The Ben Mulroney Show - 33 charges, including attempted kidnapping, while on probation? Ankle monitor!

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

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Good morning and happy Thursday to everybody. I am Ben Mulroney, the host of said Ben Mulroney show. It is Thursday, August 28. I hope everybody had a restful night. You're ready to hit the ground running today. is a lot of heavy news to get to. If you've been reading the news, if you were just listening to Greg Brady, a lot is hitting the square in the jaw today. We're going to back into that a little bit. We don't necessarily want to hit you too, too hard off the top. You know, it's like, you got to stretch. You got to stretch before the marathon. And so we will be talking about the Minnesota shooting. There are a lot of ways to attack that story. We're going to try to do it

as responsibly as possible. There are aspects of that story that are angry. They will make you angry. I get angry. We're going to try to keep the temperature down and talk about it in a way that allows us to, I don't know, get to the next part of it. So here's what we're going to start with. The Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays set a brand new record yesterday with the Looney Dog Day. So Looney Dog is when you get a hot dog at the game for a dollar. and they smashed their record in July, their previous record, it destroyed it. Well, they did it even more this time. They sold 96,633 Looney Dogs. That is a massive number given the fact that the sellout crowd of 42,20035,

I mean, for all of them, if each one consumed hot dogs, they would have 2.28 hot dogs each. Now, 2.28 hot dogs, for me, is nothing. I can, I would, I, I could do that during a commercial break. And, um, but that's, that's impressive. Here's, here's, here's another way of looking at it. If each of the 96,633 hot dogs, um, one is about 12.5 centimeters in length.

We're placed in a straight line. It would equal a little more than 12 kilometers, about the same distance between Union and York Mills. TTC station, give or take. And I thank the Toronto star for that bit of knowledge that I just dropped on you. Yes, I'm a big fan. Anytime there's a story, you never hear negative stories about hot dogs, right? There's never any negative stories about hot dogs. They're all positive because, I mean, Joy, are you a hot dog fan? Yes, I am. Yes. A big one. Big hot dogs. Of course you are. Hot dogs are the, they are perfect. Now, for my money, I've said this before, the best hot dogs

in the world are Montreal toasties. Toasted flat buns with just a basic hot dog like a Leicester's hot dog. So buttered bun. It's hard to sell that, but it actually is fantastic. Well, they make those at that. What I mean it's hard to sell it? It's hard to say.

I mean, describing them versus actually experiencing them, two different things. But it's also because those are designed to be eaten. Like that's a, I call those two biters. Normal human beings will eat it in four or five or six. I, two big bites, and I'm done with it. But also, it's not a giant overloaded hot dog, right? So you can eat it in a, you can eat it wearing a silk shirt.

And by and large, if you're smart, you can keep that silk shirt fine. Well, you're looking at me like I'm crazy. Ah, I don't know, silk shirts eating hot dogs. It's confusing to me. I don't know which way to go with that. My life, I say you can do it. My life is very high, low. I very much enjoy the five-star life as well as, you know, a Costco,

slide of Costco's pizza. To me, that's a great slice of pizza. Okay, here's an update for you. I don't know very many people who think that the guy who is defending his home against a home invader in Lindsay, Ontario, did anything wrong.

I don't know anybody who thinks he did anything wrong. And, well, the forces against him are lined up, though, that he's because he got charged. He got charged with not using the appropriate amount of force in defending. his home against the home invader.

Okay, well, what's, nobody really knows what that means. I think the general consensus is, okay, if the person is running away, you're not going to shoot them in the back. But that's not the case here. What we just learned that the home invader, the guy who decided that he had the right to enter somebody else's home in the middle of the night, which would have scared the crap out of me, and I don't know, I would have had a shot of adrenaline, and God knows what I would have done.

