Abuse survivors unsatisfied after human rights tribunal settlement comes with NDA

A adult female who alleges grammatical gender secernment by house of york Regional constabulary isn’t allowed to talk about the terms of her settlement at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, a restriction that transparency advocates say shields public institutions from accountability. 

In her 2024 complaint to the tribunal, Jeanie McKay alleges she was routinely sexually assaulted as a student by her high school music teacher in the 1980s.

She filed a claim with the tribunal, arguing York police discriminated against her when she reported the historical abuse to the force.

“If I was a boy, the police investigation would have happened,” said McKay.

McKay’s human rights claim called for the York police force to open a criminal investigation, as well as create a policy and provide training on how to work with female survivors of historical sexual abuse. She also asked for $100,000 for injury to dignity. 

In response to the complaint, York police denied its officers acted improperly when McKay reported the alleged crime in 2023.

“I wanted them to charge him criminally. I wanted them to use laws that were in effect at the time,” said McKay.

That didn’t happen. 

According to Tribunals Ontario, the provincial organization that oversees 12 tribunals including human rights, there was a settlement in late 2025. But due to a confidentiality agreement, the public will likely never know the terms of the settlement or if the police force was mandated to make any changes.

That's a problem when it comes to seeking accountability from public institutions, according to Julie Macfarlane, director of Can’t Buy My Silence Canada. That group is dedicated to ending the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to cover up wrongdoing, including sexual misconduct. 

Macfarlane notes a large majority of tribunal cases end in settlements, and most of those have NDAs. 

“If we don't know what's inside the agreement, nobody can actually monitor or evaluate whether it happens,” said Macfarlane, who is also a professor emeritus at the University of Windsor. “Everything that's in the agreement is secret, and that means that effectively it's completely toothless in terms of creating any kind of systemic change.”

Jeanie McKay was just 15 in the early 1980s when Douglas Walker, her Markham, Ont., music teacher, initiated a sexual relationship with her that lasted two years.

She reported to the police in 1998 and 2023, but Walker was never charged in her case, because police told her appropriate laws didn’t exist. 

“Ultimately, it was determined there were no applicable charges to pursue [and] the case was closed,” according to the written response York Regional Police provided to the tribunal. 

A suspect can only be charged with violations listed in Canada's Criminal Code at the time of the alleged crime.

Sexual exploitation — a charge commonly used against teachers, coaches or priests for crimes against someone under 18 — didn’t become law until 1988.

Legal scholars have noted that police and prosecutors sometimes put a restrictive interpretation on historical sex crime charges when alleged crimes from the 1970s and 80s involved people in positions of authority exploiting girls.

McKay and other survivors believe if they had been boys when the abuse occurred, police would have laid charges. 

“What you see pretty systematically is if there's a male teacher and the victim is a boy, then they use gross indecency and indecent assault. And those are much easier charges to get convictions on,” said Anne-Marie Robinson, a former federal executive and co-founder of Stop Educator Child Exploitation.

"It's driven by homophobic attitudes and this sense that somehow girls who experience the abuse of a male, that somehow is not as harmful."

Robinson is also an alleged victim of the same teacher. But due to strict time limits on reporting to the human rights tribunal, Robinson and another victim were unable to make their own complaints there.

Walker has long maintained the sexual encounters with the teens were consensual, but the Ontario College of Teachers banned him from teaching after investigating McKay’s allegations of abuse. 

In a written response to McKay’s complaint, the force denied “that its officers acted improperly in their interactions with the Applicant. There was no breach of the Code."

They also said the allegation that police would have laid charges if she were a male victim was "made without evidence, support, or fact.” 

McKay’s case was settled after mediation. 

“Everything in a mediation is negotiated between the parties,” said Brian Cook, co-ordinator of Tribunal Watch, an organization that monitors Ontario's adjudicative tribunal system, and a former vice-chair the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. 

“There's no set rules about what's supposed to happen or what can be or not be in a settlement agreement.” 

Non-disclosure agreements do, however, tend to be the default, he added.

“It's inevitably a stressful situation for people, even in mediation,” he said.

But Macfarlane notes signing an NDA often means the survivor can no longer talk about what happened. 

“The idea that as soon as you agree to mediation you’ve effectively accepted permanent silence is completely inappropriate, and we should stop doing that,” she said.

“Human rights tribunals all over Canada are doing this ... It's a complete contradiction of the work that they should be doing.” 

While it’s unknown if there are any remedies resulting from McKay’s human rights case, a criminal investigation into her former teacher will not be one of them.

“They said right in their document they have closed the case,” said McKay.

Survivors had hoped the human rights tribunal would lead to action by police.

“What I was really hoping to get from a human rights process was the reasons why those charges can't be laid in our case and we didn't get that,” said Robinson. 

“And if Jeanie knows, she can't say.”

Senior Reporter

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