DATE:
April 16, 2025
PARTIES:
University of Toronto v. E.U.A.
HEARING DATE:
March 25, 2025
PANEL MEMBERS:
Andrew Bernstein, Chair
Professor Zoraida Beekhoo, Faculty Panel Member
Alwin Xie, Student Panel Member
APPEARANCES:
Tina Lie, Assistant Discipline Counsel, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP
Chloe Hendrie, Assistant Discipline Counsel, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP
Sharon Yeboah, Counsel for the Student, GAB Law Firm
Gary Bennett, Co-Counsel for the Student, GAB Law Firm
HEARING SECRETARY:
Carmelle Salomon-Labbé, Associate Director, Office of Appeals, Discipline and Faculty Grievances
In an earlier proceeding, the Student was found guilty of knowingly forging or in any other way altering, falsifying an academic record, or uttering, circulating, or making use of such forged, altered or falsified record, namely a letter on University of Toronto Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (“OISE”) letterhead, dated March 9, 2023, purportedly authored and signed by an individual from the Office of the Registrar at OISE in support of a rental application, contrary to section B.i.3(a) of the Code.
In determining the appropriate sanction, the Panel considered a Joint Submission on Penalty (“JSP”), and the sanctioning principles set out in University of Toronto and Mr. C. (Case No. 1976/77-3, November 5, 1976), though the Panel did not consider the latter in detail. The Panel noted that a JSP may only be rejected in circumstances where to give effect to it would be contrary to the public interest or bring the administration of justice into disrepute. The Panel concluded that the JSP was neither unreasonable nor unconscionable, notwithstanding the fact that misconduct involving forgery would ordinarily attract much longer and non-retroactive suspensions. The Panel also observed that the Student had demonstrated extenuating circumstances, including caring for a daughter with sickle cell disease and the prospect of imminent homelessness, and concluded that the penalty proposed in the JSP was reasonable in light of such circumstances. Accordingly, the Panel accepted the JSP.
In accordance with the parties’ JSP, the Panel ordered that the Student be suspended from the University for approximately 11 months, from May 1, 2024 to March 24, 2025. No notation was ordered.