Quote of the Day: “Too much of what is called ‘education’ is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.” Thomas Sowell
Liz Monteiro and Adam Latif have a Front Page article today that tell us about Black nurse Hellen Taabu and the issues she has had at Grand River Hospital. She started an organization called Healthcare Professionals Against Racism. Good article. But the authors then talk about the recent hire of Shari Ellis, a Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) consultant at GRH. So, just to be clear – the GRH Foundation continually sends requests for donations to keep their hospital running, yet they have all kinds of money to hire DIE consultants? I’ll remember that the next time they call me for a handout. As I have said before, the Canadian Healthcare system is bankrupt, both from a fiscal perceptive and now, it appears, from a moral perceptive.
Adrian Blair is a vice-principal at CHCI here in Kitchener. He talks about his experiences growing up as a Black child in a Black education system in Jamaica and then in a mostly white education system in Canada. He states that his career was shaped by his early childhood experiences and the Black educators who taught him in Jamaica. He also credits his mother who, it appears, demanded excellence from him at an early age. Very interesting and worthwhile three minute read. He references a 2018 study that speaks to the correlation of Black students having Black educators and likelihood of these students enrolling in post-secondary education. He tells us that the study suggests that if Black students have just “…one Black primary grade teacher, Black students are 13% more likely to enroll in post-secondary education, with two Black faces at the front of the classrooms, that number dramatically increases to more than 30%.” The op-ed at TheRecord.com actually gives us the URL for the paper and where you can download it. However, I’m not sure how a study from Tennessee has much value or statistical significance in Waterloo County. But a good read anyways… Now, while Mr. Blair speaks to the positive influence that Black teachers have on students, I’m just wondering what kind of positive influence conservative teachers would have on students? We know the devastating effects that liberals have had on our education system, but what would happen if students were exposed to some kind of conservative viewpoint in the classroom. Of course, that would mean that there would have to be conservative teachers at the WCBE, wouldn’t it? I can name ten teachers, both active and retired, all of them are either good friends or great friends(!), and every last one of them is a die hard liberal. Every. Last. One.
As we all know, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault is drafting legislation similar to Australia’s model that will require Google and Facebook to pay news media companies to link to articles from their websites. Well, last Wednesday (you might not know this because of the almost complete media blackout), but Facebook said “drop dead” and stopped linking to any Australian news outlet. Fake cries of censorship were instantaneous from everywhere. So, having enough of the constant bullying, FB took their ball and went home. Good for them. Now, for the last few months, TheRecord and every last TorStar paper has been telling us how FB and Google steals stories and do not pay for them etc. etc. Well, now TorStar can’t say that anymore. So, the papers won(!), I guess. So, where are the congratulations for John Hinds and News Media Canada? Where are the pats on the back for TorStar standing up to Facebook? Why the silence from the media, all of a sudden? (cough).