in the classroom."

The province made legislative changes, introduced in 2023 under the former Progressive Conservative government, that established the online teacher registry and allowed for a new independent commissioner to oversee a discipline process for teachers.

Bobbi Taillefer, the former Winnipeg school principal appointed as Manitoba's commissioner last September, declined to comment on matters that happened before she started in the role, including the case of the teacher who was convicted in 2013.

But recent legislation changes make it possible for a certificate to be suspended while a teacher goes through the court system for "egregious matters," she said, meaning "that person would not be able to be teaching while the criminal issue would be going on."

Employers and teachers are now legally bound to report police charges to the Taillefer's office, triggering an immediate investigation. That gives teachers a fair process before they lose their ability to work, but also provides "additional accountability and safety for students," Taillefer said.

"The complaints go directly into the commissioner, [and] the commissioner's enabled to take action," she said. "It is set up to be responsive as well as fair."

There haven't been any complaints to her office involving charges yet, but Taillefer said there's been swift response — within a matter of days — to the complaints that have been brought forward. She said that would be the case for criminal matters too.

Under the legislation changes, a teacher can also agree to give up their own certificate at the request of the commissioner.

If a teacher appeals a conviction in court, Taillefer said her office would continue its own investigation. While each case is different, the commissioner could take action on a teaching certificate for serious matters, she said.

"Whether it's a suspension or a cancellation, that teacher's not going back into a classroom," said Taillefer.

Teacher had Ontario, Alberta licences

The former teacher sentenced in Manitoba in 2013 also had provincial credentials in at least two other jurisdictions.

The Ontario College of Teachers revoked his certificate of qualification after a discipline panel found him guilty of professional misconduct related to his Manitoba sentence, with a written decision calling his conduct "egregious" and saying he had "abused his position of trust and authority in the gravest manner." 

The Ontario licence was cancelled in July 2016 — about three months after his sentence appeal was dismissed in Manitoba, but nine months before Manitoba's education department followed suit.

He also had certification in Alberta, which was cancelled in June 2019 for unprofessional conduct, according to that province's public teacher registry. 

Robinson says the delay between provinces in revoking the certificates is another problem in the system, and shows a convicted offender could move to another jurisdiction and still be eligible to teach.

"That's just not acceptable," and if a teacher loses his certificate in one province, "it should be automatically removed in another one," she said.

Even more importantly, Canadians should also be informed, said Robinson.

Provinces and territories worked with the Council of Ministers of Education Canada to develop a protocol for disclosing cancelled or suspended certificates through a confidential email system, but provinces and territories are entirely responsible for monitoring compliance with that protocol.

The former Manitoba teacher's case "shows that whatever informal system the provinces have of giving information isn't working," according to Robinson.

"We're not doing the right thing to protect children."

National registry would be 'incredibly difficult'

Robinson has been lobbying for the creation of a publicly accessible Canadian database that compiles information on adults working in child-serving organizations, including the status of licences and credentials.

The U of M's Hauseman believes there is a need for a national registry, but said creating one could be "incredibly difficult," as each province and territory has different credentialling systems and misconduct processes.

But Robinson said that difficulty is not a good excuse for the lack of a database.

"The federal government should be the one showing leadership to set up the right kind of machinery," she said.

At the moment, police background checks are one of the few tools available to screen for previous charges and convictions, but Robinson said that wouldn't include other disciplinary processes.

There can also be a "huge time lag" within the criminal system between when abuse happens, when it's reported, and when police take action, she said.

"You definitely can't rely just on police reports to keep kids safe in the school," said Robinson.

In the absence of a national database, Hauseman said Manitoba's existing teacher registry needs to be more transparent.

In Ontario, the reasoning behind a licence suspension and revocation is posted online, but in Manitoba, those details are not publicly available.

Besides including that information, Hauseman said Manitoba should also start disclosing details on disciplinary proceedings as they unfold, and in cases like the sentenced former teacher, including criminal convictions and appeals in the registry while a decision on the certificate's standing is finalized. 

"When things are kind of behind closed doors, and it's difficult to know what's going on … it really brings all of those processes into question," he said. 

But with an independent commissioner now in place, Robinson said the province has an opportunity to change the criteria to get teachers removed from the registry sooner after a conviction.

"This isn't really about education, because they happen to be teachers in this case," she said. "It's about child protection."