Ontario Construction News staff writer
TORONTO – A Windsor resident has been sentenced to 14 days in jail for contempt of court after violating a 2011 injunction that prohibited him from illegally representing himself as a professional engineer.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice imposed the sentence on Benabdallah Chouchaoui on Oct. 15, and he was immediately taken into custody. According to a news release from Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), the court also ordered Chouchaoui to pay the engineering regulator more than $71,000 for investigative and legal expenses.
Chouchaoui has never been licensed to practise professional engineering in the province.
The sentence stems from a contempt motion heard in April 2025. Justice Gina Papageorgiou found that between 2019 and 2024, Chouchaoui submitted four separate building permit applications to the City of Windsor. These applications included engineering drawings that bore falsified or manipulated seals of a licensed engineer who had not prepared or authorized the documents.
PEO, the province’s engineering regulator, launched a new investigation after receiving complaints starting in 2023. The investigation found Chouchaoui had also continued to advertise his company, Windsor Industrial Development Laboratory Inc. (WIDL), as an engineering firm, directly violating the 2011 injunction.
In her decision, Justice Papageorgiou highlighted the grave risk to public safety posed by individuals who falsify engineering seals or practise without proper training and licensing.
“PEO takes allegations of unlicensed engineering very seriously, and actively investigates offences under the Professional Engineers Act,” said PEO CEO and registrar Jennifer Quaglietta in a statement. “We thank our municipal, provincial and other partners and members of the profession and the public in bringing these cases to our attention.”
Under the Professional Engineers Act, only PEO-licensed individuals can practise professional engineering, and only firms with a PEO-issued certificate of authorization can offer engineering services to the public.
PEO warns that the unauthorized use or forgery of a professional engineer’s seal is a quasi-criminal offence and may also lead to charges under the Criminal Code of Canada.
To verify if an individual is licensed or a firm is certified, the public can search PEO’s online directory at https://peo.on.ca/directory.
