Under the Education Act and the Human Rights Code, Ontario public school boards are required to provide a discrimination- and harassment-free environment.[1] This is achieved, in part, by ensuring that complaints are taken seriously and handled with care.
Courts have underscored the school board’s duty to balance their right to conduct investigations against their employees’ right to privacy. For example, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) in R v Cole, 2012 SCC 53, considered whether an employer was entitled to access an employee’s workplace computer; and more recently, in Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario v York Region District School Board, 2022 ONCA 476, Ontario’s Court of Appeal determined whether an employer was entitled to access a teacher’s password-protected personal account on a school-board-issued laptop.[2] These cases demonstrate that the answers to these issues are far from clear.
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