The Ben Mulroney Show - Ontario's Minister of Education warns school boards -- get on board or else

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

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slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. Welcome to a very good. Welcome to a very good. Ben Mulroney show. Welcome to the show. I'm Ben Mulroney. It is Friday, October 31st.

It's Halloween. It's game six of the World Series. The Jays are up three, two. And what you just heard there was, listen, my intrepid producer, Mike Drillet, he's a man of simple pleasures. And one of his simplest pleasures is creating little buzzy things on using AI and that was one of me you should have seen how happy he was with himself this morning

oh ben you got to hear this and he's moderately happy no you're so little smile on his face you text them every day he loves it he's so proud of himself and thank you it adds flavor color dimension tone depth obviously you were terrified that one that was Halloween creepy terrifying yeah Halloween creepy very very creepy Amy welcome to the show thank you joy welcome the show Thank you. So Joy, you know, you're not with us every day. And one of the things that are the regular listeners of the show and viewers of the show are going to want to know

is are you watching the Blue Jays? Because your passion is Olympic sport. Yes, I understand that. But I was not a fan of Blue Jays. I'll be very honest with that. But since the time they took over Mariners and everything, I got into it. Yeah, it's hard not to, right?

Yeah, for the past 10 days, I would say I'm still learning the rules are of baseball, but I'm pretty much on to it. I'm almost at 70% level of it. Can I assume that you're more familiar with cricket? Oh, yes, 100%. Okay, okay. And while they, I believe they have roots in, like they are distant cousins. Yes, for sure they are.

If you understand baseball, cricket doesn't make any sense and vice versa. Exactly, because, and especially because I know about cricket so much, it's very difficult to differentiate it. Like, why is this happening? Why are the running four bases? Why doesn't it go out and how can a pitcher also actually, how can a batter come back every inning to bat in compared to cricket? You can just bat once.

That's it. Well, listen, why do you wear V-neck sweaters in cricket? Like, that to me is the biggest question. And I don't understand what's going on ever. But it's good. I mean, especially looking at the craze of the fans outside Rogers Center and everything, I am surely getting into the knack of baseball, I would say. Well, yes.

You picked the right time. You did pick the right time. And you know what? We were talking about that. This World Series has been a chance for those of us who were not connected with the team as well as we are now to find connection points. And there are so many things about the team to love. As a matter of fact, we're going to start at the bottom here, just because this is where we're talking here. Addison Barger is one of the guys that has really come into his own, at least as

far as I can tell, but everybody knows who he is now. And I did not know that he just got engaged. Oh, yes, he just got engaged. Congratulations. And so he posted. Oh, no, no. It was in 2020, he got engaged. I just had a kid. But this is, but we didn't, we don't know, because you're finding out all these little things

about the guys that you didn't know before. Like he, uh, what are you doing me? Make him look like a moron here. I mean, who cares that he got engaged? No, it's four years ago. He got to get four years. He posted this because he was in the A.I. Not so much focused on the news. The other day, Davis Schneider, after Barger hit the, it came out that Barger slept on his couch. And it was a big thing. And David Schneider called him. He said, he called him a headcase.

He's a head case, but he's funny. He just loves the guy. And Addison Barger, he posted a beautiful photo from his, somebody dug it up. And they posted a beautiful photo of him doing his proposal with the skyline in the background of Seattle, Washington. But then he lets it go. He goes, actually. Actually, I proposed in a gas station parking lot. There you wanted to make it look good. So that's sort of the, you're finding out all these little things about these things. It's true.

We're finding out all these little things. Well, the thing I found most interesting was a pitcher. A lot of them. There's a few of them. Bieber? Scherzer. No, the, the, Gossman. The guy, they got 12.

Yeah, you savage. You savage. Only makes like $57,000 a year. That's not going to last long. Don't you worry. In a couple of days, in a couple of days, they're going to sit him down and say, and they're going to back up the Brinks truck, and they're going to say, please never leave us.

He started the year in the low minor leagues. Yeah. Oh, okay. He was in single A ball at the beginning of the season. That's one thing I do know. And they brought him up in September, right? And had he not heard someone on TV, if they don't bring him up in September, they do not make, they're not in the World Series.