This turns out this guy had a crossbow. Now, for context, the Lindsay guy, the homeowner, had a knife. So explain to me how in a game of rock paper scissors, knife beats crossbow. Like that doesn't make any sense to me. Crossbows are a distance weapon. He could have been in the other room and killed this guy. And unless this guy had been practicing it, throwing knives, the knife is there for protection. So I don't know how this is going to play out, but we're going to have a

larger conversation later in the show. We're hearing more and more of these stories of what feels like the system crumbling. It feels like the system does not work for you and it does not work for me. And certainly isn't working for this homeowner in Lindsay. It doesn't work for entire neighborhoods. It doesn't work if you own a jewelry store. It doesn't work if you are trying to cross young and blur and there's a protest that's in your way the system doesn't seem to work for everyday people so what what are we allowed to do well clearly we can't defend our own homes we're going to get charged so we're going to ask a question a little bit later today are the is there a legal route a class action legal route that people could take i don't know sue the government

sue the police you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing and when i try to pick up the Slack, you charge me. So it's a larger conversation. We're going to start it today and we'll see where it goes. You will remember yesterday, we were speaking with lawyer Karim Assad. She is the protest watcher. She started a second career, essentially watching the people who are taking over our city. And to be fair, it's not just those protests. It's all protests. Those just seem to be the ones that monopolize the public square and the public consciousness. Somebody stole her scooter. She and her team used these scooters to get around town. It's the quickest way to get from protest to protest.

And she has video of the guy who took her scooter. The police gave Chase, failed to catch the guy because he was on the scooter. So she looked at her, find my air tag, and literally went to the guy's house. Posted the story yesterday. We talked to him yesterday or talked to her yesterday. Well, there is a break in the story because she has now updated. how this thing is going to answer. This is the last time

I go after my own scooter. Turns out, what was the thing about him? She goes up to him to the door. And she's like, and he won't let her in. They go, okay, I'll get your scooter, but you can't come in. What color was your scooter? What color was your scooter?

You're implying that he's got so many scooters in there of all the colors of the rainbow. Let me go check in the back. And he just stole it. He just stole it. it. But then we find out that he was involved in a, in a shooting, a fatal shooting. He was, he was, so a homicide. This, this, the scooter lover was in a homicide. And surprise, surprise, he's out there committing more crime. So she said this is the last time she's ever

going after her own scooter. We are glad she's okay. It, it, she should not have had to do that herself. We should be living in a city where you can leave your scooter for two minutes and it doesn't get taken. Unfortunately, we don't. And so this is, these are the, these are the, The ever-changing rules of the game as it relates to law-abiding citizens. It seems like we are witnessing a trend line that's taking us away from a world where we can feel safe. And if we do anything to protect ourselves, we will feel the full force of the law, unlike those who make a career out of breaking the law.

In their case, they game the system, they find loopholes, they leverage young kids to get what they want, and the system, at least it feels like it stresses. Some failures on our part are leading to the system becoming stressed. Is it getting closer to collapse? I don't think we're there yet, but it feels like we're getting there. Later this hour, very pleased to be joined by Education Minister Paul Calandra. We are going to be talking about this new era of accountability for school boards as they made the massive shift of taking over control of the school boards,

getting rid of the trustees and replacing them with hand-picked, hopefully, stewards of these organizations that are so vital to the education of our kids, that's coming up a little bit later this morning. And as if the Canadian justice system couldn't get more infuriating, could the story we're about to tell you be the tipping point for trust in our legal system? You need to hear this. Don't go anywhere. This is The Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Appreciate your time. Appreciate your ears. So let's open up your ear holes now and listen to this story. This is a, this is a, this is a very Canadian story that I'm about to share with you.

Okay, so this comes from Region of Peel. On June 24th, 2025, at about 10.20 p.m., two young women were, we're walking down the street. Three masked suspects approached them in SUV. tried to get them into the car. They wouldn't. They gave chase. One had a gun. One had a knife.

A passerby intervened. And the suspects flew westbound. The victims were not physically injured. I'm sure emotionally, though, they're thinking themselves, had we gotten in that SUV, we would have been on a container ship on our way to Dubai for a lifelong hell of sexual servitude to somebody. On August 18th, so let's say six weeks later, following a thorough investigation, 26-year-old Walid Khan of Atobico was arrested and charged with 33 offenses, 33 offenses, related to kidnapping, firearms, auto theft, and more.

A search of the residents also led to a seizure of two loaded, prohibited firearms, an AR-style rifle capable of automatic fire, and a pistol, both equipped with prohibited high-capacity magazines, along with over 110 rounds of ammunition. And here's the kicker. At the time of the arrest, Kahn was on probation for a prior violent offense and prohibited from possessing firearms. He has since been released with an ankle monitor.

I wish we had the long trombone just to play that. I mean, this is the worst joke in Canada. This is because it's predictable. We know the outcome and it's not funny. These two women, like I said, would either be dead or they would have been sold into sexual slavery. We know that. That's, of course, what was going to happen.

