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QUEBEC — Quebec’s National Assembly unanimously adopted Bill 47 on Tuesday, aimed at strengthening student protection.
The new law, “An Act to Reinforce the Protection of Students, Including With Regard to Acts of Sexual Violence,” closes loopholes that allowed teachers to move from one position to another without their disciplinary files following them.
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It will require school staff, both public and private, to report to the minister any “behaviour that could reasonably cause fear for the physical or psychological safety of students.”
Reprehensible actions will remain on an employee’s file. They will not be able, under amnesty clauses, to disappear after a few months or a few years, as is currently the case.
“The first priority is the safety of our children,” said Education Minister Bernard Drainville in a written statement. “We are choosing to add strong preventive measures to better protect them.”
Bill 47 was tabled on Dec. 6 following an investigation report into sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour in schools, which showed schools were poorly equipped to deal with these situations.
“It is not normal that a teacher can commit acts of a sexual nature with complete impunity and move from one service centre to another or from one school to another without consequences,” Drainville said.
Bill 47 was improved during its study in parliamentary committee; measures have been added to protect people who file a complaint or report against reprisals.
This was a request from school administrators, who also successfully demanded that the bill be expanded to include adult students with disabilities.
For their part, teaching unions had stressed that the expression “could reasonably cause fear for the physical or psychological safety of students” was far too broad.
Reprehensible behaviour will eventually be better defined, Drainville’s communications director, Antoine de la Durantaye, told La Presse Canadienne.
He explained in a message that the new law will modify the existing guide on criminal records, “in order to further help the network to determine the targeted behaviours.”
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