Yeah. And he has been instrumental in getting them there. How old is he? 22. 22. Like most of the players that he's on the team with, like he was watching growing up. That's crazy. All these little things we learn. And watching them play together, there is something, I mean, I have watched a lot of baseball in my life. I just haven't

watched a lot recently. I have, I can't remember a team that from top to public, it is entirely conceivable, one through nine. Anybody could, anybody could, anybody could blow the game open. They're all playing. They play like a team. And, you know, at the beginning of the year, everybody picked them to finish last. I've been a J-fan forever.

And I looked at this team and I said, it's not going to be a good year. I was one of those people. I didn't think it was going to be a good year. And then look at where they are now. Even just before this World Series, we talked about this yesterday, the ESPN experts, 18 of them picked the Dodgers.

One picked the blue plays. Wow. All right. So a lot of us in Toronto, and indeed across the country are going to be watching this game, except it's also Halloween, right? And so we're going to have little kids ringing that doorbell coming for their candy. Yeah, but that ends at like seven.

Does it? Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it doesn't. But anyway, what do we do? Well, fortunately, in my household, we found a solution because Brian and John are now 15, and they have decided they don't want to go out anymore. And so they're going to do that, and I'm going to be watching the game.

But I've got to tell you, like, it's a little bittersweet. I remember dressing them up, my identical twin boys and literally carrying them through the neighborhood to go get candy. They don't remember any of that stuff. And then when they got a little bit older, I would just walk behind them. And then they wanted nothing to do with me. And now it's done. It's now it's done. And my daughter, she's now going out with her friends.

She wants nothing to do with me either. But I've got the location tracking on her phone. That's good. You have to do that. So are we making like a Ben Mulroney show bet on what? Tonight's game. No, no, no. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

No, we don't bet on the TV. I just want to win some money. No, Joy was doing that. I know. Joy, yeah, you stopped telling us how the betting was going. So Joy, early on in the playoffs, having never watched baseball, started placing money on games and winning. So how are you doing? He thought baseball was four innings.

You guys thought a game was four innings. Exactly. After that first stint, um, You put down, what, 20 and you won 2-10 or something like that? 4-80. 4-80. Oh, wow. Yes.

Yeah. I have won a couple things apart, like after that, 5, like 100 or 5 and everything. What? But nothing that I would say is substantial to call it out again. Joy, are you taking me to the game tonight? I'm not going to the game. You know how much the tickets are for? Yeah.

Come on. Well, you just won all that money. But Amy, Amy's worth it. She tried to like, she was like offering herself up as a date to anybody. I'm still available Before we go to break I do want to point out In the Star

There's an opinion piece written by Joey Votto And for those of you don't know You should know Joey Votto If you're a baseball fan Even I know Joey Votto So one of the greatest Canadian baseball players in history

From East York From East York And he writes in the Star That were it not for the Blue Jays World Series wins in 92 and 93 He doesn't know if he would be a baseball That was central to him saying, I can now see that that's what I want to do. It was his version of the Carter effect, right?

When we talk about how basketball just went all over the place in this country after the incredible play and performance of Vince Carter with the Raptors. It just became second nature to us when he played. And that's what happened to Joey Votto. And his contention is 15, 20 years from now, there will be another, there'll be another. wave of great Canadian players because of this Blue Jays team. And not necessarily in Toronto, because this is Canada's team, right? They're watching this everywhere. And I think I absolutely subscribe to that.

Well, it's fall. It's not exactly warm outside. And yet I've seen a number of times driving past parks, kids with baseball bats and gloves. They're loving it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. All right, guys. Well, thank you very much for that.

When we come back, a huge conversation, Ontario's Minister of Education in studio, with news on yet another school board in disarray. Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney Show from coast to coast to coast on the chorus radio network. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for spending some of your morning with us. And very glad to have in studio this morning, one of the most important politicians in the lives of parents in this province.

I'm talking about the Ontario Education Minister, Paul Calandra, who has graced us in person. It's very hard to get people to come in studio. Thank you so much for being here. So you can talk face to face. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. All right. So you're here.