This man had ARs to automatic weapons. He had been convicted of all that stuff. And he was let out with an ankle monitor. We don't take the things seriously in this country that deserve. the utmost seriousness. This guy is a bad dude. But I'm not making assumptions about it. He's been convicted.

He's a bad dude. What do you have to do to be separated from the good people in this country? What do you have to do? What do we as a side have to do to keep the bad people from the good people? Because here's the thing. It used to be you would lock your door at night. Well, now the bad people are coming into the home. And when you defend yourself, they put you with the bad people in jail.

Again, it's every day. It's every day. I feel like Mugatu. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. And nobody at the federal level seems to care. Like, I'll listen, I'm all for fixing the problems with Donald Trump. I'm all for fixing the border. I'm all for stopping the fictitious flow of fentanyl into the United States that has thus far

apparently killed 100 million Americans. I'm all for all that. But can we find time in a 24-hour day to squeeze in a conversation about bail reform? And can we talk about the mountains of legislation that the liberals have passed? They're supposedly making our streets safer because all the guns are banned. If they're all banned, how does Walid Khan get his hands on not only illegal weapons, he's been prohibited from owning any of them, and he's found a way to upgrade them to turn them all

into semi-automatic weapons. Tell me how that works. I thought the legislation was supposed to help us. So this if this was a one-off, we could poo-poo it. It is a structural problem now. This stems

from the structures that we have set up in our justice system, in our policing, in our criminal justice, how we treat criminals, how we see criminals, who even is a criminal? We have reinvented the language so that speech can be criminalized. But apparently this guy, I'm sure he's just misunderstood. And we have to find the pathway of least resistance to him so that he feels like Canada is.

the value of this country, the value of the passport, the value of citizenship, this should be the most exclusive club in the world. We should treat it like that. We should be letting in the VIPs, the VIPs that we view. And who are the VIPs? It can mean any number of things. It's not the richest. It's not from this particular group.

It's the people who can help us make this place even better. I'm, I'm sorry. I just, yeah, maybe we'll take calls now. 416-8-640, 1-8-2-25 talk. Yeah, let's, let's open up the phone lines here. Let's start with Daniel. Daniel, welcome to the show, and I'm sorry, but this isn't funny anymore. Hi, Ben, good morning.

Good morning. This is heart-wrenching, and, you know, you are definitely speaking the voice of the populace. So, Canada has demonstrated to be an opportune country for criminals. It is a haven for criminals. And I think the word is out that crime does pay in this country. Our system embraces criminals. There's very little punishment. And they have more opportunities once they're released, second, third, fourth, fifth time.

Well, right, because they come out with the experience and they come out with the connections that you can only make in prison. Look, I'll tell you, gangs, drug gangs, criminal organizations, professional, they build into their business model the cost of dealing with the state, the cost of, okay, here's how much we're going to shell out on criminal lawyers, here's how much we've got to pay the families if somebody takes the fall for one of our guys, here's how much we have to pay off in this group and that group. It's all factored in, and it's always worth their while. Hey, if X amount of our drugs get stopped, the rest of it gets through, do we still make a profit?

Those are all questions they ask themselves. Ask yourself the question. Has it become easier to conduct criminal business in Canada? The answer, unless you're an idiot, unless you don't want to see it, is yes. By the way, Daniel, thank you so much for your call. The answer is obviously yes. So Daniel is right. These guys are looking at saying, if we really want to make, we have made this country,

what we always wanted it to be for startups. We have made it a place where criminals can come and where the taxes are low, the business opportunities are high, access to the American market is right there. And so, yes, we're not getting the next Facebook here, but we sure as hell are getting the next criminal organization who wants to flood the country with drugs.

So who do we have now? Sebastian, welcome to the show. Good morning. Ben, you're fired up on a Thursday, sir. Yeah, I am. I am. Well, this is, I mean, you hear the same story over and over again. You run the risk of getting numb. I get the opposite effect.

