TORONTO

Ontario’s College of Teachers says that under a proposed law, a teacher who marries a student would be exempt from allegations of sexual misconduct in cases where the relationship began when the pupil was younger than 18.

The college raised the concerns in a letter to Education Minister Mitzie Hunter on Wednesday. They called on her to address weaknesses in Bill 37, legislation aimed at beefing up laws to protect students from sexual abuse.

The college, which oversees teacher discipline, says that in some cases, the law actually rolls back a number of important oversight rules — including statutes that govern allegations of abuse against teachers who marry their students.

A spousal definition in the new law creates an exemption that could see a teacher avoid discipline under some circumstances, college registrar Michael Salvatori said.

“Our view is that a teacher is in a position of trust and authority over a student,” he said. “If at the time of the allegations they’re unmarried, that would be abuse or conduct unbecoming. The insertion of a spousal exemption without any limitations saying when the marital relationship started would allow someone to be exempt if they later married the individual.”

Salvatori said the college is also concerned that the new bill would change how 834 discipline decisions are posted on their website and tracked in a database. The new rules would expunge 376 decisions currently available to the public.

“This clause would actually remove decisions and make them inaccessible to members of the public, so it’s counter to one of the purposes of the bill,” he said.

Bill 37 came about in response to the college’s 2011 review of its disciplinary practices conducted by former Ontario justice Patrick LeSage. But when the college reviewed the proposed legislation and recommended eight changes, only one was adopted by the education ministry.

Ministry spokesman Heather Irwin said teachers who are convicted of sexually abusing students automatically have their teaching licences revoked.

“If the act was before the marriage, the matter would still be subject to investigation and could lead to the teaching licence being revoked,” she said in an email.

Irwin also said LeSage recommended that after three years, certain types of discipline decisions — where teachers complied with orders or cases of minor breaches — would come down from the college’s website to “balance transparency with fairness to teachers.”

sjeffords@postmedia.com