You must have been shaking your head. You did the heavy lift and the hard work. And the difficult decision to really shake up the school boards, and four school boards in Ontario a few months ago. And now there's another one that's sort of run afoul of just proper governance and responsibility towards students and parents. Talk to us about the Near North School Board and what happened. Yeah, well, look, I always remind people that when I, one of my first news conferences,

I said, it's not just about the boards we were taking over, but even those boards that might be in a surplus position, you better operate properly or I'm coming after you. And the Near North Board is a shining example. Now near north it's North, it's North Bay, Perry Sound. So it's a very large board, but this is a board that is so completely dysfunctional, which had a new school, state-of-the-art school, which was supposed to open, which was delayed, parents didn't know what was going on. We had to go into the community.

So the Minister of Education had to go into the community in April to find out what the heck was going on. Yeah, so they were building like a brand-new state-of-the-art school, what, what, J.K. through 12, 80 spaces for, for, for, for child care, literally state of the art to replace old schools. And, um, it is a process that had started 10 years ago. 10 years ago. Was Metro Links in charge of building this thing? Sorry. Not that one. That's a good one. That's a good one. I'll give you that. So, yeah. They were. It still wouldn't be old. Okay. So, so, okay, delays happen though, but obviously curious, right? So what? So your, your team starts.

looks looking into it. We start looking into it. And again, this is a board that is in surplus. So you'd have no other reason really to go in there. But we start looking into what's going on. And then the more we start digging into it, the more we find out this board looks so completely dysfunctional that we need to do an investigation. So we launch an investigation. We send a reviewer in and things start to fall apart. First of all, they don't cooperate at all with the investigator. What does that mean? They refuse to hand over documents. They're obfuscating on interviews, the director of education, just absolutely flat out refusing to investigate. So we had to send our legal team in to remind him of his duties and his fiduciary responsibilities.

Well, yeah. I mean, I got to say it because I'm saying this on behalf of parents. Who do these people think they are? And who do they think they're working with when the education minister sends somebody in to investigate on behalf of the taxpayer and to the benefit of students and parents, and these guys are obfuscating and not handing over documents? Yeah, and it just, and then, of course, obviously that raises even more alarm bells. And then as you get into the investigation, you really then start to uncover just what's going on at this board, the absolute inability of the board itself, the trustees who neither want to do their job or care about what their job is, are, you know, as the investigator found,

of their sowing dissent within their communities because they have personal agendas that run counter to the boards, their board responsibilities. You have a director of education who's using his corporate card for family members, and there is no accountability on this whatsoever. This is a board, I'll just say this, this is a director of education who decided to move his office out of the board offices a couple kilometers away into a school that had been closed and surplussed, I think seven or eight years earlier. So to avoid selling it, he decided he was going to move his office, his personal office, away from the administration center, into this school where he has been ensconced for a number

years. It is so outrageous and it has been allowed to continue and we're stepping in and we're going to make some changes there for sure. So, Minister, you did the evident thing with the first boards. This one probably came as a surprise, right? And you looked at it and said, oh, gosh, we've been investigating it. It's a mess. Does this make you think we should do an audit of every single one across the province? Because even the ones that look good on paper may have some hidden dysfunction that needs to be dealt with.

Yeah, 100%, Ben. And that's why we have Bill 33 in front of the legislature right now. And the opposition is, I'm in hollering over it. It allows me to step in if the legislature approves it. and I have no reason to believe that they won't. It allows us to step in much quicker. We don't need a deficit. Right now, we really need a deficit situation

in order to take over a border to launch investigations. Bill 33 allows me to step in much quicker, faster, and under a much broader series of circumstances. And I won't hesitate. I think we have an understanding now of where some of the problems are across the province, and we're going to step in on many more because we just can't allow this to continue.

We just can't, right? If people read the report, and I know people have busy lies, but what is highlighted in this report is horrific, disgusting, and it directly impacts students, parents, and teachers, and I can't allow it to continue. Can you explain to our listeners how this sort of behavior would impact, besides the fact the school's not open yet, like the new school, but how would this behavior have impacted students and parents?

