Carlos Deni Pavan

Introduction

Carlos Deni Pavan, a high school teacher in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District on Vancouver Island, was fired from his teaching job in 2023 and had his BC teaching certificate suspended for a further seven years after a discipline decision published on 29 September 2026 detailed a Grindr exchange in which he arranged to meet a user he believed was a 14-year-old boy. The “youth” was in fact an adult conducting a vigilante-style sting on people he suspected were predators. Pavan was never charged in the incident as far as the published record shows; the consequences came through his employer and the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, who concluded that his conduct undermined public confidence in the education system.

Background Information

Pavan taught high school in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District on Vancouver Island. In March 2023, using the Grindr dating app under the username “Big Bear”, he initiated a chat with a profile that carried no listed age; the person behind it quickly stated they were 14 years old. What Pavan did not know was that the account was run by an adult posing as a teenager deliberately, to expose people he suspected of predatory behaviour. The exchange that followed, and the meeting Pavan arranged, would be documented in an extensive transcript and video later published by the vigilante, and reviewed by the province’s teacher regulator.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

No criminal conviction recorded. The discipline decision does not state whether the incident was reported to or investigated by police. The findings below are the BC Teacher Regulation Branch’s civil-standard conclusions, published in its discipline decision.

According to the decision, the conversation began on 14 March 2023. When Pavan asked the “youth” for photos, they replied: “Ya, but I’m not sending any dirty stuff.” Pavan responded: “Lol…I wasn’t asking. I don’t want to go to jail.” The transcript records him asking whether the boy’s family and friends would “frown on” his activities — “Or call the cops!” — and, at another point, saying it was “too risky” to send his own photo because “there’s like vigilantes and cops. I dunno if you’re real.” Around 12:30 a.m., Pavan proposed going for a walk, suggesting the youth do the same somewhere they “might cross paths”. The conversation ended that night after the “youth” voiced worries about meeting a stranger, but the two chatted again over the following days.

On 18 March 2023, Pavan again suggested meeting, and this time the “youth” agreed. Pavan arranged to pick him up at a Tim Hortons. When he arrived shortly after 10 p.m., the person who approached his car was the adult who had posed as the youth throughout. The decision records: “The Person approached Pavan while Pavan was sitting in his car. Once confronted, Pavan drove away while the Person filmed him.” The vigilante subsequently uploaded the video and chat logs to Facebook in a post identifying Pavan as a teacher — the public exposure that set the official machinery in motion.

The Commissioner for Teacher Regulation opened an investigation on 21 March 2023 — three days after the confrontation. Pavan’s teaching certificate was suspended the following month, and the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District fired him on 13 June 2023.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The publication of the sting video on Facebook made Pavan’s identity public before any regulator or police force had said a word; the discipline decision published on 29 September 2026 then gave the official account, which CBC News reported the same day. The decision extended the suspension of his teaching certificate for another seven years, concluding that Pavan “failed to maintain appropriate boundaries” and that his actions “undermined the public’s confidence in the education system”. The firing in June 2023 had already removed him from the classroom; the extended certificate suspension forecloses any return to BC public education while it runs.

The case also illustrates the double edge of civilian sting operations: the vigilante’s video drove the exposure, but the official findings rest on the regulator’s review of the transcript and meeting, not on the sting itself. CBC noted the decision is silent on whether police ever investigated; the outlet has requested comment from Nanaimo RCMP.

Current Status

Pavan’s certificate is suspended for a further seven years under the decision published 29 September 2026, on top of the interim suspension imposed in April 2023 and his June 2023 dismissal. No criminal charge arising from the March 2023 incident appears in the published record, and the decision does not say whether one was ever sought. He has not publicly responded to the discipline decision.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The March 2023 exchange cost Pavan his teaching position within three months, and the 2026 decision extends his removal from the profession to the end of the decade: a teacher whose certificate is suspended cannot teach in BC’s public system, and the findings of failed boundaries and lost public confidence follow the certificate itself. Unlike a prohibition order, a suspension can lapse — but the published decision ensures any future certificate review happens against a documented record of the Grindr exchange and the Tim Hortons meeting. The vigilante’s Facebook post also made his name publicly attached to the incident, independently of the regulatory outcome.

Sources

• *CBC News, “Multi-year ban for B.C. teacher caught in Grindr sting chatting with user he believed was 14,” Sep 30, 2026 — source