There is increasing pressure on regulators to provide more information about practitioners who have engaged in behaviour of concern. As a result there is increasing reluctance by regulators to remove information from the public register once it is posted. Practitioners, however, often feel it is unfair that public register information remains public permanently. Those issues came to a head in De Santis v Ontario College of Teachers, 2019 ONSC 1344, http://canlii.ca/t/hxqb8.
In 2014 Ms. De Santis was disciplined and, following a joint submission, was reprimanded and required to engage in remedial activities. She completed the remedial activities at which point the details of that term, condition and limitation was removed from the public register. She asked for the reference to the reprimand be removed as well. The Registrar declined the request because the by-laws indicated removal would only occur if a reprimand was the only sanction ordered. Ms. De Santis sought judicial review.
The Court upheld the Registrar’s decision. The wording of the by-law was clear. More than a reprimand had been ordered. The removal of the specifics of the remedial program from the public register did not alter the nature of the original order. The Court declined to evaluate the public policy rationale (or reasonableness) of the by-law.