The Ben Mulroney Show - The Toronto Cast -- The big smoke smoked out? And cops are getting frustrated.

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

- Dr. Ken Mandadakis/Optometrist -  Selam Tewaldai - Humber IEN Education Requirement program advisor   If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Twitter: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ TikTok: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Sign up today. 18 plus subscription required TNCs apply. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Ben Mulroney show. It is Tuesday, August 5th. If you enjoyed a long weekend, I hope you had a great one. I, for my part, had a surprise sort of turn of events this weekend where on Friday at the beginning of the day, a friend of mine asked me if I would like to go to his cottage. And I

love availing myself of the kindness and generosity of friends. I do not own a cottage. I probably will never own a cottage, but I love that I have friends who own cottages. And so to my friend Peter, who invited me to his place, it was a slice of paradise. My kids for three days enjoyed an 80s summer where they didn't look at their phones. They had so much fun. We went tubing. We went jet skiing. We went swimming. Smoors. You name it. We had so much fun. But one of the things that we did needs to be discussed because we enjoyed what I have to believe in my mind because I've been inventorying this in my head is the worst movie I've ever seen. It is the worst worst movie i've ever seen and i sat through the whole thing and the reason i did was because it was

so good to live in and relish how terrible this movie was what movie is it you ask it is war of the world's 2025 the tagline for this movie and this is not a word of a lie the tagline for the new war of the world is it's worse than you think that's the tagline not a description Or now it is both. It's the first movie, I believe, in the history of Rotten Tomatoes to get a 0%, 0% from the critics. There is a single critic who has said something positive. Now, just to give you a little context, it is based on the H.G. Wells' novel from what, the late 19th century. It's now in the public domain from what I understand.

Therefore, anybody can use it as the basis for storytelling. And this one is set entirely on people's screens. So what you're watching is what the protagonists will see on their computer screens or their phones. And that sounds terrible. However, there are a couple of movies that have done this right in the past. There's a movie called Searching and One Called Missing. And they were both terrific. And I believe one of the producers from those movies is somehow related to this film.

and it stars Ice Cube and it stars Eva Longoria and it stars a whole bunch of people you've never seen before it was shot during the pandemic like five years ago and for some reason only got a release now

and it I don't know what else to say I was sitting there watching it with everybody at the cottage and I finally realized what it felt like to watch this Have you ever gone to an amusement park? And before getting on a ride, in order to immerse you in the ride, you watch a video, some sort of performance, some sort of scripted performance by an actor saying, hey, everybody, you're about to get on this rocket ship.

And the rocket ship is going to take you to Mars. And then when you're on the rocket ship, the actor comes back on the screens and says, oh, no, here come the Martians. That's what this was. This was an actual Hollywood movie starring actual Hollywood stars, and it felt like the filler video in an amusement park ride. So on this Tuesday, as we launch into the week, I offer this to you that even in failure, there is beauty and there is entertainment. And I promise you, if you watch this movie that I have now told you is the worst movie I've ever seen,

you will enjoy yourself. You will enjoy yourselves. I guarantee it. And on that note, let's, let's jump into some real accomplishment here in the city of Toronto because the Caribbean Festival went off quite literally without, without a hitch. It was a huge success. Congratulations to the organizers. Congratulations to everyone in attendance. Congratulations to Mayor Chow, who showed up without doing a change of costume. I think she just was dressed as a regular. person? No dancing, no feathers, just the mayor. That's the feel good story. The fact that we did something in this city that did not nothing happened that rose to the level of controversy or just controversy. Let's leave it at that. Now here's another point of accomplishment, not in the city of Toronto. We've got to go to Montreal for this. Victoria Mboko. If you don't know her name yet, you absolutely will. She is a 18-year-old tennis player from Canada, and she has gone from qualifier in the National Bank Open to semi-finalist, and she is now in the top 55 of the Women's

Tennis Association. And actually, this is the first time. Anyway, let's listen to a little audio. The fairy tale continues. Victoria Unbocco take about once again, just 18 years of age, and into. And, to the semis here in Montreal. What a thrill for all the fans around this arena, for all tennis fans watching this new start in the making. Yeah, to watch the ascension of this star in the making,

first Canadian to reach the WTA's 1000 event semifinal since Bianca Andrescu's title run in 2019. The first to do so in Montreal in the open era. She's also the youngest woman. It's been a breakthrough year for her. She surged from outside the top 300 to number 85 in the world ranking, and now she's at 55. If she wins this tournament, she'll be deep into the top 50. And you know that the sort of what every tennis star circles on their schedule is the U.S. Open.

