Camp leadership did not disclose instructor had been criminally charged and pleaded guilty: report
Ontario's government has pledged to make criminal background checks mandatory for summer camps after an instructor was hired despite having a history of crime against children, according to a report.
A Kawartha Lakes hockey camp, KL Hockey, retained Bradley Gibbs, a Durham Regional Police officer, as a lead instructor for weeks this summer despite his having pleaded guilty in April to two charges of assaulting children known to him, CBC News reported, citing confirmation from his lawyer.
A court publication ban prevents further details from being disclosed.
Gibbs stepped down from the camp on Wednesday afternoon, one day after CBC News contacted him and the camp for comment, according to an email camp leadership sent to parents. That email said leadership had "supported him through a difficult and challenging period in his personal life" but did not disclose that he had been criminally charged or that he had pleaded guilty, according to the report.
Legislative response
There is currently no Ontario legislation requiring summer camps to screen staff working with children, meaning camps are not obligated to obtain criminal record checks or more extensive vulnerable sector checks. After the story was published, Premier Doug Ford's office said the government will act to close that gap, according to the report.
"The employment of a known criminal at a children's camp is unacceptable and our government will be taking the action necessary to make it mandatory for summer camps to require criminal background checks," spokesperson Hannah Jensen said in an email cited by CBC News.
The Ontario Camps Association (OCA) requires vulnerable sector checks from its more than 400 accredited member camps, but membership is voluntary, and KL Hockey is not a member, according to CBC News. The Ministry of Education requires vulnerable sector checks only for camps serving children under four years old, as those qualify as licensed child-care centres.
Puneet Tiwari, an employment litigator and partner at Levitt LLP in Toronto, called the absence of legislated screening requirements a "big gap" and said camps "bear the responsibility to screen, supervise and act on relevant information," regardless of what the law requires, according to the CBC report.
Ontario’s regulation for licensed child care centres requires licensees to obtain an "offence declaration" whenever a staff member is convicted of a Criminal Code offence, specifically to address cases where someone's employment ends and later resumes. The rule is designed to protect children by ensuring known convictions are disclosed and reviewed before continued or renewed employment. Non-compliance can trigger an administrative penalty of up to $100,000, though this regime applies only to licensed child care centres and not to camps serving children over the age of four.
