Stephanie Sugar

The Member, a teacher, faced allegations of professional misconduct for a pattern of inappropriate behaviour towards students over three school years, including belittling, yelling, making racist comments, and leaving students unsupervised.

The Member pleaded no contest to the allegations.

The Discipline Committee found the Member guilty of professional misconduct, including verbal, physical, and psychological abuse.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered a reprimand, a five-month suspension of her Certificate of Qualification and Registration, and the completion of coursework on professional boundaries, classroom management, and diversity and sensitivity training.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought disciplinary proceedings against a member who sent highly inappropriate, sexually explicit, misogynistic, and homophobic emails to colleagues and administrators at his school.

The member did not attend the hearing.

The Discipline Committee found the member guilty of professional misconduct, noting that his communications were extremely disrespectful, frightened his colleagues, and demonstrated a significant lack of professional judgment.

The Committee ordered a reprimand, a three-month suspension, and imposed terms, conditions, and limitations on his certificate, including a requirement to complete a course on professional boundaries and to provide medical clearance before returning to teaching.

The member was also ordered to pay $20,000 in costs due to his uncooperative and vexatious conduct during the proceedings.

The Discipline Committee found that the Member engaged in professional misconduct, though it found insufficient evidence that he contacted students while under suspension.

The Member did not attend the hearing.

The Committee ordered a written reprimand, a three-month suspension of his Certificate of Qualification and Registration, and imposed terms, conditions, and limitations requiring the completion of a course on appropriate boundaries with colleagues.

The issue of costs was reserved pending further submissions.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought disciplinary proceedings against a member for professional misconduct, alleging that he yelled at students, used his cell phone, and fell asleep during instructional time.

The member pleaded no contest to the allegations and agreed to a joint submission on penalty.

The Discipline Committee accepted the plea, finding the member guilty of professional misconduct including verbal and psychological abuse of students.

The Committee accepted the joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, completion of a course on professional boundaries, and a one-month suspension of the member's certificate of qualification.

The Member faced allegations of professional misconduct for providing students with sexually explicit content, creating a class list with derogatory nicknames, and making racial and sexual comments.

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

The Discipline Committee accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, a four-month suspension of the Member's teaching certificate, and the completion of a boundaries course.

The member brought a motion to dismiss or stay the professional discipline proceedings against him prior to the hearing on the merits, arguing the prosecution was vexatious and predatory.

The Discipline Committee of the Ontario College of Teachers found it lacked jurisdiction to dismiss the proceeding under s. 4.6(1) of the Statutory Powers Procedure Act because it had not enacted the requisite rules under s. 4.6(6).

Considering its residual authority to prevent an abuse of process under s. 23, the Committee concluded the member failed to present evidence that continuing the hearing would amount to an abuse of process.

The motion was dismissed and the hearing on the merits was ordered to proceed.

The Discipline Committee of the Ontario College of Teachers held a penalty hearing for a member previously found to have engaged in professional misconduct.

The member's conduct involved inappropriate and discriminatory treatment of a student based on sexual orientation, which led to the student being 'outed'.

The Committee accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, a five-month suspension of the member's certificate, and the successful completion of coursework on classroom management and ethical practice before returning to teaching.

The Member, a retired teacher, pleaded no contest to allegations of professional misconduct involving physical, verbal, and psychological abuse of students.

The Discipline Committee accepted the uncontested facts, which included kicking, slapping, and choking students, as well as yelling and throwing books.

The Committee found the Member guilty of professional misconduct and accepted a joint submission on penalty, ordering a reprimand, a four-month suspension, and a condition requiring the completion of an anger management course before returning to teaching.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought disciplinary proceedings against a member for professional misconduct.

The member, an occasional teacher, pleaded no contest to allegations that he physically abused two students by pushing, pulling, and grabbing them by the collar while redirecting them to their seats.

The Discipline Committee found the member guilty of professional misconduct, including failing to maintain the standards of the profession and engaging in disgraceful, dishonourable, or unprofessional conduct.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered a reprimand and required the member to complete coursework on appropriate boundaries and classroom management.

The plaintiff, a commercial corn grower, brought a proposed class action against the defendants, manufacturers of genetically modified corn seeds (Agrisure), alleging negligence and breach of the Competition Act.

The plaintiff claimed that North American corn prices fell due to China's rejection of corn shipments containing unapproved Agrisure, causing economic loss to non-Agrisure farmers.

The defendants moved to strike the claim under Rule 21, arguing no duty of care existed for pure economic loss.

