In classrooms across this country, children still lose recess for things they didn’t do. Field trips are cancelled because someone else acted out. Privileges are revoked—en masse—because a teacher felt the group needed a lesson. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a widespread practice known as collective punishment: the disciplining of a group for the actions of one or a few.
It is a practice many adults remember from childhood, tolerated or excused as tradition. But collective punishment is neither harmless nor neutral. It violates foundational principles of fairness, dignity, and individual accountability. It undermines trust, punishes bystanders, and disproportionately harms disabled students, trauma survivors, and those already struggling to feel safe at school.
In a rights-based, inclusive education system, there is no place for group punishment.
And yet, in most Canadian provinces and territories, there is no clear law or policy banning it.
From policy silence to systemic accountability
This page exists because silence is not protection. In the absence of legislative clarity or ministry guidance, the use of collective punishment is left to individual interpretation—by school boards, principals, or classroom staff. That means a child’s right to fair treatment can change from one school to the next. And that means children are still being punished for the behaviour of others, even in systems that claim to prioritise inclusion.
Our Provincial Report Card evaluates each Canadian jurisdiction across six key dimensions:
- Does the Education Act prohibit collective punishment?
- Is there a documented risk of human rights violations?
- Has the Ministry issued clear guidance?
- How much variation exists between school boards?
- Are students meaningfully protected from group discipline?
We assign each province a grade, based not on rhetoric but on evidence: the presence or absence of explicit protections, consistency in policy, and alignment with human rights standards. Only one province—Nova Scotia—has enacted a clear, legal ban.
Tracking the gap between law and lived experience
But policy is only part of the story. In classrooms, gymnasiums, and field trip buses across Canada, the real impact is felt not on paper, but in children’s bodies and relationships. That’s why we’ve included a Provincial News section alongside our report card—curated from media stories, public reports, and grassroots advocacy. These entries reflect what’s happening on the ground: where families are pushing back, where students are speaking out, and where governments have started to respond.
You can click on any province to explore:
- Local school board policies
- Media coverage of collective punishment cases
- Advocacy groups and ongoing campaigns
Why this matters
Collective punishment trains children to accept the erosion of fairness in the name of control. It teaches compliance at the cost of community. And it conditions both students and staff to believe that some harm is acceptable if it keeps the group in line.
But justice—real justice—doesn’t work that way.
Our goal is to make collective punishment visible, unacceptable, and obsolete. That means naming where it still exists, demanding accountability, and building alternatives rooted in relationship, repair, and rights.
This page is part of that work.
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Collective punishment in Canadian schools
Across Canada, children are still being punished for the actions of others—recesses cancelled, field trips withheld, and classroom privileges revoked based on group behaviour. This practice, known as collective punishment, has no place in an inclusive, rights-based education system.
