Former Nanaimo, British Columbia, teacher and social justice advocate Carlo Deni Pavan has been barred from teaching for seven years after admitting he tried to arrange a nighttime meeting with someone he believed was a 14-year-old boy.

Pavan, formerly a teacher at John Barsby Secondary School, agreed to the cancellation of his teaching certificate and cannot apply for another authorization to teach in B.C.’s K-12 system for seven years, according to a consent resolution agreement with the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

The case stems from March 2023, when Pavan, using the name “Big Bear” on Grindr, began communicating with an account operated by an adult vigilante posing as a 14-year-old boy.

After the decoy disclosed he was 14, Pavan continued communicating. At one point, when the decoy said he would not send sexually explicit photos, Pavan replied that he was not asking because he did not want to go to jail.

Pavan later declined to send another photograph, citing the risk from “vigilantes and cops.”

Over several days, Pavan repeatedly initiated conversations, discussed meeting and eventually offered to pick up the supposed teenager. They arranged to meet at a Tim Hortons, where Pavan instead encountered the adult behind the sting and drove away while being filmed.

Pavan was suspended by the Commissioner in April 2023 and fired by the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District that June. In the consent agreement, Pavan admitted the stipulated facts were true and that his conduct amounted to conduct unbecoming.

The Commissioner concluded that Pavan's attempt to meet the supposed youth alone at night failed to maintain appropriate boundaries and undermined public confidence in the education system.

Pavan had also been publicly involved in SOGI, LGBTQ inclusion and social justice initiatives in Nanaimo schools.

School district records identify Pavan as one of the teachers who provided trustees with updates about social justice and sexual-health programs. In 2018, he was publicly identified as the district's social justice advocate while promoting LGBTQ inclusion in schools.

SOGI policies in Nanaimo Ladysmith schools were developed (in part) by a local teacher who was later caught trying to pick up a 14 year old boy off of Grindr at a local Tim Hortons in 2023.

This same guy was lecturing us about SOGI 7 years ago when citizens were uncomfortable… https://t.co/BwZ80PrpFh pic.twitter.com/mHSzK93zwC

— Bryony Dixon (@BryonyClareD) September 28, 2026

An older Facebook exchange supplied to Rebel News appears to show Pavan arguing for teaching children about diverse sexual and gender identities.

“Actually, what's dangerous would be ignoring the issue or only telling children who are ‘affected’ or ‘old enough,’” Pavan wrote. He argued that children should grow up understanding the “diversity of human experiences and identities” and warned about depression, anxiety and suicide among LGBTQ youth.

Pavan also appeared in the B.C. Teachers' Federation's September/October 2019 Teacher magazine. Discussing resistance encountered by presenters speaking about identity and lived experience, Pavan said the emotional cost was higher when people challenged presenters' identities.

“You feel invalidated,” Pavan said. “I often wonder if the SOGI facilitators feel the same way.”

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