And I believe that's coming up at the end of this month. So I know that this entire country is going to be behind her as she tries to make her mark very early in her career. career on not just this tournament here in Canada, but at tournaments and grand slams around the world. Congratulations to, I guess we call her Vicky Mboko. So congratulations to her. Hey, I don't know, but if it's just me, but I woke up this morning. Actually, I woke up a few times before I got out of bed because my eyes were irritated and

I just assumed I was dehydrated. But it turns out, nope, it's the air quality in this. city is again in in the toilet uh Toronto was the second most polluted major city in the world early Monday morning according to Swiss air technology company IQ Air the city came second only to Kinshasa which is the capital of the Congo now you'll remember uh just about a month ago we had a really really bad day in terms of air quality in Canada or Toronto again was number two in terms of worst air quality in the world second only to at that time it was

it was what was it Baghdad Baghdad that's why so we've got smoky skies you can see it outside it looks hazy and you would assume it was humidity and haze it's not it's smoke wafting in from the wildfires

from out west and so you might find yourself with a mild common symptoms like eye nose or throat irritation headaches even a mild cough but more serious symptoms like wheezing or chest pains

severe cough, less common, but if you do get that, then you really should stop your activities and seek medical attention. It's really, really important. Days like this see spikes in attendance in the ER. So if you are, if you're feeling under the weather, either go inside, see if you can write it yourself and otherwise make your way to the hospital. But we're not the only city in the world that's dealing with this heat and obviously the fires that have been coming in due to the heat. 17 heat records were broken in Japan on Monday after the countries sweltered through its hottest ever June and July. The city of Komatsu in the central region of Ishikawa saw a new record of 40.3 degrees Celsius. And I'm guessing that that's not the humid X.

I'm guessing that's what the actual temperature was. By the way, I still don't understand if it feels like 40, isn't it 40? Like, where's the difference? If the air is making me feel like it's 40, doesn't it mean that the air is at 40? And if the air is at 40, doesn't it make it 40 degrees? That's, you talk to me to urologists and they'll say no. They'll say absolutely not. It doesn't feel like that.

It's just in your head. Oh, it's just in your head. Oh, I see. But the actual temperature is the temperature. Yeah, I see. Someone needs to explain. See, I don't trust you. I would trust a meteorologist.

Hey, think wildfire smoke only hurts your lungs. Think again. An optometrist is going to join us next to explain what it's doing to your eyes and how we can protect them. Don't blink or you'll miss it. This is the Ben Mulroney show. This is the Ben Mulroney show. And I thank you so much for joining us wherever you might find us. It's not a one-size.

fits all world anymore. We're not just on radio. We're also a podcast. We're also streaming and we also find ourselves on all sorts of social media platforms. Just search us up at at Ben Mulroney Show and have at it. Thank you so much for joining us and helping us build the community that we hope lasts for a very long time. All right, before the break, we were talking about the wildfires out west. The smoke has been wafting as far as, well, way past Toronto, but we are dealing with it here in the city of Toronto. And the impact that it's having on our lives is real. My producer, Gord, just showed me a picture of what the smoke looked like in New York City.

And the haze was reminiscent of sort of that grimy air that we're used to seeing in places like China. And yet that's the life that we're leading here. So what is the impact, not just on our health overall, but specifically on our eyes. I told you that when I woke up this morning, I woke up a couple of times before getting out of bed because my eyes were really, really itchy and dry. So let's welcome to the show the former board of director for the Ontario Association of Optometrists, Dr. Ken Mandadakis. Doc, welcome to the show. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Okay, generally speaking, Doc,

how does wildfire smoke affect our eyes? Depending on the person, you can get a wild gambit from Some people having zero issues and side effects to people having a little bit of itching, burning, a little bit of redness, some watering, to the very extreme where people get an inflammatory response of the eyes. This summer really seems like it's been a flare-up in terms of the amount of smoke that we're dealing with in the city of Toronto. I don't remember a summer like this before. Are you seeing the effects of this in your practice? I definitely am. I find that people who have never had issues with their eyes before in terms of seasonal allergies this year did. And those who normally did have seasonal allergies or irritation of the eyes were but very much more exaggerated and symptomatic.

What happens with people who have sort of preexisting conditions like they've got naturally dry eyes? I've got to assume that waking up on a day like today for people like that is just terrible. Oh, absolutely. It's going to be these fine particular matters in the air from these fires are definitely going to aggravate any existing condition. But again, they're going to cause issues where people normally did not have issues. So we're seeing on a daily basis are already over booked schedule becoming even more so because of the fact that people are are definitely coming in with symptoms. Most people that I know would assume they would go to an eye doctor if they had a vision issue, right?