Yeah, so let's talk about this for a second, because it's a really good question. So, yeah, so not only, you know, use of corporate credit cards in the wrong way, you had the Director of Education at this board hiring people at the senior levels who were essentially his friends without competition. The Director of Corporate Communications has never, has no experience in communications whatsoever, thousands of dollars on staffing decisions without any accountability whatsoever. The schools that were going to be merged into this one super school,

one of those schools was going to be transferred and will be transferred to the French school board. It was an agreement that was made in order to get the $58 million. We'll transfer one of those schools to the French board, which is exploding in popularity. They then reverse that decision, the board, counter to an agreement, which then forces the ministry, if we don't fulfill our agreement, to then build a $50 million French school. All right? So on top of all of this. They did this independent of any discussion with you knowing that there was an agreement in place. They decided to ignore the agreement, tear it up, and then we found out that there was actually a conflict of interest because one of the trustees, wife's teaches at one of the schools, and he decided, well, I'm not going to declare a conflict of interest.

I don't believe it to be a conflict. And it just, you can't make this stuff up. You really can't make up what happened here. And then willfully going out into the community these trustees, sewing dissension within the community to get people angry and hide information, just counter to everything at a responsibility of a trustee. So the issues with this school board different than the first time around,

but is the remedy the same? Are you going to disempower the trustees and put one person above all? Well, under the terms right now, because the way the system works now, because I haven't passed Bill 33, I've given them 15 days to make corrections. And a number of recommendations. I'm highly skeptical that they'll be able to fulfill

the recommendations that I have binding recommendations. And if they don't, which I don't think that they will, then I'll take further actions like I have in every other board. And it's not just them. Again, I want to say this to every school board who might be out there listening because they know you get transcripts of this. Be forewarned, this is coming to an end.

It's coming to an end. What are you hearing from parents about the decisions that you've made and the willingness to throw down the gauntlet that you have made clear? Because in my talks with parents, we've got kids in the TDSB. I don't know a single parent

who views it as a negative. Now, I have my friends and other people have their friends. but anecdotally, it's not, it has not been viewed as anything but a positive. What are you here? Yeah, honestly, just the same. And parents, a lot of teachers who are stopping me, whether I'm shopping at Walmart or other places in my community, saying just keep going, keep going, keep going.

But a very real sense, I know what you're doing. We want you to, we want you to keep going, but then they want to see the results and the benefits that come from it. And I completely agree with them. So we will come through. through for them but it is keep going there's such a level of frustration if i told you today the anger i'm getting from parents who's in boards where they've canceled halloween you're not allowed to say happy halloween in a number of boards and we're flooded with emails like my gosh can we just not be kids just not be kids we are gonna talk we got i've got a few sort of of these smaller uh issues

that i want to bring up with you after the break very glad that you're going to be sticking around don't go anywhere uh the minister of education paul calandra is sticking around for a second segment right here on the Ben Mulroney show right after the break. When you support Movember, you're not just fundraising. You're showing up for the men you love. Your dad, your brother, your partner, your friends. It isn't just a men's issue. It's a human one.

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Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And very glad that we are in conversation with the Ontario Minister of Education. Paul Calandra, who has stuck around for a second segment with us because we got lots to get to. In the previous segment, Minister, we talked about the changes that have come because of we need adults in the room and the adults are now in the room at four school boards now a fifth

but are the changes that you have made is this the end of the road? Is this what governance for those school boards is going to look like moving forward or is this a transitional thing until you come up with something else? No, as I've said right from the beginning I'm looking at governance reform across the board

and I'm working on that right now. I want to get it right because I I want to make sure that, you know, I cross, dot all eyes, cross all T's. I want to make sure I go through a constitutional lens. But there is no way that governance will remain as it is now. We are taking the lessons that we're learning and the boards that we are supervising. The ability to move quickly in the system, it has not been the system that has held them back. It has been the way the system has been governed, and we're seeing that in the boards that we have supervised.

So we will be coming up with something very soon, a new governance model. I just can't allow this to continue. So even school boards that have not run afoul of the ministry may find themselves with a new governance model at some point. I think it's fair to say that all school boards will find themselves with a new governance model in the very near future. So watch this space. Yes.

All right, well, I wanted to take the rest of the time that we have to talk about individual issues. Like you brought up Halloween. The fact that at certain schools, the kids are saying you can't say, happy Halloween. Yeah. Where's that decision coming from? Because, you know, we talked, there's a disconnect in a lot of places between some,

you're hearing really positive things from teachers, but at the top, you've got the school board. And then, so there's a disconnect between the workflow. Where is the decision coming from to deprive kids of that seminal moment of getting dressed up and wearing their costume to school and enjoying this absolutely Canadian, and tradition. Yeah, I wish I knew where, but ultimately does come from the boards, right?

