The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has documented more than 1,800 Canadian students sexually victimized by school personnel between 1997 and 2021, and the rate is rising. Set those figures against Chicago, the one jurisdiction with an independent investigator inside its school system, and the arithmetic says Canada detects about half of what happens. Roughly 150 serious cases a year. We hear about the half that reach the police.
The reasons are structural. Unions, teachers' colleges and school boards are harmed by every confirmed case, so they cannot be expected to investigate themselves. Secrecy between adults and children, however well intended, violates every standard of abuse prevention. And without an independent investigator, the falsely accused are never cleared either; rumour does the job instead.
The ask
- An independent investigative body in each province, modelled on Chicago's Sexual Allegations Unit, with reach inside the school system and reporting outside it.
- A national database of substantiated findings, so a teacher removed in one province cannot be hired in another.
- School policies that end adult-child secrecy from parents.
Status: Published May 2026. Tied to the Inspector General proposal.