… should suggest that Constitutions can be changed… Education Minister Laurel Broten met with representatives from the trustees’ association Monday. “Let me be absolutely clear,” Ms. Broten said in an interview. “Regardless of any memo or not, Bill 13 will be the law and it’s my expectation that every board
Continue readingTag: Ontario
Trashy's World: Ontario Catholic School Boards…
… have their knickers in a twist over the Ontario Government’s insistence that Catholic schools allow Gay-Straight alliances in their schools as part of the overall provincial anti-bullying strategy. You see, they want to have a faith-based education system within a secular system of government. And they want control over
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Toronto City Councillor Tries To De-Fund Pride (Again)
Looks like Toronto’s got another annual event coinciding with Pride Week: A city councillor has proposed—once again—that funding for the city’s annual Pride festival be withheld until it can be confirmed that a group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid does not participate in the parade portion of the weeklong event.
Continue readingFive of Five: Gay is the Word
I was in the gym tonight when Toronto Archbishop Tom Collins came on the television. The Ontario government is currently fine tuning proposed anti-bullying legislation, which of course affects catholic schools. The legislation would allow students to form anti-bullying, anti-homophobic groups, sometimes known as Gay-Straight Alliances. The issue right now
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Ontario Catholic Schools To Get GSAs
I admit it. I jumped the gun with my Congratulalien last year. When the Ontario government announced that all schools—including Catholic schools—must allow the formation of student-run GLBT support groups, I took that to mean students would finally be getting GSAs. Having endured twelve years of Catholic schooling myself, I perhaps should
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Snow Way That’s Cool
My bad. I put away the snow shovel before June. Sorry Regina. I saw snowflakes flying in the street lights as I left the Lawson Thursday night. == As you may have noticed, I’m now an aspiring politician as well as a political blogger. We’ll see how my political blogging
Continue readingFrom Orangutan: To New York, Paris, Vancouver, and Toronto
Big orangutan kisses to all of you there for showing your support for the Quebec student movement. You have brought this ape to tears (and this rarely happens). Thank you. New York City Paris Vancouver Toronto
Continue readingFrom Orangutan: To New York, Paris, Vancouver, and Toronto
Big orangutan kisses to all of you there for showing your support for the Quebec student movement. You have brought this ape to tears (and this rarely happens). Thank you. New York City Paris Vancouver Toronto
Continue readingFrom Orangutan: To New York, Paris, Vancouver, and Toronto
Big orangutan kisses to all of you there for showing your support for the Quebec student movement. You have brought this ape to tears (and this rarely happens). Thank you. New York City Paris Vancouver Toronto
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Independent Health Facilities and For-Profit Delivery: Reassuring Words, Troubling Results
Who said these words and when? We have three broad objectives: to develop a more community-based health care system to ensure that patients receive quality medical care as close to home as possible; that the procedures are carried out in a safe, effective manner; and to regulate facilities so that
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Defending Green Jobs at the WTO
As a partner in Blue Green Canada, the United Steelworkers have issued the following news release: WTO Called Upon to Dismiss Japan, EU Challenge to Canadian Renewable Energy Policy Canadian NGOs and labour unions have sent an amicus curiae submission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the eve of
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Jobs: Ontario Left Behind
Statistics Canada reported today that April was another good month for the labour market. The Canadian economy added 58,200 jobs, most of which were full-time and all of which were paid positions rather than reported self-employment. Paradoxically, official unemployment increased as more Canadians entered the labour market. This development provides
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Joseph Uranowski and Liam Nichols Endorse Parker Mackay for Riding Director of the Ontario Young Liberals
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Parker on the 2012 provincial election campaign. As founding members of the Whitby-Oshawa Young Liberals, we have worked closely together over the last number of months to build a strong Young Liberal club in Whitby-Oshawa. Parker is a fantastic choice for Riding Director.
Continue readingThe Equivocator: The Ontario NDP Skips the Budget Vote.
“You know, most Canadians, if they don’t show up for work, they don’t get a promotion.” – Jack Layton On Tuesday, April 24th the 17 MPPs in the Ontario NDP caucus (led by Andea Howarth) skipped out on voting on Ontario’s 2012 budget. This action is confusing. It looks like a huge
Continue readingThe Progressive Right: Restaurants Should List Allergens
Kudos to Ontario’s NDP for this, but it’s not enough to force chain restaurants to simply list caloric content with their menu items. All restaurants (chain, small, fancy and otherwise) should be required to list the complete nutritional information for their items readily. That’s reasonable. Equally important to publishing the nutritional ingredients,
Continue readingThe Equivocator: 5 Questions: Omar Alghabra
Omar Alghabra was the Member of Parliament for Mississauga—Erindale from 2006–2008. He ran again in 2011 and parliament is a worse place without him in it. Omar is a strong progressive voice and his positive attitude is infectious. He was nice enough to answers my questions: 1. Why are you
Continue readingTrashy's World: New provincial school fundraising Guideline
The Province of Ontario has recently published the new rules, regs and best practices around how School Boards should police the ways a school raises money for school purposes. For the most part, it is a pretty innocuous doc. But the two bullets in bold concern me. III. Best Practices
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Nurses Practice Beyond Their Scope — And It’s Not a Bad Thing
A very good, if obvious, idea on the use of RNs: nurses should be used to the full extent of their abilities. From the Toronto Star (and kudos to the paper for their Nursing Week insert in Saturday’s edition): “The bottom line is that we’re wasting valuable resources with our
Continue readingLeDaro: P.E. I and Ontario connect
It is a marriage. Dalton McGuinty’s son is going to marry Robert Ghiz’s sister. Fixed link between Ontario and P.E.I. The Toronto Star story.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: “Differentiation:” The à-la-carte Way to Hire More Course Instructors
I’ve written before about attempts in Canada to create more separation between university teaching, on the one hand, and university research, on the other. In 2009, I wrote this opinion piece about an attempt by five university presidents to each acquire a larger share of university research dollars. And last
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