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.
COUNCIL MEETINGS
SUMMARY — NOVEMBER 15–16, 2012
At its November 15–16 meeting, College Council:
- appointed Stefanie Achkewich, OCT, to fill the vacant private school position on Council
- recommended to the Minister of Education that the College’s Act and regulation be amended to:
- enable a single member of the Investigation Committee to consider the proposed resolution of a complaint through the College’s Complaint Resolution Program
- ensure that a complainant is consulted in the complaint resolution process but is not party to any proceeding
- enable the complaint resolution officer to consult the employer of the member if the employer is not the complainant, where appropriate in the public interest
- include a current or former principal or vice-principal on a Discipline Committee panel to hear a matter involving a principal or vice-principal, providing the issue flows from a managerial decision
- enable the College to publish a panel’s decision and reasons on its website, and the decision and reasons or summary in the College’s official publication (Professionally Speaking) or any College publication
- publish the name of the member who was the subject of the proceeding if the decision and reasons were issued after a public hearing
- publish a decision and reasons or summary of a panel’s decision and reasons in the official publication of the College only where the member was found guilty of professional misconduct or found to be incompetent and the matter took place in a public hearing
- avoid any publication requirements that violate a publication ban
- enable a panel to use its best efforts to deliver an oral decision at the completion of a hearing
- enable the chair of the Discipline Committee panel to designate a member of the panel to write a full draft of the decision and reasons of the panel within 60 days after the hearing is completed, and to immediately circulate the draft to all panel members
- require that a panel release its decision and reasons, including dissenting opinions, to the parties and the public no later than 120 days following the panel’s decision in the hearing
- enable panel members to complete a hearing if one of the members is unable to participate in the giving of the decision, and to enable a party to ask that the matter be reheard if the remaining panel members are equally divided.
Stefanie Achkewich
- directed the Quality Assurance Committee to consider Council member input prior to drafting recommendations that would prohibit members of the Investigation, Discipline and Fitness to Practise committees from holding any elected or appointed union/association positions during their tenure on those committees
- recommended that the Registrar develop an administrative guideline for approval by the Discipline Committee to determine in what cases a principal or vice-principal is required to be part of the discipline panels
- approved the College’s 2013 budget of $36,858,000
- amended College bylaws so that the public register (Find a Teacher) include:
- a notation indicating that a Notice of Hearing has been served on a member as the result of a referral to the Discipline Committee from the Investigation Committee, and that the notation stay on the register until the matter has been resolved
- a summary of a restriction imposed on a member’s right to teach (practise) as a result of an undertaking or an agreement between the member and the College or one of its statutory committees
- a summary of a restriction imposed on a member’s right to teach that has been imposed by a court or other lawful authority, including the name of the court or other lawful authority that imposed the restriction, and the date the restriction was imposed
- referred a Public Interest Committee recommendation to the Investigation, Discipline and Fitness to Practise committees for study and a report at the June 2013 Council meeting about considering a change in the College’s legislation to give the Investigation Committee the authority to order a medical assessment of a member’s fitness to practise
- changed College bylaws to enable a complaint to be submitted to the College in writing or recorded on a tape, film, disk or other medium
- referred a motion to the Executive Committee to study and report at the April 2013 Council meeting on proposed revisions to the Guidelines for the Provision of Personal Computers for Council Members
- approved the text of proposed changes in the Teachers’ Qualifications Regulation related to applications from former College members with cancelled certificates
- referred the Council Member Harassment and Discrimination Policy to the Executive Committee for study and a report at the April 2013 Council meeting
