- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

In the past six years, two local teachers have been convicted of sexual exploitation.

This is a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada that specifically involves people in authority and young people who are 16 and 17 years old.

In both of our local cases, the young people were girls, but boys are also vunerable. As adults, the young  women described to the court the process of grooming over months and years – “building a relationship, trust and emotional connection” followed by activity “for a sexual purpose”.

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection published a study of Child Sexual Abuse by K-12 School Personnel in Canada. They studied cases from 1997 to 2017 – 750 cases involving 714 school employees. In other words, for 36 of these offenders, there was more than one victim. The perpetrators were not stopped before another child was abused.

One in 5 of the employees (86% of whom were certified teachers) “had another position that provided further access to children, most notably sports coaches,” according to the Executive Summary of the report.

In 2020, the Government of Ontario mandated that all Ontario Certified Teachers, including those who are retired, and applicants for certification by the Ontario College of Teachers, successfully complete a sexual abuse prevention program. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection was given the task of preparing the 2 1/2 hour on-line course.

The Bluewater District School Board declined to comment on their own plan to mitigate this risk among their employees after the second conviction in six years "for legal reasons". But as a community it is important to discuss how we are protecting our children from the perpetrators in all the organizations we trust with their care.

The requirement for police background checks has become common among organizations and employers of all types, and Vulnerable Sector Checks (VSC) will identify those who have been charged or convicted of certain offences, or have warrants or Peace Bonds.

Local clubs and organizations have a range of policies around screening of volunteers and employees. The best are robust and based on best-practices in the field, from their provincial or national organizations or Public Safety Canada, Volunteer Canada or the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

A great example is the Bruce Ski Club, publicly available on their website. Every organization is capable of attaining this standard.

Screening often begins with a simple voluntary disclosure of convictions, disqualifications or suspensions.

Healthy screening processes avoid the inevitable small-community challenges of decision-makers who are close to either offenders or victims. The results of any screening process should also be protected by clear Privacy and Confidentiality policies.

One local organization where a member of the board of directors and key-holder to their facility is on the National Sex Offenders Registry recently replied to our enquiries that they were “taking this issue very seriously and are currently in the process of implementing a screening policy for volunteers, staff, and board members to ensure the safety of all.”

As announced by our MPP Bill Walker, this organization has been the recipient of two grants in the past year from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an agency of the Government of Ontario. The OTF responded to our enquiries “a grantee acknowledges that it is obliged to take reasonable care in screening volunteers and staff participating in the project” but did not reply to the question of whether this screening would apply to board members or key-holders of the organization. Mr. Walker did not reply to our enquiry.

Screening policies, background checks and a National Sex Offender Registry are not intended as further punishment of the convicted. They are a means of protection of the vulnerable; safeguards in the communities in which the perpetrators live and work.

We recently published an opinion piece, to which this is my first response as Editor of the Owen Sound Hub.

“It’s up to all of us,” it read, “to take the first step of talking about it and raising awareness in our personal networks and among our wider community connections. We can have these conversations at work in staff orientations and meetings where we explain policies about harassment, abuse, and safety. We can speak about these issues on the boards and at the annual general meetings of our clubs and volunteer organizations. We can raise these concerns in our communities of faith. We can host public forums and invite expert speakers. We can write letters to the editor and call in to radio talk shows.”

This is my first step.