A Toronto professor and former deputy education minister will plead guilty to some of the seven charges related to child pornography that he faces, the lawyer for Benjamin Levin has confirmed.

Clayton Ruby, who appeared in court on behalf of his client Friday, said Levin “will be making a guilty plea,” but would not stipulate on which of the child-exploitation offences, which included accessing, possessing, writing and distributing child pornography, counselling someone to commit sexual assault, and making an arrangement with a police officer to commit sexual assault.

Levin, born in 1952, is to appear at a scheduled hearing at the Finch Ave. courthouse March 3 and again later in the month for a sentencing hearing. Ruby also confirmed “there will not be a trial.”

Educated at Harvard and a highly respected tenured professor at the University of Toronto’s prestigious Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Levin has been deputy education minister in both Manitoba and Ontario. He recently served as OISE’s Canada Research Chair in Leadership and Educational Change and was also part of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s transition team in early 2013 after Dalton McGuinty stepped down. (As deputy minister of education for most of 2005-2009, Levin also served under Wynne during her stint as minister.)

Levin was arrested at his north Toronto home in July 2013, following a multi-jurisdictional investigation which included police in New Zealand and London, Ontario.

A Toronto judge granted him $100,000 bail and imposed strict conditions of release including that he not use the Internet and only use a work computer hard wired to the university.

Levin was also prohibited from accessing social media networking sites or using a phone with Internet or one which could take photos. The judge ordered Levin to live with his brother unless his wife agreed to him residing at their home. He was not to leave the province other than to visit his elderly father in Manitoba and only after notifying police of his movements.

Levin has stopped teaching and doing research work.

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