The Supreme Court of Canada affirmed on Friday that Ontario public school board teachers are entitled to protection against unreasonable search and seizure in their workplace under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The decision reinforces that public school boards are an arm of government, making them subject to the Charter.
The case involved two Ontario public school board teachers who maintained private communications about workplace issues on a shared, personal, password-protected log stored in the cloud. Controversy ensued when a school principal, aware of this log, accessed a teacher’s classroom post school hours to return materials. Discovering the teacher absent but the laptop open, the principal viewed the log and took screenshots with his cellphone. Subsequently, these communications were used by the school board to reprimand the teachers in writing.
The teachers’ union contested the reprimands, citing violations of workplace privacy rights. Initially, a labour arbitrator ruled against the union, asserting no breach of reasonable privacy expectations vis-à-vis school board management’s interests. Escalating the matter, the union appealed to the Divisional Court of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, which upheld the arbitrator’s decision, contending that Charter protections did not extend to workplace environments in non-criminal contexts.
The turning point came when the union appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which overturned the lower court’s ruling. The Court of Appeal found that Ontario public school boards are indeed subject to the Charter, and the principal’s search constituted an unreasonable intrusion under section 8 of the Charter, the section providing protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The initial arbitration did not adequately balance Charter protections with statutory objectives under section 265 of the Education Act.
The school board subsequently sought redress at the Supreme Court of Canada, which dismissed their appeal. Justice Rowe, writing for the majority, emphasized that Ontario public school board teachers fall within the ambit of section 32 of the Charter as entities performing governmental functions. Therefore, section 8’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure extends to their workplace conduct. The Court identified an error in the arbitrator’s original decision for failing to integrate this Charter framework, justifying its reversal.
This significant ruling, focusing on section 8 and section 32 of the Charter, has broad implications for unionized groups and governmental oversight. The teachers were represented by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, supported by interveners including the Power Workers’ Union and the Society of United Professionals. The York Region District School Board received support from interveners such as the Ontario Principals’ Council.