Christine L. Lonsdale

The Member, a department chair, pleaded guilty to professional misconduct for distributing unreleased EQAO assessments to students and a colleague as practice material.

This compromised the 2016 and 2017 EQAO assessments for certain students.

The Discipline Committee accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, a three-month suspension of the Member's certificate, and the completion of a professional ethics course before returning to teaching.

This is a costs endorsement following a successful appeal by Subway against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in an anti-SLAPP motion.

Subway sought partial indemnity costs of $61,291.30.

CBC requested reconsideration of the costs award based on Supreme Court of Canada anti-SLAPP decisions (Pointes and Bent) or a reduction to $17,000.

The Court of Appeal upheld its decision to award partial indemnity costs, distinguishing the case from Bent due to the availability of substantial judicial guidance on s. 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act prior to CBC's motion, and the significant costs incurred by Subway.

The court awarded Subway $40,000 in partial indemnity costs.

The plaintiff brought motions to approve a $10 million national settlement in a class action regarding PayPal's foreign currency conversion practices, and to approve class counsel fees and a representative plaintiff honorarium.

The court found the settlement fair, reasonable, and in the best interests of the class, noting the significant litigation risks and the efficient direct-deposit distribution protocol.

The court also approved class counsel's 25% contingency fee request and awarded a $10,000 honorarium to the representative plaintiff for his exceptional efforts in initiating the litigation.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought a discipline proceeding against a Vice-Principal for professional misconduct.

The Member admitted to engaging in inappropriate banter with colleagues, accepting a Board-issued cheque for personal travel expenses, disseminating teaching materials without authorization, and altering a colleague's university records to support a U.S. citizenship application, which resulted in criminal convictions for forgery.

The Discipline Committee accepted the Member's guilty plea and found him guilty of professional misconduct, including disgraceful, dishonourable, and unprofessional conduct.

The Committee dismissed one allegation regarding the failure to keep records due to insufficient evidence.

The Committee accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, an 18-month suspension, and the completion of courses on boundary violations and ethical standards.

The Member, an occasional teacher, pleaded guilty to professional misconduct for multiple incidents involving physical, verbal, and psychological abuse of students, as well as inappropriate classroom management.

The Discipline Committee accepted the agreed statement of facts and found the Member guilty.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered a reprimand, a six-month suspension of the Member's certificate, and the successful completion of a course on anger management and appropriate discipline before returning to teaching.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought a discipline proceeding against a member for professional misconduct, alleging verbal and physical abuse of students and poor classroom management.

The member did not contest the facts, which included shouting at students, making inappropriate remarks, and striking students.

The Discipline Committee found the member guilty of professional misconduct.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered a reprimand, a four-month suspension of the member's certificate, and the completion of a classroom management course.

The appellants, Subway, appealed the dismissal of their $210 million defamation action against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) under an anti-Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) motion (s. 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act).

The action arose from a CBC Marketplace report alleging Subway's chicken products contained only 50% chicken DNA.

The Court of Appeal found that the motion judge erred in applying a higher standard for the "no valid defence" test and in weighing the public interest.

The Court determined that Subway had established grounds to believe CBC had no valid defence of responsible communication and that the public interest in allowing the action to proceed outweighed the public interest in protecting the expression, given the significant reputational and financial harm alleged and the lack of urgency in disseminating unverified information.

The appeal was allowed, and the defamation action against CBC was permitted to continue.

The Member faced allegations of professional misconduct for sexually abusing a student through sexually explicit electronic communications and online sexual acts.

The Member brought a motion for a publication ban on his name, presenting unopposed medical evidence that publication would likely cause him serious harm.

The Discipline Committee granted the exceptional publication ban under the Ontario College of Teachers Act, 1996.

On the merits, the Member pleaded no contest to the allegations.

The Committee found the Member guilty of professional misconduct, including sexual abuse of a student.

Pursuant to the mandatory penalty provisions of the Act, the Committee ordered the immediate revocation of the Member's Certificate of Qualification and Registration and a reprimand.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought a motion to quash an appeal by Ahmed Bouragba, arguing that the underlying order of O’Brien J. was interlocutory and thus appealable only to the Divisional Court with leave.

Bouragba simultaneously sought a stay of O’Brien J.'s order pending his appeal.

The Court of Appeal determined that O’Brien J.'s order was merely a scheduling order, which is interlocutory, and therefore the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

Consequently, both Bouragba's appeal and his motion for a stay were quashed.

