SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF ONTARIO TEACHERS IN LANDMARK PRIVACY CASE

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In a key decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Ontario public school board teachers are protected from unreasonable search and seizure in the workplace under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The landmark ruling on June 21 concludes a lengthy legal battle between the York Region District School Board (YRDSB) and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO).

The decade-long case centred on two newly-employed Grade 2 teachers, Ms. Shen and Ms. Rai, from Mount Joy Public School in Markham, who recorded their private workplace concerns in a shared, password-protected log stored in the cloud.

The school principal, aware of the log, accessed it through one of the teachers’ unattended laptops, took screenshots, and used the content to issue written reprimands in January 2015.