The Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) has rendered its final decisions against Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) trustee, Michael Del Grande.

On April 8, 2026, the OCT tribunal delivered its verdict on the two complaints that were filed against him.

One complaint was for Del Grande having opposed the addition of "gender identity" and "gender expression" to the Catholic school board's code of conduct, during a 2019 trustees board meeting.

On this charge, the OCT found him guilty of "teacher misconduct", even though he was acting as a trustee during a trustee's board meeting (not a teacher in the classroom) and had never worked as a teacher (although he did hold a teaching license).

Ludicrous, isn't it?

The second complaint was for correcting an elected Student Trustee on his board after she scandalously expressed her support for abortion at a Catholic school board meeting.

Del Grande informed her that the church believes abortion is evil, and that all Catholics are obligated to accept that teaching, including her, and especially because she is a Catholic leader.

Fortunately, the OCT found Del Grande NOT GUILTY of professional misconduct on this second complaint. It cleared him of the accusation that he "abused a student" verbally, emotionally and psychologically.

Then, on August 26th, despite Del Grande winning one of the two charges, the regulator still deemed fit to impose an onerous penalty decision against him, equal to $85,000, payable over two years.

Teachers who have kids "sleep-over" and encourage drug use receive more leniency than Del Grande

I have zero doubt that this outrageous financial penalty was motivated by the OCT's utter hatred of the Catholic Church and Del Grande's biblical beliefs.

While Del Grande was charged $10,000 per day, many examples exist of creepy teachers found guilty of behaving inappropriately – and potentially criminally – with young students, and who were levied dramatically lower per diem costs by the OCT.

Just one example of the College showing great leniency for a far more serious act of professional misconduct by a teacher is its 2022 decision in the case of OCT vs. Paul Joseph Paterson.

In that Discipline Committee case, Paterson, a school vice principal, engaged in an inappropriate personal relationship with an underage student.

Paterson had the young student sleep at his house on two occasions, went camping with the student, “engaged in illegal behaviour with Student 1”, and “The member condoned and encouraged the student’s drug use”.

In Paterson's case, the OCT charged only $833 per hearing day. For six days, he had to pay just $5,000 in total.

Yet, Michael Del Grande, who did nothing of the sort, and in fact, never interacted with any student, has to pay $10,000 / day!

If the same daily tariff rate used for Paterson was applied to Del Grande, he'd only be charged $6,667, total... instead of $85,000!

Clearly, defending the Catholic faith as an elected trustee is a greater crime in the eyes of the OCT than a teacher creeping around and making "alone time" with an underage student!

In his penalty hearing, Del Grande even submitted the Paterson case as a precedent, and requested "no costs" be ordered by the Discipline Committee given the vast difference in situations between himself and that creepy vice principal. However, the professional regulator rejected his arguments.

In addition to the cost penalty, part of Trustee Del Grande's sentence was having to receive a verbal tongue-lashing from the Discipline Panel. Michael voluntarily resigned his teaching license, as he wants nothing more to do with them.

This email is already long, so I won't delve into the OCT Discipline Committee and their legal counsel's ridiculous arguments now. I'll save that for a follow-up article.

In the meantime, if you'd like to help Del Grande cover the $85,000 penalty, please make a donation at this link here. CLC will direct donations to that cause.