As I said in my opening statement, I've taught for over 20 years—23 years. I remember my first job. I was in a présecondaire, which is a grade 7 class. I was brand new—you know, when you're a new teacher, you do your best—and a fight broke out in my class. Luckily, they were smaller than I. They were in grade 7. They were 12 years old. It was quite the fight, because there was blood drawn. I pulled those two children apart, and one I took with me to the principal's office. According to the Criminal Code, that could be assault. Of course, I did my duty because I wanted to protect the kids who were in the fight and to protect the children who were in the class. I could have been charged with assault for doing what I did. I didn't know. I was new. I hadn't even heard of section 43.
Our fear is that, by not amending section 43, we put teachers at risk of being charged with assault. In our brief, there are about 50 examples of incidents where section 43 was called upon and those cases didn't go to court. Some did. There was one recently, in 2023, Bender versus Ontario, that went to court and the teacher was dismissed. This is what we fear.
Another thing we fear is.... Personally, as a union leader, I would be telling teachers, “Be very careful. Do not put your hands on children. There is nothing to protect you in the criminal law.”