Not necessarily from trustees, but it might come from some of the board official director of education and so on, so forth, and different boards. In some boards, they allow the principal to make that decision on their own. And ultimately, the province has to take some responsibility for this as well, because we allowed the system to really be governed at our school boards without the benefit of the provincial government stepping in. And let me just say this as well, not to be tough guy, but look, we have Remenance Day coming soon, and I better not hear of a school not recognizing Remembrance Day. I just better not hear that. We have, you know, where today is Halloween, and I have a number of complaints that, you know, pumpkins and plaid,

you're not allowed to say, well, you'll be celebrating Halloween next year. We have Christmas coming up, and in our public schools, it's okay to say Merry Christmas. It's okay to say happy Duali, Happy Eid. You can do all of those things. We're going to let kids be kids. We'll let parents be parents and we're going to let teachers do what they're begging us to do teach kids. Yeah. And school boards better get this message. So let's talk about the curriculum. I haven't had any issues. Like personally, when I've talked to my kids about what they've been learning, by and large, all the teachers that I've worked with my kids have been these great teachers that we want to, we want to empower. I haven't had an activist teacher in my

midst, although I'm ready for one. But are there changes coming to the curriculum to just make it a little easier, perhaps putting more sensible guardrails around what can be taught versus what is a pet project of a teacher? Yeah, well, absolutely. So the nature of teaching has changed so much, right? So I talked to a lot of teachers, and a lot of us sometimes don't understand this. A teacher may have five different independent educational plans.

within their classroom. So they've got five or six different students that they have to prepare for, a full class of students that they have to prepare for. And a curriculum that by and large is so wide open that they have to fill in the blanks. A lot of teachers are saying to me, great elements of the curriculum,

but condense it, fill in the blanks, give us the resources that we know that we can go to and better resources to teach kids. And that's what we're going to do for them. There will still be a little bit of room, obviously, within it, because every school is a little bit different. But I want to come with a more centralized, more focused, and a very focused set of tools that teachers can use to teach the curriculum.

And at its base, always will be student achievement. A hot button issue is the teaching of human sexuality. It's an ever-evolving topic. What we believe today might not be what is orthodoxy tomorrow. What's going to be the Ministry of Education's policy on teaching of human sexuality? Look, there will always be a health element in it. I think that's very, obviously very important. But ultimately, again, I keep hearing from teachers the same thing.

Can you just let parents parent and let teachers teach? One teacher in particular, I was actually in Peel region. I can't remember the school. forgive me, but took me aside and basically said, you know, from day one, we teach our kids to love each other, we teach them to share from kindergarten. It is the core of everything we do. We don't need mandatory time to teach them to love, to teach them to ignore differences and bring people together because that's the core of what education does. And when you try to do it in a different way, you bring people apart as opposed to bringing them together.

And that is at the heart of everything that we're going to do, frankly. Bring people together, eliminate the division within our schools and focus on what brings people together as opposed to what divides them. Well, I think it was last week, Mike Droula. Last week, didn't we have some visuals of a classroom? It was an appeal region? Caledon. Caledon.

Yeah, you know what the identity politics was so brazen. And it was actually kind of insulting. because what it was teaching kids is judge a book by its cover. And a person like me, you're teaching a child on day one that if you don't look like me, you don't have a leg up. And so you're already ingraining in a child that they are not set up for success because of how they were born.

That's crazy. And as I said, you know, the system should focus on what brings them together and not, and in every, when you do something like that, there are going to be those who disagree. Yeah. And that so's division within a school. And by and large, then that causes it in other parts of the system. It causes parents to be aggressive with teachers.

And teachers don't want to be in that position. Yeah. But we also have the problem right now where the curriculum is so open and so vast that you can fill in the blanks in the way that you want. So you've got to narrow it down. We've got to narrow it down. And we got to, if I hear it once, I've heard it a million times from teachers, you've got to give us the materials to teach.

