Bill 26 primarily focuses on preventing sexual abuse of students by staff in post-secondary institutions. It also has a small section for changing Ryerson University’s name to Toronto Metropolitan University and changes the size and composition of its Senate.
Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities Act
So first up Bill 26 puts in a lot of definitions of “sexual abuse”. These are all references to other Acts and there really aren’t any surprises here, so I won’t go too deep into that.
In the event an employee commits an act of sexual abuse on a student, they can be discharged or disciplined. This is considered to be a just cause, the employee is not entitled to notice if they’re terminated nor do they get any benefits (such as termination pay) they might normally get, and nothing in a collective agreement or employment contract can substitute the termination for a different penalty. (Nor can this be substituted through arbitration)
If someone’s fired for sexual abuse the school they were working for is not to hire them again later, and if they find out they did they are to immediately terminate the employee.
No collective agreements, or settlement agreements will be able to prevent a school from disclosing the fact that an employee committed an act of sexual abuse of a student.
Finally all post-secondary institutions will need to have an employee sexual misconduct policy that includes rules regarding sexual behaviour involving teachers and students as well as examples of disciplinary measures that may be imposed on someone that breaks the policy. It may also specify acts that count as sexual abuse.
Private Career Colleges Act
Nothing much here, just the same changes made to the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities Act.
Ryerson University Act
Not a lot changes here. First up all references to “Ryerson University” are replaced with “Toronto Metropolitan University”. (Including the name of this Act)
The other change is increasing the size of TMU’s Senate. It adds the positions of Deputy Provost and Vice-Provosts, and increases the size of the Senate from fifty-one to sixty-two. I’ll be honest that I’m not sure why these changes are needed, if anyone has some insight into this feel free to let me know!
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