Manitoba government says it will consider independent body to investigate teacher misconduct complaints

Manitoba's provincial government said Wednesday it is proposing changes to the way teacher misconduct is addressed in the province — an announcement that comes the same day as the release of a national report that urged the province to lift the veil of secrecy around sexual abuse complaints in Manitoba schools.

The report from the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection shows an increase over the past four years in complaints against teachers and other school staff across the country.

But the data is incomplete in Manitoba, because the province doesn't make its disciplinary records public, the centre's director of education says.

"An alarming finding within Manitoba was the difficulty to even establish what those numbers would be. And that should be something that's clearly available to the public," Noni Classen said in a Wednesday interview with CBC's Information Radio.

The province says it will gather feedback on its proposed changes to handling teacher misconduct, which include looking at ways to improve the public reporting processes.

That may involve creating a teacher registry, the province said in a Wednesday news release.

"We have had many conversations with not only Manitoba Teachers' Society but Manitoba School Board Association … Manitoba parent councils and Canadian Centre for Child Protection on how we need to continue moving forward and strengthening and ensuring that our youth and our children are safe," Education Minister Wayne Ewasko told reporters on Wednesday.

In addition to making disciplinary records public, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection report recommended establishing an independent provincial body to receive, investigate and adjudicate complaints of sexual abuse and misconduct.

The province says it will consider that recommendation as part of its consultations, but did not provide a timeline.

Other changes proposed by the province include defining what constitutes misconduct that would require reporting to the department of education, and updating teacher certification review processes.

The province's news release said consultations will be held to get perspectives on the proposals from students, parents, guardians, teachers and school administrators.

The president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society said they are working with Ewasko and other "education stakeholders" on the issues raised in the Canadian Centre for Child Protection's report.

"You will find no bigger advocates for the protection of children and youth in our schools than teachers. We believe child abuse of any kind is unacceptable," James Bedford said in an emailed statement.

"No doubt, we'll be discussing many of the ideas included in the government's news release today."

Independent investigations are key: survivor

For sexual abuse survivor Peter Hamer, an independent review process is crucial.

"Being able to investigate complaints as they happen with regards to, let's say, grooming behaviours, inappropriate behaviours. That's often when the abuse starts," Hamer, a member of Stop Educator Child Exploitation, told CBC's Up To Speed.

Because Manitoba has no clear definition of misconduct, anything short of an offence in the criminal code can fall into a grey area, whereby each school may follow its own code of conduct outlining what is deemed unacceptable behaviour from school staff.

This doesn't sit well with Anne-Marie Robinson, another survivor who works with Stop Educator Child Exploitation.

"When cases are reported in schools, they are often mismanaged. Schools are not equipped to conduct investigations. They often know the perpetrator, and often the school staff have been groomed as well," Robinson told Up To Speed.

When she was being sexually abused by a high school teacher in the 1970s, she felt there was nowhere for her to get help. 

"I didn't trust the school … it just wasn't a safe place for me to report. I really think that if I had had an ability to report outside of the school in a place that I trusted that I knew would be independent and would treat me with dignity and respect, I think I would have gone there," she said.

Robinson thinks that an independent investigation committee that makes disciplinary decisions public could deter perpetrators.

"I want anyone who is thinking about harming a child that way to know that there is an effective system in place that will catch them if they try."