And I completely agree with them. And I say to this to parents as well, to be very clear to parents, teachers, the nature of teaching is so different. Like, contemplate this, in a class of 25, there may be five or six students who have an independent educational plan that that teacher has to teach differently to those kids. And then the other 20 and a different, it is a very difficult, challenging job. So when they say they need more resources teachers, they're right. And it's time the ministry assumes its responsibility that over 50 years, we have a,

allow to go to the boards. And we're going to do that. And we're going to get focus on results, focus on resources for teachers, and focus on what brings people together as opposed to what divides them. Lastly, in about the last minute that we have, I'd love to get your take on. What would you tell schools that are flirting with the idea of canceling prom because it's either not inclusive or there's too many liability issues? I can't be more clear on this. If you're thinking of canceling prom, don't. It is such an important part. I hear, oh, the liability. I get it. There's liability issues. My prom was held at a banquet hall. The banquet hall held the liability, not the school. But taking that aside, it is such an important part of a student's journey,

the prom. Can you imagine taking that away? COVID took so much away from those kids earlier on, and now you want to take away this final fundamental core memory that they're going to have or should have. They should have. It is a celebration of achievement. And yeah, this is a cohort that probably many didn't have grade eight graduation, right? They missed so much. and now you want to go this extra step. Like, no, bring it back and let us work with you and we'll get it done properly.

Minister Paul Calandra, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for being so candid. As I said, as a parent with kids in the TDSB, I'm very, very glad for the work that you've done, looking forward to seeing what comes next. And please feel free to come back anytime you've got an announcement

because I know that the listeners of this show, specifically in the province of Ontario, really want to hear what you have to say. Really appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, don't go anywhere. Up next. when you thought the protests and provocations were behind us, they drag us back in.

Welcome back to the Ben Muleruny show. Thank you so much for being here. And thank you to the Minister of Education, Paul Calandra, for giving us so much of his time. I know that a lot of the listeners of this show have kids in the public school system across his province. and so for him to have answered all of my questions was a real gift to our listeners and to me. So thank you very much. All right. The last time we had this guest on the show, he was announcing that a human rights challenge was being brought before the human rights tribunal against the mayor of Ottawa, no, Mayor of Montreal, the mayor of Toronto, as well as the police boards and the police chiefs for violations. the human rights of Jews in those cities.

So please welcome the founder of unapologetically Jewish Matthew Todd. Welcome, my friend. Hey, Ben, how's it going? Well, it's good. Can you, before we talk about why you're here now, can you give us an update on those human rights challenges? Yeah, so the challenges are different both in Quebec and in Ottawa. So the Quebec ones went along, the tribunal there is picked up,

and they just go through a little bit of a longer process to deal with it. In Ontario, however, two weeks ago, a week ago, we can have a lot. Last Monday, the city of Toronto, Samir Chow, Chief Carroll, and Myron Dempke, were served with the lawsuit, and the tribunal has accepted it. And now they've got about 30 days to get back to us as to what their defense is going to be. That's very, very interesting. You'll keep us posted, yes? Absolutely. Fantastic.

All right. So today we're talking about something different. We're talking about a planned demonstration in North York this Sunday by. by the pro-Palestinian movement in the place where Jews call home. Yeah. So listen, for the last 109 weeks, you know, since October 7th happened, there's been a rally at this corner rallying for the hostages that were in Gaza. Two weeks ago, once the last of the living hostages were returned,

they had their final rally for the living hostages. They are still, as we all are hoping and praying for all the remaining hostages to come home. But they ended it because it was a long time. And, you know, it's a lot and it takes a lot. And for this 50 of the hundred and seven weeks, the opposite side of the street had these pro-Palestinians protesting the rally, which the police referred to them as the encounter protesters, which meant they labeled the ralliers as protesters, which they weren't. So once it was over and it was done and politicians came out and they all spoke and it was amazing. A week later, nobody showed up from the pro-Israeli side for the rally, and the pro-Palestinians did show up.

Now, for the last year, they've been separated on the north-east and northwest sides of the street. So the pro-Palestinian group came and decided to stand where the Jewish ralliers and Israeli rallies were for the last two years. To a point where they even held a sign that said, even this corner was not promised to them 3,000 years ago. So they came with the intent to incite that corner in that community. Yeah. And so what is the Jewish community going to do? It's a, the action has been set in motion. What will the reaction be? There's a lot of people who are saying we have to go because as of last week when they showed up, a bunch of people did show up and prove that they were there to incite. One individual, one Jewish individual there was spit on. Another individual was arrested for assault because he was incite. with a megaphone in his face, he pushed the megaphone back at the person, and they were charged. That's incitement, and it was done to incite the person.