The court granted the motion, finding that while the claim was framed in misrepresentation, the plaintiff's reliance on the defendants' alleged undertaking not to introduce Agrisure without global approvals was unreasonable, as commingling was inevitable and preventing it would require withholding the product from the domestic market, which had regulatory approval.

The court also noted the risk of indeterminate liability and the illogical elevation of foreign approvals over domestic ones.

The Member, a teacher, pled guilty to professional misconduct for failing to maintain appropriate boundaries with two students.

The Member communicated with the students via Instagram about non-academic topics, accepted their requests to follow his accounts, and posted an inappropriate joke.

The Discipline Committee accepted an Agreed Statement of Facts and a Joint Submission on Penalty, finding the Member guilty of professional misconduct.

The Committee ordered that the Member be reprimanded and complete a course on professional boundaries.

The Member, a teacher, pled guilty to professional misconduct for engaging in an inappropriate personal relationship with a student, which included grooming behaviour, inappropriate electronic communications, and sexual abuse.

The Discipline Committee accepted the Agreed Statement of Facts and found the Member guilty.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered the immediate revocation of the Member's Certificate of Qualification and Registration and required the Member to appear for an oral reprimand.

The Member, a teacher, engaged in an inappropriate, personal, and romantic relationship with a student, which included exchanging hundreds of non-sexual and sexual electronic messages and discussing a future sexual relationship after graduation.

The Member pleaded no contest to allegations of professional misconduct, including sexual abuse of a student.

The Discipline Committee found the Member guilty of professional misconduct.

Accepting a joint submission on penalty, the Committee ordered the immediate revocation of the Member's Certificate of Qualification and Registration and issued a written reprimand.

The Ontario College of Teachers brought disciplinary proceedings against the respondent member for professional misconduct, including the sexual abuse of a student.

The parties presented a Statement of Uncontested Facts and Plea of No Contest, admitting that the respondent engaged in an inappropriate personal and sexual relationship with a student.

The Discipline Committee accepted the uncontested facts and found the respondent guilty of professional misconduct.

Pursuant to the mandatory penalty provisions of the Ontario College of Teachers Act, 1996, the Committee ordered the immediate revocation of the respondent's Certificate of Qualification and Registration and directed that he receive an oral reprimand.

The member faced allegations of professional misconduct for verbally and psychologically abusing students, making racist and homophobic comments, engaging in workplace violence against a colleague, and having an inappropriate romantic relationship with a recently graduated former student.

The member did not attend the hearing but submitted an agreed statement of facts and guilty plea.

The Discipline Committee found the member guilty of professional misconduct and, accepting a joint submission on penalty, ordered the immediate revocation of the member's teaching certificate.

Following the dismissal of an application for leave to appeal an order staying third party claims in a class action until completion of the common issues trial, the court addressed the issue of costs between the plaintiff and the defendant applicants.

The plaintiff sought partial indemnity costs exceeding $34,000 plus disbursements, while the defendants argued for a significantly reduced amount.

The court rejected the defendants’ criticism of the plaintiff’s preparation time and counsel allocation, emphasizing the importance of the application to the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s leadership role in responding.

Considering the relevant factors, the court fixed costs at a reduced but substantial amount within the defendants’ reasonable expectations.

In a certified class proceeding, the defendants sought leave to appeal a case management order that refined the common issues and stayed their third party claims against numerous distributors pending the common issues trial.

The defendants argued the stay conflicted with principles governing third party claims and with provisions of the Rules of Civil Procedure, the Courts of Justice Act, and the Class Proceedings Act.

The court held that the broad discretionary powers under ss. 12 and 13 of the Class Proceedings Act permitted such case management orders to ensure the fair and expeditious determination of class proceedings.

The court found no reason to doubt the correctness of the stay order and rejected arguments that it conflicted with other statutory provisions or prior case law.

Leave to appeal was denied.

Costs decision following the abandonment of a Rule 45 motion in a class proceeding seeking an order requiring the defendant to pay an alleged fund into court.

The court considered the presumptive rule under Rule 37.09(3) of the Rules of Civil Procedure that a responding party is entitled to costs when a motion is abandoned.

While the plaintiff had a reasonable basis initially to believe the defendant possessed the alleged fund, the court found the motion would have failed because the existence of a fund could not be proven.

The court declined to award substantial indemnity costs due to the absence of reprehensible conduct but granted partial indemnity costs.

The defendant was awarded $30,000 for the abandoned Rule 45 motion and $8,750 for a related refusals motion.