If all of a sudden they had a difficulty seeing, that's when they would go to the doctor. But when it comes to sort of the quality of, so the health of their eyes generally, that's something that most people would just say, oh, I just need some vizine, I need some drops. What do you advise people? Like, when should they go see a professional

versus when should they just go get an over-the-counter drop? So I think you hit the nail right on the head there. A lot of people will assume that, again, And yes, it's a little bit of irritation. I'm just going to go get them over-the-counter drops, or even now in Ontario, I'll go see the pharmacist because I've been told that the pharmacist can treat all slew of things, including eye conditions.

And the danger is if we do get that inflammation in somebody's eye, there's no way that a pharmacist or even your family doctor can distinguish the difference between an infection and irritation or an inflammation. And if we have inflammation, and we're being treated now just with some over-the-counter drops or an antibiotic, it's not going to help the condition. It's actually going to let it fester and get worse so that by the time the patient is in pain and very advanced through that inflammation process, then they come to see us. It's a lot harder to treat and we have to treat them with a lot more aggressive therapy. All right, but generally speaking, Doc, if somebody is just,

they just have some dry eyes or some irritation, what would you recommend as sort of a protocol for them? I would always recommend if your eyes are giving you trouble, go see your eye doctor because you never know when something is brewing and it's always better to be able to intervene when the problem is small as opposed to being a large problem and then going forward it's like having an electrical problem calling the plumber that's not what we want to do I remember years ago when I was still on television it right before the Toronto International Film Festival started I got a ridiculous bout of pink eye like it was terrible and it did not go away for like a month.

If somebody was dealing with something like that today, what kind of impact could the smoke have on that? So that would definitely cause a worsening of the condition. So any bacterial infection or viral infection, any irritation will definitely be made worse by these particular matters in the atmosphere. And it would definitely cause a much more exaggerated response. And many people, you can actually trigger an autoimmune response. where your immune cells will now start to attack the tissue of the eye

leading to potential blindness. Whoa, hold on, hold on. You're saying if somebody has an underlying issue and they wake up in an environment like this, a worst-case scenario could be blindness? Absolutely. Inflammation, if left untreated, your immune cells will start to attack the tissue of the eye

because the eye is not used to having immune cells going through it. It's what we call an immunoprivileged site. So once your immune cells start going there in large numbers, they'll attack the tissue of your own eye, and it could ultimately lead to vision loss or blindness. So, okay, let's live in a world where that's happening to somebody. What are there's, what are some of the warning signs that they could be going down the path of sight loss? Again, the first kind of indication is going to be some type of a pain.

Yeah, so not irritation. You're saying pain. Yeah, pain, light sensitivity. those are all going to be after the initial irritation and the kind of early on symptoms. So that's why, back to my previous point, if you are starting to have any eye issues and symptoms, even small, it's better to nip it in the butt as opposed to letting it faster. Doc, if something like this leads to sort of a feeling of dryness in one's eyes, can that be mitigated if you just drink a lot of water?

No. I'm staying hydrated is an important part of our body staying hydrated, but the eye definitely will have a necessity of more treatment than just water because the surface of the eye is a very complicated environment. And a lot of dryness is also inflammatory on the surface of the eye. What about people who wear contact lenses regularly? Would you recommend that they not wear them during days like this? So they can definitely wear them as appropriate, so the problem becomes people who are wearing their contact lenses not as indicated, so wearing them longer than they're supposed to. Definitely daily contact lens wear is going to be a much healthier option because that lens will be thrown out at the end of the evening, a fresh lens will go in the next day. But again, with contact lens wear, they can cause a trapment of these fine particles within the lens as well and cause a little bit more irritation.

It's just a matter of making sure that contact lens wares are on top of these kind of things and any irritation definitely be treated immediately. Nobody knows how long this wildfire season is going to go on for. Nobody knows how long the fires are going to burn and nobody knows the impact or how much smoke is going to make its way to a city like Toronto. But let's assume for a second that this continues through the month of August. you could be seeing a very, very busy waiting room come Labor Day. Absolutely. And even beyond that, because even if the fires were to go out today, for example,

there's so many of these particular matters on trees, on surfaces. And as the winds blow, it's going to continue to be putting them back into the air and causing this irritation. So I don't see an end to this until maybe even first frost or snowfall. I don't know if it's a psychosomatic, a Pavlovian response or something, but just as you were talking, I felt like I had something in my eye, so I rubbed my eye. And so now I'm going to ask you, is that the wrong thing to do? If you feel like you've got something in your eye, should you not rub it, it feels like you might have an opinion on that? yeah correct if you feel that something is in the eye rubbing it and there is a particle there will actually cause it to scratch the cornea which is the front of the eye and our cornea is the first barrier to the defense against infection so it's always

better to put a drop into the eye and as opposed to rubbing and I always tell my patients when you are using drops put them in the refrigerator because when the drops are cold they feel more soothing when they go into the eyes well cold and there's so many of them out there I know that you said, when I asked you, like, what type of drop should someone use? He said, go talk to your doctor. But generally speaking, when I go to the pharmacy, there's five or six different versions of the same brand. There's, you know, there's just so many different versions. What's the best one for if the only issue you have is irritation due to the smoke?

