Governing Ourselves informs members of legal and regulatory matters affecting the profession. 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.
CHANGES AT THE COLLEGE
College takes early action to improve transparency
The College has moved to increase public access to disciplinary decisions while awaiting a much-anticipated review of its disciplinary processes.
The change makes it faster and easier for employers and the public to access decisions from Discipline Committee public hearings, and Investigation Committee decisions and Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) that explicitly stipulate that documents will be publicly available.
These documents were already available publicly from the College’s library via request and on Quicklaw, a legal subscription service.
In January of this year, the College posted more than 600 full decisions and MOAs to its website.
As well, the College announced that dispute resolution is not available to members who face allegations related to sexual abuse, confirming a practice that has been in place for some time. These allegations must be disposed of through the public hearings process.
Last summer, the College commissioned Patrick LeSage, the former Chief Justice of the Ontario Superior Court, to conduct an independent review of its investigation and disciplinary procedures and outcomes.
The LeSage review is paying particular attention to:
- the undertaking of regular reviews of the College’s disciplinary processes and practices
- clarifying the circumstances in which a member’s name is withheld following disciplinary decisions
- establishing possible mandatory penalties for specific types of misconduct, like sexual offences.
The former Chief Justice’s report is expected at the end of May.