The Member, a school principal, faced allegations of professional misconduct including unauthorized absences, inappropriate personal use of a board credit card, claiming expenses multiple times, issuing cheques without supporting documents, failing to disclose a conflict of interest regarding the hiring of a relative, and creating a toxic work environment.

The Member pled guilty to the allegations via an Agreed Statement of Facts.

The Discipline Committee found the Member guilty of professional misconduct and accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, a five-month suspension of her certificate, and the completion of a professional ethics course.

The appellant teacher appealed a Discipline Committee decision finding her guilty of professional misconduct for intimidating and brusque behaviour towards students, and the resulting sanctions including a six-month suspension.

She argued the Committee failed to consider that the complaint was a reprisal for her own workplace harassment claims, that the Committee was biased in qualifying a former vice-principal as a participant expert, and that the College lost jurisdiction due to delay.

The Divisional Court dismissed the appeal, finding the Committee reasonably assessed credibility, correctly applied the participant expert doctrine, and imposed reasonable sanctions for the protection of the public despite the appellant's retirement.

The Member, a teacher, faced allegations of professional misconduct for verbally and psychologically abusing students and making inappropriate remarks about colleagues.

The Member pleaded no contest to the allegations, admitting to shouting at students, using crude language, and creating an environment where students felt insecure.

The Discipline Committee found the Member guilty of professional misconduct.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered a reprimand, a two-month suspension of the Member's teaching certificate, and the completion of an anger management course, noting the Member's prior disciplinary history as an aggravating factor.

The Member, a teacher, faced allegations of professional misconduct for physically abusing students, including kicking a student and pulling others by the arm.

The Member pleaded no contest to the allegations.

The Discipline Committee found the Member guilty of professional misconduct.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered a reprimand, a four-month suspension of the Member's Certificate of Qualification and Registration, and the successful completion of a course on anger management and effective classroom management.

The Member, a teacher, pleaded guilty to professional misconduct for committing boundary violations with a student, including unwanted physical contact and inappropriate personal comments.

He also made disparaging remarks about colleagues and disclosed confidential student information to a parent.

The Discipline Committee accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand and noting the Member's undertaking to resign, never seek reinstatement, and never teach in Ontario again.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought disciplinary proceedings against a teacher who arrived at school under the influence of alcohol and organized an unauthorized extra-curricular activity while on medical leave.

The member did not attend the hearing.

The Discipline Committee found that the member committed professional misconduct by failing to maintain the standards of the profession, failing to comply with the Education Act, and engaging in conduct unbecoming a member.

Allegations of psychological abuse and failure to supervise were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

The Committee ordered a reprimand, completion of a professional ethics course, and a medical assessment confirming fitness to teach before the member could return to the classroom.

Costs of $5,000 were awarded to the College.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought a motion seeking leave to withdraw allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence against the Member.

The College submitted that there was no reasonable prospect of a finding of guilt because the Member had improved his practice, obtaining two satisfactory performance appraisals following two previous unsatisfactory ones.

The Member consented to the motion.

The Discipline Committee granted the motion, finding it was not in the public interest to expend resources on a hearing where there was no reasonable prospect of a finding against the Member.

The Member, an occasional teacher, faced allegations of professional misconduct for repeatedly failing to report to work, failing to attend meetings with the Board, and making unprofessional remarks about a colleague.

The Member admitted to the facts and pled guilty to professional misconduct.

The Discipline Committee accepted the joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, a three-month suspension of her Certificate of Qualification and Registration, and the completion of an ethics and professional responsibilities course.

Following a jurisdiction motion where the defendant insurers successfully argued that the court lacked jurisdiction over the proposed class actions, the insurers sought costs of approximately $620,000.

The court found this request preposterous and excessive, fixing costs payable by the plaintiffs to the 13 non-settling insurers at $28,000 on a partial indemnity basis.

The costs payable by the government regulator to the plaintiffs were settled at $12,500.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought a motion seeking leave to withdraw allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence against the member.

The parties agreed to the withdrawal in exchange for an Undertaking and Acknowledgement in which the member resigned from the College and agreed never to apply for reinstatement or hold a position requiring registration.

The Discipline Committee granted the motion, finding that the withdrawal of the Notice of Hearing in these circumstances was reasonable and served to protect the public interest.

The member, an occasional teacher, faced allegations of professional misconduct for verbally, physically, and psychologically abusing students, leaving students unsupervised, and using a classroom computer for personal purposes, including viewing inappropriate YouTube videos.

The member pleaded no contest to the allegations.

The Discipline Committee found the member guilty of professional misconduct.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered a reprimand, a two-month suspension of the member's certificate, and the successful completion of a course in anger and classroom management.