So I would, without actually being brand specific, any artificial tier that you can find that's a preservative free artificial tier would be your best bet because it'll minimize how many chemicals are going into the eye. But again, if you are having an irritation, especially people who have never had these types of problems before, it's best to go see your eye doctor just to make sure that there's nothing else going on. Look, I think that's the best way to end this conversation. I think everybody should take note right now that our eyes are sort of front and center right now during this really terrible time in terms of the impact it's having on our eyes. So Dr. Ken Mandadakis, on this day, let's remind people, before everybody goes back

to school, let's get everybody to go see their eye doctors. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. If I may just finish off on one more point. Not only just today, but every day, your eyes deserve an optometrist. Yes, and thanks, Doc. I appreciate it. Have a great day. I appreciate it as well. and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the Go Network.

And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network, starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online go pass ahead of the show at go-transit.com slash tickets. No Frills Delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. I'm Chris Hadfield. I'm an astronaut, an author, a citizen of planet Earth.

Join me for a six-part journey into the systems that power the world. Real conversations with real people who are shaping the future. of energy. No politics, no empty talk, just solutions-focused conversations on the challenges we must overcome and the possibilities that lie ahead. This is on energy. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show, and in just a few moments, we'll be taking your calls at 416-8-60-6400 or 1-8-225 talk. Thank you to Joe Warmington in the Toronto Sun for this, a little piece of information. So the question is, how frustrating must it be to be a police officer today?

How are cops supposed to do their jobs in the following context? So I'll just read a few lines from Joe Warren. in this case in peel region some cops arrested a guy and i'll give you the details as are written by joe was the accused in a running car around three a m flagged to be the owned by a man on the police's radar yes did the driver the car who was not the owner refused to exit the vehicle for a sobriety check yes did it turn out the driver of the black bnw had a 2007 manslaughter conviction Yes. Did another police service want to talk to him about a criminal investigation two weeks before? Yes. Did police say officers found would appear to be a substance they believed was cocaine and a way scale found in the car? Yes. Did police say they found a loaded handgun located inside the car? Although the accused denied being in possession of a firearm? Yes. Despite all of this, were Peel region police officers deemed to be the ones in the wrong? And the answer is yes. According to a judge who looked at this case, these police officers demonstrated evidence of white supremacy and

systemic racism. And this man was fearful of the cops. And he was brutalized by the cops, according to this judge. And everything was thrown out. Never mind the fact that the cops got a gun off the street. This guy was found unresponsive in a car at 3 a.m. outside of a building that was known to be a drug den slash a place for human trafficking. Never mind all that stuff.

Because the gentleman was of a particular cultural background, he was able to say that he felt that the cops were unfair to him. And a judge said he agreed. And the behavior of the cops was problematic. And therefore, everything was tossed out. So the question is, why would anyone be a cop? Like, everything from what I can see was by the book here. They went to a place that was known to the police.

They saw a guy in a car in a suspicious place at a suspicious time, and they want to question him. He didn't open the door, so they pulled him out. And once they pulled him out, they found all this stuff. But despite that, all the evidence was thrown out. I can't see anything wrong with what the police did but maybe I maybe my privilege is blinding me so give us a call at 416-870-6400

or 1-3-8-225 talk. Ron Chinser who's a good friend of this show former police officer says that he's he gets a lot of a lot of communication from police officers and he said why should I anymore? Why should I be a cop anymore? I'm the one putting myself at risk every time I deal with these people trying to get that back in jail, whether that's the risk of being hurt or killed or sued

complained about for what? Nothing's going to happen when a guy with nearly 200 convictions can get bail every time. I don't know what the point is anymore. And that, I think, is that's one part of the problem. But if the other part of the problem is even when cops follow protocol to the letter, and even if by any standard, they are simply doing police work, and the only difference is someone was able to claim I was fearful of the cops because of systemic racism and if that's the one thing

versus all the evidence against the person what's the point what's the point of going out to a call at 3 a.m. in a dangerous part of town with the hope of making sure that whoever's in that car isn't doing something they're not supposed to do and like what happens like there was a gun in the car

a gun was found the accused claims that it was and his, but it was in the car where the guy was. It's entirely possible to see a scenario whereby that that guy might have, might have done something different. Rather than, rather than get pulled out of the car, maybe that gun is used in his defense. And if you can't, if the cops can't have the satisfaction of knowing that if they do everything by the book, certain results will follow? I don't know if there's some cops might say it's not worth

it for me. Let's check in with Steve and see if I'm alone on this. Steve, welcome to the show. Hi, Ben. You know, my God, police had a hard enough job. Okay, maybe there's a bad one now and again, but you know what? Well, of course there's bad ones. That's, that is a, anybody,

