ONTARIO COLLEGE OF TEACHERS SHOWS ITS' COLOURS AGAIN

The following story was published in the Waterloo Region Record today, December 30, 2015, titled "Court dismisses Lavigne appeals". My comments today are focused on the College of Teachers far more than on the individual teacher. Yes the teacher has been convicted of a criminal charge and sentenced to thirteen months imprisonment. That said perhaps I believe somewhat in a double standard in regards to this particular set of circumstances namely a female teacher sexually "exploiting" a seventeen year old male student. That said she seems to be the one who has been both punished via firing and sentenced to jail as well as by the destruction of her career and reputation. I seriously am doubtful that the alleged "victim" is any such thing.

Now to the College of Teachers. Currently the teacher's status is listed on their website as in "good standing". Holy crap are you kidding me? She's been fired, convicted and sentenced for a criminal offense against a student and the College lists her in "good standing". Furthermore the College lists a discipline committee hearing for July 7, 2015 but does not state if the hearing took place or any results from it. Also no spokespersons were available for comment yesterday apparently to this article. All in all I think this should advise parents especally as to who's side the College of Teachers is on now and has been on in the past.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN CANADA YOU SAY?

The December 24/15 Waterloo Region Record carried the following story by Gavin MacFadyen, titled "Solitary confinement has no place in a just society". There have been several well known jailhouse suicides by convicts including the infamous death of Ashley Smith at Kitchener's Grand Valley Institution for Women several years ago. It probably isn't even exactly fair referring to Ashley Smith as a convict. She was nineteen years old and had been incarcerated for four years after throwing apples at a postman. Yes you heard that right.

Several coroner's inquests have demanded an end to the practice and in a civilized society that should have happened a long time ago. Apparently our new government and prime minister are in favour of eliminating the practice hence we can only hope it happens sooner than later. Far too often have we seen that authority without serious accountability leads to abuses of the powerless. It is long overdue that many Canadian institutions face greater not less scrutiny and accountability. Corrections Service Canada is high on that list. I would add hospitals and especially school boards as well followed by municipal governments. Some are a hotbed of truth abusers and manipulaters for their benefit not for the benefit of the public.

POLICE STILL ON THE PROWL: THIS TIME IT"S THE GUELPH POLICE

Thursday December 24, 2015 the Waterloo Region Record carried the following story titled "Mom says Guelph police "carded" her son". Bully for you Guelph police. The kid was fourteen years old albeit big for his age. Nevertheless he was minding his own business and sure as hell did not need some cop interrupting, harassing or simply bothering him which is exactly what happened. I guess over in Guelph they haven't heard the news. The Province of Ontario are doing their damndest to end the practice. It is discriminatory, intrusive , unecessary and oftentimes nothing more than bully cops throwing their weight around. Apparently when the mother phoned Guelph police to complain they just flat out lied to her. Really gives you a warm feeling knowing that your local police are looking out for who; somebody, nobody, themselves or they're just bored. Appreciation and respect for the police will only return AFTER all kinds of their bad behaviour is cleaned up. It doesn't matter that the large majority mind their manners and play by the rules; it is the exceptions who stand out and besmirch all the rest. Similar to the teachers' unions protecting and covering up for their bad members; it does backfire on all the rest. Root out the truly bad ones and then the public will get behind you again.

CHILDREN'S AID MESS

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story titled "Time for Wynne to blow up children's aid mess". Somewhat to my surprise this article and its' premise that Ontario's Childrens' Aid system indeed is a mess, barely if at all scratches the surface of complaints in recent years regarding "baby snatching" and other issues. There have been public demonstrations and complaints that on occasion childrens' aid workers do more damage to families than good. Essentially none of these issues are addressed. In fact this article focuses on ancient computer systems and horrible communications between numerous parties involved in the system. Perhaps the antiquated computers and bureaucratic confusion may or may not be a part of the allegations against childrens' aid societys in Ontario. Whatever the cause it has apparently become obvious to all parties that reform is long overdue.

POLITICS & THE COURTS

Well it's been quite a year for politicians and near politicians when it comes to charges laid against them. Todd Cowan (Woolwich Twp.), Brasseau, Wallin and Duffy and now two highly placed aides to former Premier Dalton McGuinty. The two aides have both been charged with breach of trust and mischief in regards to allegedly deleting important e-mails about the closure of two gas plants in Oakville and Mississsauga. These two gas plants were shut down after construction was already started resulting in the government having to satisfy contractors' financial losses. The Progressive Conservatives referred to the actions as Liberals "seat saver programs" as they occurred immediately before the 2011 election. The Waterloo Region Record carried this story last week and it was titled "OPP charge two ex-McGuinty aides". It was an incredibly bad self-serving, partisan move by the Liberal government and cost the taxpayers a fortune. The biggest shame was that they weren't hoofed out of government in either the 2011 or 2015 provincial elections.

ANOTHER RESPECTED INSTITUTION GETS MUD ON THEIR REPUTATIONS

Everyone knows Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. Many of us have had relatives or friends' children as patients. Well yesterday a long awaited report told us exactly what some mothers of children removed from their custody have been telling us for years. A contoversial program which uses hair analysis to determine if the mother has been using drugs or alcohol has at long last been discredited. This program was run by the Toronto Hospital for sick Children. The name of the program was the Motherisk Drug Testing Laboratory and was used both by criminal courts as well as Children's Aid Societies. What may never be known is the number of children removed by CAS from mothers based upon flawed hair testing evidence. Unbelieveable that we now rely so much on science, even bad science to make our decisions for us or even possibly to simply back up bad decisions in the first place.

YET ONCE AGAIN LOCAL EDUCRATS/BUREAUCRATS TAKE A BLAST

The question is, is anyone listening? Are these pompous, arrogant and self-serving educrats receiving the contempt and disrespect they've been begging for, for decades? Or on the other hand is it possible that those that I knew back in the 90s have all retired leaving a mess for the next generation of management to clean up? Somehow I'd be shocked if there had been any real, substantive change putting students first, rather than teachers' unions and the School Boards themselves.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story by Luisa D'Amato titled "Our students' mediocre test scores should be top priority for trustees". Clearly she doesn't believe that that currently is the case. The history of underachievement locally really is shameful with but a few schools and exceptions. Long ago I learned that school achievement can be improved but it's necessarily due to a combination of an excellent Principal AND excellent teachers. Even then this sucess sometimes is despite the eforts of the local school boards.

Luisa advises us of a particular teacher and his adherence to phonics. The Society for Quality Education (SQE) has a weekly newsletter which has long indicated the major changes needed in order to improve students learning. Phonics for English and memorization of the math basics combined with repitition are but a start. Seems this is all just too much for our local boards.