Minister orders Manitoba divisions to ensure certification after uncertified teacher charged with luring
CBC
Manitoba’s education minister is ordering all 54 school divisions to ensure their teachers have proper teaching certification, following media reports of a teacher now charged with child exploitation who was working without certification.
A Winnipeg Free Press investigation found former teacher and coach Braeden Martens worked without a teaching permit at Steinbach Regional Secondary School. He was removed from the classroom when allegations against him surfaced in January 2025, the Free Press reported.
According to a Manitoba courts spokesperson, Martens is charged with one count of luring a child under the age of 16 via telecommunications and one count of invitation to sexual touching.
The luring charge stems from incidents between September 2023 and Jan. 10, 2025, according to the court records. The other charge relates to incidents between the start of December 2024 and Jan. 10, 2025.
RCMP confirmed the Steinbach detachment received a report about Martens on Jan. 10, 2025. A spokesperson said police began an "extensive investigation" immediately.
The RCMP spokesperson confirmed the charges "are related to his role as a teacher in Steinbach," and that RCMP were "in close contact with the accused’s employer from an early stage, and information relating to the nature of the investigation was provided."
Neither charge has been proven in court. Martens’s next court date is set for February in Steinbach.
CBC attempted to contact Martens via social media but did not receive a response.
Hanover School Division, which includes the Steinbach high school, says as per protocol, it applied for and was issued four separate limited teaching permits for Martens between February 2021 and June 2024.
Manitoba issues limited teaching permits to people without standard teaching certification to allow them to fill staff shortages in schools. The temporary authorizations require child abuse registry checks and criminal record checks.
Those checks "were obtained in full compliance with provincial requirements," reads a statement posted on the division's website Tuesday afternoon.
The division maintains that "at no time" did it "bypass required safeguards or employ an individual without appropriate authorization and background checks."
However, the school division says it did not request a limited teaching permit renewal for Martens in the fall of 2024 because it expected Martens to apply for full teacher certification.
There’s no evidence Martens ever received the certification. His name does not show up in a search of Manitoba's teacher registry.
Good news for those who dislike getting pap smears – cervical cancer self-screening will become available in the Yukon through some health care providers as soon as next week.
Rideau Cottage, the historic red-brick house where Canadian prime ministers have been living for more than a decade, is inadequate and comes with security risks, according to a government memorandum prepared last summer.
New legislation would prevent anyone in Alberta from accessing medical assistance in dying (MAID) if they are unlikely to die within the next 12 months.
GO Train service has been halted on a stretch of the Lakeshore West line after a person was fatally struck in the area, Metrolinx says.
Service Canada and Veterans Affairs offices in the Jean Canfield Building are closed following an electrical fire outside the building last week.
Canada's defence minister has committed an additional $1.4 billion to boost the production of ammunition, saying the investment is essential to the future of the country.
On the seventh floor of the immense Quan Ju De restaurant in Beijing, a small museum honours the "roast duck diplomacy" of the past.
The Ontario Provincial Police’s conclusion of no wrongdoing by Toronto police officers accused of collusion in a high-profile murder trial is being called into question by a reconstruction expert and the former director of the Special Investigations Unit.
A group of landowners fighting the construction of a massive motorsport racing resort northeast of Calgary have had a victory in court.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford congratulated a homeowner who shot and injured an alleged home invader in Vaughan, Ont., this week, saying intruders "need to be shot."
B.C. Sports Hall of Fame relocates hundreds of thousands of artifacts to make way for FIFA World Cup
From century-old provincial senior men's baseball jerseys to a keeper Lombardi Trophy won by a Kamloops-born Super Bowl-winning punter, the vast majority of B.C.'s premier sports artifacts won't be on display when the FIFA World Cup comes to town.
Two Sudbury domes used for various sports during the winter months collapsed after a winter storm dropped upwards of 40 centimetres of snow.
Police in Nova Scotia say a teen in Bridgewater and a youth from Manitoba have been arrested for allegedly planning simultaneous attacks at their local schools.