On January 23, news broke of sexual misconduct charges being laid against a former teacher in the Hanover School Division—specifically, Braeden Martens, who taught at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School (SRSS). According to the Steinbach RCMP, Martens faces charges of luring a child under the age of 16 and an invitation to sexual touching. These incidents allegedly took place between September 2023 and January 2025.
The school division promptly removed him from his teaching position when the allegations first surfaced in early 2025, although an entire year passed before details were released to the public.
As the story made headlines in the past few weeks, it wasn’t just Martens facing public scrutiny. HSD also came under the microscope.
According to reporting in the Winnipeg Free Press, there was more to the story than accusations of child sexual abuse. Their article suggested that Martens had been allowed to teach at the SRSS without proof of provincial certification.
The Free Press reported that Martens’s name never appeared on the Manitoba Teacher Professional Conduct Registry. This provincial database, created one year ago, is intended to provide the public with a transparent look at teacher suspensions and charges of misconduct.
Every certified teacher in Manitoba is supposed to appear on this registry, whether or not they hold a clean teaching record. Since Martens does not appear on the list, his alleged misconduct could not be reported on it.
Three days after the Free Press article was published, HSD offered an official response.
“In the interest of transparency and maintaining public trust, Hanover School Division is issuing this statement to clarify inaccuracies, including statements in the article that were uninformed and/or patently false.”
Rebutting what they believed were insinuations that Martens was never authorized to teach at all, HSD clarified that they applied for, and received from the province, four separate Limited Teaching Permits (LTP) over the years. This means that Martens was legally eligible to teach at the SRSS during those terms. HSD also confirmed that each permit was accompanied by the required child abuse registry check and criminal record check.
By the fall of 2024, HSD did not apply for a fifth LTP, as they believed Martens was waiting on his permanent teaching certification from the province.
Four months later, he was removed from his teaching position at the SRSS following allegations of sexual misconduct.
For those four months, it would appear that Martens was indeed practicing without a license. The Citizen reached out to the HSD for an explanation.
“The individual was transitioning from a Limited Teaching Permit—valid with all required safety clearances as of June 2024—to teacher certification,” says HSD superintendent Joe Thiessen. “Unlike Limited Teaching Permits, which are submitted by the division, teacher certification applications are initiated by the applicant through the Professional Certification Unit. In this case, the application was not submitted during the referenced period [of] fall 2024.”
Manitoba’s Minister of Education, Tracy Schmidt, also responded to the Free Press’s article.
“The safety and well-being of students is our government’s highest priority,” Schmidt says. “Parents deserve full confidence that every teacher working in our schools is properly vetted and authorized to be in the classroom.”
Teaching Permits and Certification
To work as a Kindergarten to Grade 12 teacher in Manitoba, one must be registered through the province as either a professional certified teacher, a provisional professional teacher, or a short-term limited teacher.
Obtaining permanent professional status requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in education from a locally recognized university.
A three-year provisional license can be obtained for those working towards their professional certification.
Finally, a Limited Teaching Permit allows non-certified instructors to work in specific schools for one term at a time. This permit can be renewed repeatedly, at the province’s discretion.
“Individuals granted an LTP do not have their teaching experience recognized by Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning,” the provincial LTP application states. “A LTP may be granted in cases where the school is able to provide evidence demonstrating efforts to recruit and hire a Manitoba certified teacher have occurred but have not been successful.”
According to HSD, Martens worked at the SRSS for four terms under a legitimate LTP permit and with security documents that checked out.
Martens graduated as a Red Seal electrician from RRC Polytech’s Technical Vocational program in 2024. By summer of that year, his LTP permit had expired and was not renewed by the school division.
The employment of LTP teachers is common in Manitoba, especially since the years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Free Press, there are nearly 900 LTP educators in Manitoba’s grade schools this school year alone, more than twice the number who were teaching in this province ten years ago.
Provincial Role
Unfortunately, HSD’s explanation as to why Martens was on their payroll without official certification during the fall and winter of 2024 is vague. Was it an administrative lapse or did the division believe Martens’ official paperwork was imminent?
According to a provincial spokesperson, it can take anywhere between two to 12 weeks to process documents of certification.
“Processing times vary based on factors such as the volume of applications in queue and the applicant’s academic credentials,” the spokesperson says.
Perhaps a more pointed question should arise: what is the province’s responsibility in this?
While Minister Schmidt promises to make student safety and well-being a top priority, it’s not a provincial requirement for LTP educators to be listed on their teacher professional conduct registry. The registry includes only the names of professional certified teachers and authorized clinicians.
So whether Martens was operating under a legitimate LTP license or no license at all, his name would never have been found there. That is not the fault of the HSD.
“Our government is acting immediately and decisively to close gaps, reinforce oversight, and ensure that every student in Manitoba is protected,” Schmidt states.
For reassurances, The Citizen reached out to Schmidt’s office to ask whether the professional conduct registry would soon include every person who holds a position in Manitoba’s public school system, including LTP educators. No quotable response was offered.
Instead the minister is focused on ensuring that school divisions review their teacher certifications and the background checks that accompany them. This is nothing new. It’s simply a reminder for divisions to be vigilant in their compliance to existing law.
Manitoba’s school divisions are to report back to the province by March.
Criminal Checks and Abuse Registries
According to RCMP Media Relations Officer Corporal Melanie Roussel, for a small fee individuals can request documentation from the police to verify their criminal background or lack thereof. This is known as a criminal record check. Anyone can request one for themselves, and an employer can ask to see a copy. However, employers may not obtain from the police a criminal record check on behalf of any employee.
Indications of past criminal activity are limited to actual convictions and don’t typically reflect allegations or charges. A person can function in society for a long time with allegations that haven’t yet been proven in court.
“[A person] won’t have a criminal record if there’s no conviction,” Roussel says. “It can take years before they get a conviction. They get a trial and the trial can be set up in a year or more from now.”
The province has another tool, called the child abuse registry. A child protection committee determines who earns a place on that registry.
Roussel says that she sat on such a committee for a time, representing law enforcement. Also on the committee were doctors, social workers, and other professionals. Together they reviewed charges to decide whether individuals should be listed.
According to Roussel, it’s unlikely that Martens’s name will appear on the child abuse registry until he is formally convicted of a crime in a court of law, a process that could take years, if it ever happens.
What about teachers who are guilty of sexual misconduct that goes unreported by their victims? Until someone has the courage to step forward—and for a child, it takes an enormous amount of courage—such a teacher’s name would appear on no registries for either employers or the public to see. Their registry checks would come back clean.