All 11 teachers accused of creating toxic climate at Montreal school have their licences revoked
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All 11 teachers who were suspended in 2024 after being accused of fostering a toxic climate at a Montreal elementary school have had their licences revoked, according to the office of Quebec’s education minister.
Confirmation of the 11 licences being revoked came on the same day the Education Ministry made public a final report into the situation at Bedford elementary school.
The revocation of the licences is the latest development in a saga that reignited the debate around secularism in the province and raised concerns about religious indoctrination in Quebec schools.
Reporting by 98.5 FM’s Valérie Lebeuf followed by a government report released in June 2024 showed the teachers at the school — which is located in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood — weren’t teaching subjects such as sex education or science and technology comprehensively.
Some also didn’t take learning difficulties seriously and were using outdated teaching methods.
The final report released on Tuesday morning was authored by Jean-Pierre Aubin and Malika Habel. They had been tasked with monitoring the situation at the school and producing an action plan.
That report, though released Tuesday, is dated December 2025.
The Bedford controversy motivated the Coalition Avenir Québec government to strengthen its secularism policies. This ultimately led to the government extending the religious symbols ban to all school staff who interact with students as well as daycare workers and establishing limits on public prayer.
In a brief statement to CBC News, the office for the education minister said the decision to revoke the 11 licences was made because of the findings of the 2024 investigation.
Bedford under watch
Bedford elementary school was placed under watch in the fall of 2024, a few months after the ministry’s investigation.
Reporting from 98.5 FM painted the picture of two groups — one mainly composed of people of North African origin — clashing with each other.
The ministry’s investigation specified, however, that the situation was not as clear-cut, and that there were teachers of North African origin in both groups.
WATCH | Why 11 teachers lost their teaching licences permanently:
11 teachers involved in Montreal school scandal lose teaching licences permanently
The 11 teachers who were suspended in 2024 and accused of creating a toxic work climate at Bedford elementary school have had their teaching licences revoked. The news came on May 12, the day the province’s Education Ministry released its final report on the situation.
Quebec’s Ministry of Education revealed last December that some of the 11 teachers already had their licences revoked at that point. In a newsletter sent that month, the union representing those employees, L’Alliance des professeures et professeurs de Montréal, called out the ministry’s investigation for lack of transparency and said it would defend the teachers.
On Tuesday, the union refused to comment on the new developments, referring Radio-Canada instead to the old newsletter.
The office of the education minister also declined to comment further on Tuesday, given that the decision is being disputed, its spokesperson told CBC News.
Climate at Bedford improving, but more is needed, report says
The report says the climate at the school has largely improved, however part of Aubin and Habel’s action plan has yet to be implemented. They suggest the ministry follow up at the end of the fall.
They write that they were told, “the children are smiling now, they are having fun, they love their school.”
“The biggest challenge facing the [school service centre] will be maintaining these new management practices, especially since none of the members of the management team in place in October 2024 will still be in office as of January 2026,” reads the report.
Aubin and Habel say they identified 38 non-conformities through their work at the school.
Notably, there were two cases that centred on behaviour described as “inadequate, based on stereotypes, misconceptions” and involved judging students.
One of those cases was flagged to human resources. The other was still being processed by the school as of last December, when this newest report was completed.
WATCH | A look at why secularism is such a hot topic in Quebec:
Why secularism is still such a big issue in Quebec politics
For the last 20 years, one issue has kept resurfacing in Quebec politics. It’s not language or separatism, but the relationship between Quebec society and religion — often one religion in particular.
‘There is a before and after Bedford’
The deputy general manager of the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), Kathlyn Morel, said there’s a “before and after Bedford.”
“When we were looking at what was going on at Bedford, we took the actions from the plan we had to implement for Bedford, and we extended them to all our 185 establishments,” she told Radio-Canada’s Tout un Matin Tuesday morning.
Morel also said other schools within the CSSDM who were facing similar issues to those experienced at Bedford were also audited and that the process is also over. In total, Quebec sent auditors to 17 schools in the province.
In their report Tuesday, Aubin and Habel said teachers at Bedford are still under the impression they’re being “monitored” and have to meet higher standards than in other CSSDM schools.
“It’s a big change,” said Morel.
She said the training teachers had to go through and the number of measures they had to put in place became overwhelming at one point, and they complained. The school’s administration listened, made some changes, and now she says everyone’s on the same page.