You know, I want to just, you know, have a coffee. Let's make a pizza, smoke a joint together, and I think we'll have a good day. So what say you on this story? Okay, so here's my little story. So I got jumped in 2019 at North York Center. I was going to the library, two little guys. so I turned around I choke hold the guy

I got kicked in the ribs I'm the one who end up getting charged for an assault because I didn't stop so they they they know what I mean like so I don't know I don't know what to say

right like I got in trouble because I protected myself yeah I got a couple boots in the ribs but that guy wasn't going nowhere no then the cops come in with the dog right and he goes I'm going to release them I'm like you do what you got to do

do you think the cops are some of the problem here? I don't know that the individual cops, I believe, are not part of the problem. It's the direction that they are getting from the leadership that's saying, here are our priorities. Here's where we want you to direct your, and let's also be fair. They are, at least in Toronto, we don't have enough cops and the cops that we have, we don't pay enough.

So it's making it, we've got like a brain drain of the good cops that we have here. They're, they're going to go police their hometowns, 20, 30 kilometers outside of the city. They're not going to drive into the city where it's more. more dangerous. They're getting fewer benefits. They don't take home powerful paychecks. And they're defending people who are spending their day protesting. So, yeah,

I think it's a bigger problem than just one aspect. Sebastian, I thank you for your call. We got time, yes, we got time for Boris. Boris, welcome to the show. Hey, Ben, I agree with you 95% of the time. Is this one of those times? No, absolutely. Like, the chickens have

come home to roost. As a society, Canadians are so polite, we don't want to offend anybody. And the best example of that would be, well, too, the Danforth shooter who killed an 18-year-old girl and a nine-year-old girl. The mayor portrayed that as a mental health issue, a mental health issue, not a terrorism issue. Simultaneously to that shooting, his brother was preparing 37 kilograms of car fentanyl in Toronto, which they say is enough to kill everybody in Canada but it's a mental health issue

it's not a terrorism issue well and listen yes some some of it every situation is different some issues have intersectionality to them where multiple crises are are colliding in the same person and

I can't speak to the veracity of what the mayor said at the time but it's never as easy as a politician is going to tell you because a politician is going to want to leverage that for another end Thank you very much for the call. We got to have a note.

We're going to take a quick break, but the phone lines are lighting up. So we got a live one here. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And for this segment, it is the Ben Mulroney show pretty much in name only, because I'm going to hand over the microphone to you, the listeners. Although before I do, just to remind you, talking about the illustrious career of Walid Khan who made a point to, he essentially tried to kidnap a bunch of women. I have a theory as to what he was going to do with them. He was charged

with that when they found out he had so many guns in his house and all of which illegal. He was not allowed to own them. And the irony is not lost on me. And I don't have such a bad sense of humor that I can't find at least a little bit of dark humor. And as he is being charged with depriving women of their, as he tried to deprive them of their security and of their freedom. We bent over backwards

to ensure that he had that freedom and because he was given the he was given the, instead being put in jail, he was put on an ankle monitor. So, and by the way, if you, so if that's the punishment, if I go out and I decide, I want to kidnap a lady

and I get charged and I get an ankle monitor, then I should also, if somebody else is driving at 130 kilometers on the highway, that ticket should be thrown out. Like, I think that's fair, right? That seems to be, you know, the equal. You're going to take something that's way up the top and you're going to dump it down to here.

Well, then, you know, you take that speed. Yeah. I think it's reasonable. All of a sudden dangerous driving isn't so dangerous anymore, right? Doesn't seem. Like, these guys who are racing on the high. highway? I don't know. If it's okay to try to kidnap a woman and you get an ankle monitor, then I don't know if that car should be impounded. Maybe we should offer him a free

tank of gas. I mean, that should be his punishment. That's just reasonable. That's where my head goes. So at what point do you think, at what point do you think trust in the system collapses? If it's not, if it's not at that tipping point yet, if it's not there, at some point, because we haven't heard anything from the federal. They've said, oh yeah, we will make changes. We'll talk about it in the fall. Yeah. I don't know. Look, I had a friend, I had a friend who came here from the United States and he was looking at all these stories. And he said, well, you know, fine. It's a good thing for the government that they came and took everybody's guns away. Because if this were the United States, this is why, this is why

we like to say we have the right to bear arms. Because if the government ever keeps doing this stuff, we can rise up against them. And it's a good thing for them that they came and took your guns. Now, I don't subscribe to that. I'm just saying the observation from an outside observer. One, two, three, four. Welcome to the show, Dave. Dave, you there? Good morning.

Good morning. Thanks for waiting. I'm here. I just got a quick story about what happened with my wife about 20 years ago. She works downtown and she got it to an elevator.

