Former teacher who had relationship with Toronto high school student sentenced to house arrest

A former Toronto secondary school teacher who was found to have carried out a relationship with a female student, exchanging more than 2,000 pages worth of text messages with the girl,

A former Toronto secondary school teacher who was found to have carried out a relationship with a female student, exchanging more than 2,000 pages worth of text messages with the girl, has dodged jail time, according to a sentencing decision(opens in a new tab) released this month.

Colin Ramsay, a former high school teacher in Toronto, admitted to carrying out a relationship with an underage student that, at times, was sexual in nature, at an Ontario Court of Justice (OCJ) trial in September 2022. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of communicating with a person under the age of 18 for the purpose of sexual exploitation

The conviction usually comes with a minimum six-month jail sentence, yet, in a sentencing hearing held last month, OCJ Justice John McInnes ordered Ramsay to complete a sentence of house arrest, to be carried out for two years less a day.

“[The evidence presented] satisfies me that Mr. Ramsay is genuinely remorseful and chastened by the fact he is the subject of criminal proceedings,” McInnes wrote in his decision.