So now you're looking at the propalciting crowd, promoting a big rally, whether a dozen people show up or 1,000 people show up, it doesn't matter. The action is being called, you know, ceasefire broken again, urgent action rally, September, Sunday, November 2nd. They're really promoting this as, you know, we need to stand there and protest against, as they put it, The genocide supporters and the colonizers. Yeah. My issues are myriad here, not the least of which is you're protesting amongst Canadian Jews who in no way shape or form are representatives of the state of Israel. So whatever ills that you are protesting, perceived or real, you have chosen the wrong venue and the wrong arena. and the fact that so many of these protests have crossed into residential areas or have gone past places of worship or schools to me are done in my opinion are done deliberately to intimidate and to scare and to quiet and to let people know we know where you live and that the fact that the police have not drawn a line in the sand and said you cross into a neighborhood like this.

you're all, we're going to back up the paddy wagon and we'll let the courts sort this out. It's one of the great shames of this city and I have no idea my friend why we are where we are. You know, we're here, it's been two years and we're here now because they didn't stop it right away

and this affects not just this one corner. You know, it's a citywide, you mean station, you know, you know, they and friends. It's everywhere. And, you know, what's happened now is it's gotten to such a level where people are intimidated. It shouldn't be happening in residential neighborhoods. There's no embassy.

There's no possible. There's nothing. You know, and the police have the ability to stop it. You know. But wait. So, okay, let's stay on that for a second. The police have the ability. You know, because I've talked to some frontline officers, they want the ones I've talked to,

very much want to break up these protests at a certain point. They don't know that it's helping anybody, but someone is telling them not to. Where do you think that direction is coming from? Well, as we know, the mayor of the city always says, I can't direct the chief of police or the Toronto Police Services. However, the police board can make policy and make direction. there are seven members appointed to that board, four of which are city appointees, three of which are provincial. Those four are part of the mayor's inner circle. So when you have that ability to have

your inner circle control the board, it's really easy to say that there might be some direction coming from above. Well, a couple of days ago, Matthew, I was at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center spirit of hope gala in honor of seven tremendous allies of the Jewish community, one of whom is my brother. So it was a great moment for our family. And I was asking, I told this story on the show yesterday, but I was asking some of the people involved. I said, I find it interesting that the mayor's not here. And they looked me in the eye and said, she wasn't invited. I said, why not? And they said, well, this is an event for allies, Ben. Would you consider her an ally? I said, I guess I wouldn't. And it's a shame that we're living in the most multicultural city in the world and one of the

most vibrant communities cannot count on the mayor to be there for them when they most need it. It's a real disappointment. It's a huge disappointment. And the community, every community that's in Toronto plays a massive part of the fabric of the city and being silent, not being recognized. You know, the mayor might show up if she's invited to something. that there will be no cameras at, just to show face C. I'm here for you guys, but then leaves without any notice of her being there. And she's not an ally. She's shown not to be an ally of the Jewish community, which is awful.

And what is most disappointing is the logic behind it. I can't be there for the Jews because if I'm there for the Jews, it's going to look like I'm not there for the Palestinians. And that is a binary worldview that I reject entirely. being a supporter and a defender of the Jewish people in their time of need is in no way a condemnation or a denigration or marginalization of the Palestinian people and there are people who want to foist that binary worldview on us and we should be rejecting it and she should be the tip of the sword rejecting it saying I am a supporter of the Jewish people

of this city they have helped build this city and I'm also somebody who believes that the Palestinian people of this city are, you know, are equal in every way to everybody else. I mean, it's not hard. And yet, we're living in a world where people want us to, it's an either or situation. I wish we had more time, Matthew, but thank you so much for being here. Thank you for always taking our calls and for speaking so honestly and candidly. It means a lot. Keep up the good fight and let us know how those cases are going. A kidnap child whispers dark secrets from his past in a language he no longer understands. But a lost cassette will reveal the ugly truth.

From Curious cast in Blanchard House comes a cross-continental Odyssey to recover a stolen. past. This is Stop Rewind, The Lost Boy, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.