Abuse survivor group pushing provinces to protect students

Anne-Marie Robinson had two goals when she started researching eduction laws in every province across Canada — to advocate for better protections for kids in school and at the same time, heal herself. 

"I wanted to understand how cases were still happening and how these children were getting abused by their teachers," said Robinson, a sexual abuse survivor based in Ottawa and the subject of the new CBC investigative podcast, The Banned Teacher. 

"It's still, in my view, way too easy for a teacher today to abuse a student and get away with it," she said.

Robinson said her research uncovered gaps in every jurisdiction, including systemic issues such as a lack of accountability for school boards and independence for investigators, as well as inadequate responses to new challenges such as online grooming.

Her lobbying efforts have grabbed the attention of lawmakers and officials in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.

Ahead of the pack is Manitoba, which passed the Education Administration Amendment Act on May 30 to bolster protections for children. That province had been identified as one of the jurisdictions most in need of change.

The new law enlists an independent commissioner to review and rule on complaints regarding teacher misconduct, including sexual offences. The province will also develop a public teacher registry to let people see whether an educator has been disciplined.

Robinson first teamed up with other survivors of sexual abuse in schools last year to form the advocacy group Stop Educator Child Exploitation (SECE).

"I did policy my whole career in government and it was almost a comforting escape for me to put that hat on and see this as a problem that I want to help fix for the whole country," said Robinson, who's also a former federal deputy minister. 

Her group has been working with another national charity, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, to get their message out to ministers of education, urging them to fix systemic flaws.

In a report released last fall, the centre found that between 2017 and 2021 more than 540 alleged victims had come forward to report sexual abuse in Canadian schools.

Noni Classen, the centre's director of education, says lawmakers hearing advice and policy proposals from survivors themselves proved invaluable. 

"I think their voices have been critical in terms of really understanding the significance and the impact on individuals that is lifelong," said Classen, who called the involvement of this victim group "game-changing." 

"We now see Anne-Marie as the teacher and we turned to her, to guide us and help us understand. That gives me goosebumps."