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Governing Ourselves

This section provides updates on licensing and qualification requirements, notification of Council resolutions and reports from various Council committees, including reports on accreditation and discipline matters.

Investigation Committee Case Study

What Would You Do?

The College's Investigation Committee considers all complaints made to the College about its members and reviews all information resulting from investigations. The committee can dismiss a complaint or refer the matter, in whole or in part, to the Discipline or Fitness to Practise committees for a hearing.

The Investigation Committee may also caution or admonish the member in writing or in person, or provide written reminders or advice, or adopt a Memorandum of Agreement reached through the complaint resolution process.

By law, cases under investigation are confidential. For the education of members, the following account, based on facts from real cases, raises important questions about teacher conduct, such as what is appropriate and what is not. Details have been altered to respect confidentiality.

The College received a complaint from a school board regarding Eric, an elementary school teacher. It was alleged that he shared personal, confidential personnel information about Louis, a colleague from the same board, with school staff, the media and community leaders.

The allegations included:

Eric acknowledged that he contacted a reporter and a few community leaders, but said he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. He denied speaking with staff members after being told not to, but said he emailed them once to clarify information about Louis.

If you were a member of the Investigation Committee panel, what would you have issued to Eric?


The Outcome

The panel was concerned by Eric's actions and decided to admonish him in writing.

The panel noted that Eric acknowledged that he communicated with community leaders about Louis's personal situation. The panel also noted that despite the fact that he was directed by his employer to cease communication about Louis, Eric asked one community leader to share confidential personnel matters about Louis on Twitter, which they did.