And one of these guys in these suits walk in. It's just her and this man and then he starts exposing themselves to her and telling her how pretty she is And this and all that. And my wife was terrified, right? And she went back pressing buttons to get off as quick as she could.

Ugh. But just to get to the point, well, nothing happened to him, at least from what my wife knows. She did talk to security and she talked to the police. But I talked to a buddy cop of mine, and I asked him,

I said, look, if I were to go find this guy, let's see I ran into him. And I beat the crap. of this guy. What would happen? He goes, buddy, he goes, I don't know any cop out there that would charge you for anything. He goes, because that is like disgusting. And nowadays, like you said, you can't even lift a finger. Yeah. Yeah, look, that's what it is. And Dave, thank you. And I'm sorry that happened to your wife. Nobody should ever be subjected to anything that disgusting. And it's

a shame that that guy wasn't put into jail. Because if there's one thing I know is the hardened criminals. They don't like people who hurt women and they don't like people who hurt kids. And so that he would have got what is coming to him. Yeah. That speaks to the problem I think we have, which is the cops themselves, I think, are rational by and large. And if they see a guy who's defending his house,

they would probably say, hey, if this happened to my house, I'd defend myself too. It's the direction that they're getting from somebody more senior. Here are priorities. But it's also, they're following the law. They have to follow the laws that are given to them, even if they disagree with them. It's not the police. No, yeah, it's not the individual police.

It's not the police. This is a problem that comes from elsewhere. Like I said, this is a structural failing. Who do we have now? Let's go eight. All right, let's go to Rick. Welcome to the show. Rick.

Thanks so much for calling in it. And thank you for waiting. Good morning, Ben. Morning. I like everybody out there in radio land and across this great country, Canada, to listen to one minute here is that to be able to do what the state does. They have recall rights down there. And I've seen it done before down there. I've got friends in Texas.

When the politicians and the judges don't want to do nothing, they are voted out. So that's why they tend to listen down there, quite a bit to their constituents down there. We haven't got that recall rate up here. And I think it's about time we have recall rights. Well, the only way you get those recall rights is if the government in power, the government in power wants to do that. And if they're going to do that, then they're going to have a lot of pressure to do a whole lot more on electoral reform. and if you couldn't get Justin Trudeau who got elected on that promise to do anything about it,

then you're not going to get anybody else to. As someone very much smarter than me pointed out to me who had been in politics, they say, once someone has power, it's very hard to convince them to make it easier for you to give it up because you had to work so hard to get it away from the person that you thought was doing a bad job, you're not going to make it easier then for them to rest control from you. It doesn't matter how much you love democracy. And it's also a heck of a lot easier to talk about electoral reform. when you're in third place than when you're actually

sitting at the head of the table. Thank you for that call. I know it's a little cynical of me to make it about that, but it is what it is. We'll go to Frank on line one. Frank, welcome to the show. Good morning, Ben. I honestly think there's no legitimate reason why not. The Canadian government

cannot change the criminal law to make exceptions and how the law is applied. So Canadians have their rights preserved for safety and security of the person. Obviously the government, what they're doing right now, uh... it's not helping the the victims are at a serious disadvantage given that the crime rate is increased exponentially over the last five ten years and the

government has created that problem with its failed immigration policies you know you're calling it sent number years ago uh... up up in ottawa when there was uh... uh... a domestic terrorist to try to get in there to get to the uh... the uh... high-ranking political officials including harper and fortunately we had Sergeant of Arms Vickers. Yeah.

That was able to take out this guy. Yeah. And so the government is actually exercising it's right under the charter there. What they should do here now, now that we have problems in schools, and the shooting that happened in the United States, they should be entitled to have some undercover person, police officer, that carries a weapon. It should be mandatory. Gosh, yeah. Well, people can be protected. Well, let me ask you a question, though.

I mean, we report on all sorts of stories on this show. we try to find inspirational stories as well. Unfortunately, we're not living in time of a whole lot of that stuff. There's a lot of stories of the negative outcomes that have come from years of mismanagement

and years of failed social engineering. Do you think, though, that once we get to a point, Frank, that, where people have had enough, like, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think people are going to stop believing in the rule of law?

Do you think people are going to start, I don't know, protesting a little more? Where do you see this going? You're absolutely right, Ben. That's basically speaking to an issue of double standards and being inconsistent with the application of the law. But when people come to see and understand that, there's going to be a bigger and greater revolution coming along our way. We're seeing the United States, and I don't think we're too far behind here. They should be consistent with the application of the law.

