Charlene Desrochers

The appeal concerned whether a lender could structure a business loan to an on-reserve borrower as a two-step conditional sale transaction in order to obtain effective security over existing chattels situated on reserve.

The court held that the arrangement was merely notional, with no real sale or repurchase, and amounted to an impermissible attempt to circumvent the protection in s. 89(1) of the Indian Act.

Because the transaction was a pure fiction rather than a genuine sale in which rights remained in the seller, it did not fall within s. 89(2).

The appeal from the conversion judgment was dismissed with fixed costs.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought disciplinary proceedings against a member for professional misconduct, alleging verbal, physical, and psychological abuse of a student.

The member pleaded no contest to an agreed statement of facts, admitting to calling a student a 'spoiled brat,' raising her voice, and turning the student's desk around while the student was seated, causing the student to almost fall.

The Discipline Committee found the member guilty of professional misconduct.

The Committee accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand and mandatory coursework in classroom and anger management.

The Committee also ordered that the decision be published in summary form without the member's name, noting the incident was isolated and at the lower end of the scale of misconduct.