Articles 2020

Teachers must behave professionally and respect boundaries in their relationships with students; however, a failure to do so is not necessarily just cause for dismissal. Before dismissal, the school board may be expected to provide guidance on the boundary between being a “caring adult” and inappropriate conduct.

This detailed case summary reviews the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision in Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario v. York Region District School Board. In this groundbreaking decision, the Court of Appeal held that section 8 of the Charter applies to the actions of principals conducting workplace investigations. Further, the Court found that the Board’s investigation violated the teachers’ reasonable expectation of privacy and constituted an unreasonable search under section 8.

Teachers may be disciplined for conduct before they registered with the Ontario College of Teachers if it impacts their suitability as a teacher.

This article discusses two recent arbitration awards considering the appropriate discipline for an educator when a child in their care wanders off school property unsupervised.

The Right to Read inquiry of the Ontario Human Rights Commission found that Ontario's public education system is failing students with reading disabilities, among others, by not using an evidence-based approach to teach children how to read. This article summarizes a number of the important recommendations of the Right to Read report.

A labour arbitrator recently upheld Toronto District School Board's COVID-19 vaccination policy, finding that it did not infringe the Charter and was a reasonable exercise of management rights in response to the pandemic.

This article summarizes a recent OBA Webinar regarding child and youth privacy, with a particular focus on privacy issues for school boards and educators.

This article reviews a recent Webinar regarding Family Court decisions related to the pandemic, including vaccination and remote learning, that will interest members of the Education Law, Family Law and Child and Youth Law sections.

In a recent award, an arbitrator found that Toronto District School Board was not required to reimburse costs that education workers incurred when they were required to work remotely due to the pandemic.

This article reviews evidence that police presence in schools can have a harmful impact on marginalized students, including the recent Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario decision in JKB v Peel (Police Services Board).