They should apply the charter, not just to themselves, the government that is responsible for enforcing the law. they should make sure that the public is protected by that law. Yeah, well, thank you very much for the call. We only have a little bit of time left, so I'm going to try to get to as many of these calls as possible. We're going to start with Patrick. Patrick, thanks so much for calling into the Ben Mulroney Show. Hey, Ben.

I was telling your screener, start having a system where the judges are elected by their communities so that if they make these kinds of stupid calls, they have to live with them and be held responsible so they don't get their job for life. The other thing is, when you start having cases where someone breaking into your house has absolutely no fear of anything happening to them, how does someone with a reasonable mind think that that's somehow going to help?

I agree. You can't just give, like that gentleman in Burlington years ago, that a kid broke into his house, startles him in the basement, he fights to defend himself, and then he gets charged, and the worst part is the family comes out of the kid and goes, boy, he's just a child, this guy shouldn't have done it. I'm not waiting to find out of the night. Of course not.

Hey, listen, we got to leave it. there. Thank you very much. I thank you to everybody who participated in the calls. Of course we will follow stories like this as they evolve. But we want to hear from we heard from you. And now, as we know that our kids are going back to school here in the province of Ontario, we're going to talk to the

head guy in charge. We're talking with Paul Kalandra, the Ontario Minister of Education. Coming up next on the Ben Maloney show. Let's take a look at the roads with 640 Toronto Big Trouble traffic. A new big trouble spot on the westbound guard. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for joining us.

Back to school is around the corners. As a matter of fact, in certain parts of the country. I know I've got some friends in Ottawa whose kids are back at school. I think yesterday was the first day of school for them. So I might have missed it. But anyway, this week they've been at school. So kids are going back. It's always exciting when the kids go back.

They've got a spring in their step. They can't wait to see their friends. They got their new looks, their new shoes. they've got the new binders and the backpacks. It's all good, right? It's all good. But when you wake up in the morning to the story, when you hear the story yesterday about the young kids in Minnesota,

whose lives were ripped apart and whose parents' lives will never be the same, it makes you wonder. And if your kids are in public school in this province, then you know that a lot of them are going to be experiencing a different kind of education this year, what with the school boards being taken, dismantled to a certain extent, the trustees being put on pause and administrators replacing them in a great number of their duties. All of this rests at the feet of our next guest, the Ontario Education Minister, Paul Calandra.

Minister, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, how are you, Ben? Thanks for having me. I'm doing very well. Look, in the past few days, I've seen pushback from this reimagining of our school boards. I've heard, I've seen protests. There is an argument out there that is being floated by the other side of this equation that says that this is not an issue of mismanaged by school boards. This is chronic underfunding of our schools by the Ford government. To that, you say what?

Again, I say this, if our system was safer than it was in the past, if our system was producing better students than it was in the past, if, you know, Things are running smoother than at any other time than I would agree with them. But the reality is that's not the case in our schools across the province of Ontario. There's a lot of challenges after COVID, and it's time to address it and bring the governance model up to date. I know there's a lot of people who are afraid of change, who get some advantage from the system the way it is right now. But ultimately, nothing will sway me from wanting to change things so that I can get more resources into the class, better support teachers who can then focus on giving our students the best opportunity to succeed.

And, yeah, there's going to be a lot of noise. Absolutely, there will be. But I can do my best to help people better understand what it is that we want to accomplish and who the focus needs to be on in the education system. Minister Calandra, the issue of funding versus misman— Accountability versus representation. That's what I wanted to talk about. If elected trustees are, in fact, eliminated permanently, how are parents and community

going to have a meaningful connection, a meaningful interaction, a meaningful voice in decisions that directly affect their kids' schools? Yeah, well, look, specifically already, the parent counsels in the schools, parent advisory councils with the minister, but by and large, as I'm sure all parents know, any connection with a trustee is automatically redirected to a superintendent in the school when it comes to trying to address a specific issue through the principal or through the superintendent. already. But any system that we do move to is going to be geared towards absolutely positively ensuring that parents, students, and teachers have the best opportunity to succeed. That doesn't

mean abandoning the ability for parents to have an impact on their school and to address challenges in their school and local issues. Maybe just the opposite, frankly. You know, you get so many complaints about people who just are having trouble accessing school officials and school leaders, I think we can do it better without removing parents' ability to access the system. It's just not working right now. And I think we can do better. We knew it. When I saw that the takeover, I was happy. As a parent, I was happy because I'd seen so many stories of decisions that were being made that I just thought had nothing to do with the core mission of public schools across this country. So as a parent, very, very happy.

But I also, part of me was like, okay, this is the best, as far as I'm concerned, a home run, first step. But there's no way this is the end of the of the journey. At what point do you say we've made enough change and we're seeing the results, the metrics to gauge our success and to determine whether we're on the right path? Yeah. And I think that you've hit them on the head there. This is what we've done in the number of boards, five boards across the province with the supervisors. First step in those boards, governance review, which I'm undertaking right now. I want to get back to parents, honestly, before the end of the year with what I'm expecting then, but it's not just about governance and supervisor. It's also about the delivery of the curriculum

to the kids. How is it delivered? What supports do teachers have in delivering that curriculum? And can it be more consistent across the province? And can we give teachers just a better understanding, gosh, I always encourage parents, if you've ever read a curriculum that comes out of the Ministry of Education. There are, I don't know how teachers teach it, to be honest with you. There are so many holes and bridges that you have to make towards how you teach a particular subject. And a lot of teachers I met with have said, it's got to be more focused. And you've got to provide us better resources.

And I frankly, I just believe them. I believe them. I found out my son. And that's where I'm going. I found out one of my sons is taking Canadian history in grade 10 this year. I said, I want to be kept very, very abreast of what you're being taught. And he said, what do you mean? I was like, just trust me, you may be getting some information that seen through a lens

that may be a bridge too far. I said, I'm going to hold off judgment until I see it, but I'm paying very, very, the watchers are watching the watchers. I can imagine your house. I'm sure there'll be a lot that's what I. Yes, I might 21 jump street them and go in and pretend to be a student, although I do not think I can pass for 15 anymore. Minister, I've got to ask you, you've said that balancing the budget is essential,

and we've seen massive budget shortfalls in your investigation. But how do you ensure that the drive to cut costs doesn't come at the expense of student achievement, teacher support, or classroom resources? Yeah, and as I said right from the beginning, whilst there is a lot in these boards that we have assumed responsibility for, a lot of money that can be redirected into the classroom, and we're going to start identifying that and showing that. I've also said to my colleagues in government and to the supervisors, if there is an issue with our funding formula which causes challenges to directing money into the classroom,

then I will change the funding formula. If there are areas where I have to go back and get more money to address issues and challenges, then I'll do it. So I've given a clear mandate to the supervisors. This just isn't about the bad decision making that's happening. at these boards. I also want you to look at how the funding model impacts teachers and students. And I want that to constantly be the lens that they're looking at. And look, I'm not afraid to say if there's a mistake or if there's an updating or a challenge caused by our funding

formula, then I'll fix it for sure. I'm not going to, we just don't want to let students down, frankly. I've been speaking with Ontario Minister of Education, Paul Calandra. I know that you're probably holding your breath, hoping all these kids get back. to school safely. We didn't have a chance to broach what happened in Minneapolis, but I know that your heart

goes out to the parents and the students there as well. Absolutely. And let's just hope and pray and that we're doing everything we need to do to make sure that our kids are safe here.

Minister, thank you very much. We appreciate your time. Good luck with this new school year. Thanks. Appreciate it. Have a good day. Thanks. And I'll say it one more time

before we go to break. Yes. What I found out, I found out my son was taking Canadian history in grade 10. I was like, I want to see the curriculum. I want to know what books you're reading. I want you paying

very close attention in that class because if I, I know what a slant sounds like. I lived in politics. I know what a bias sounds like. And when your kids are 15 years old, you should be delivering that stuff as free of bias as as is humanly possible. But stand by. It was going to be an ongoing story over the course of the year. When I found out my friend got a great deal on a wool coat from winners, I started wondering.

Is every fabulous item I see from winners? Like that woman over there with the designer jeans. Are those from winners? Ooh, are those beautiful gold earrings? Did she pay full price? Or that leather tote? Or that cashmere sweater? Or those knee-high boots?

That dress, that jacket, those shoes. Is anyone paying full price for anything? Stop wondering. Start winning. Winners. Find Fabulous for less.