I don't mean to interrupt you, Steve, but anybody who suggests that an anecdotal evidence of a bad cop or a bad cop here or there is is proof of a of a corrupt system yeah with a big enough data set you're going to have bad people but i mean if i got pulled over and i had a condition maybe i would tell the police and maybe i cooperate i mean i've never been pulled over and said to the police i've got a condition oh yeah do you want to see my handgun but i i totally disagree with what the judge did

They're, I really, really do. Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you want to live in that world, okay, okay, live in that world. show me how, in this case, you have evidence of systemic racism beyond the fact that the person that was targeted by the police was a minority. If that's the only thing you can point to, then it's not systemic racism. It just so happens that the accused was of a particular background. And that's it. Frank, welcome to the show. Oh, are you?

In terms of the cops saying, why are we? arresting these people. It's, my, my opinion on that, it's, that's your job. Your job isn't to get the public your opinion or your, go home, cry to your wife about it. That's it. You're there, you get paid the big bucks to go do your job. Well, it's not the big bucks. It's big box. I mean, everything's relative, I suppose, is big bucks compared to other things, but given their entire package is big box. All right. Go on. Go on, Frank. Anyway, in terms of the systemic racism, I don't believe in it. I don't believe that even exists. Like, I don't believe, you like to say white privilege and your privilege all the time. I don't believe that exists either. There is no

white privilege. The fact of a certain democratic commits more crimes than others. It's got nothing to do with racism. Well, and listen, all I was saying, Frank, is if you want to live in a world where systemic racism is a thing, all right, let's live in that world hypothetically in this conversation. With the exception of the guy who was of a particular cultural background, show me where the systemic racism is in this case. Show me how they did something differently in this case that they wouldn't have done if the guy was white. And I can't find it.

Exactly. Yeah. And usually never is. It's whether your lawyer wants to play that card or you want to play that card or not. It's, it's BS in general. And it's whatever. Yeah. And look, Frank, not for nothing.

The fact is that lawyer was just a good lawyer who knew that he could play, he could push those buttons. Everybody should want a lawyer as good as this guy, right? I don't blame the lawyer for knowing that the system that we currently have allows you to play cards like that, which his job is to defend his client and he did so very, very well. So hats off to him. But I don't want to live in a world where that's a card that you can play. I think if there are bad cops out there, we find them and we deal with them through the appropriate channels. But if everything, demonstrates that this guy, that these cops went by the book. And the only issue that you have is the accused was from a particular community. That's not systemic racism. Thank you so much for the call, Frank. I appreciate it. Yeah, this is, this is frustrating to me. This is really frustrating because we need good cops. We need people who want to put themselves between us and the bad guys. We want people who are willing to put on the uniform and protect our city or another city.

But with stuff like this, it kind of demonstrates, it begs the question, is it worth it for them to do? Anyway, thank you all for your calls. I appreciate it. Ontario's nursing shortage is hitting a crisis point, 25,000 RN short and counting. But while hospitals are desperate for staff, thousands of internationally educated nurses

are still stuck on the sidelines. We're digging into the problem and the possible solution coming up next. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Ontario's health care system is in crisis. It is stretched thin and the numbers do not lie. With the lowest nurse to population ratio in the country in a shortfall of 25,000 registered nurses, the pressure is on. Meanwhile, thousands of internationally educated nurses are ready to help but can't get licensed. And now Humber Polytechnic is launching a first of its kind program to change that and possibly help turn the tide.

Let's take a closer look with Salam Telwandi, Humber I-E-N education requirement program advisor. Salam, welcome to the show. No, thank you for having me, Ben. So this could be a seminal program. If this goes well, this could portend success in other provinces, as well as other sectors in Canada. Yes, definitely. I think the layout of the program, because it has a component of the theoretical point of view, and then we're bringing those students right into the lab every week so that they get that practical perspective as well.

Okay, so let's talk. So what we're talking about here is a program that's offered to meet the recent regulatory changes that were introduced by the College of Nurses of Ontario for certain internationally educated nurses IENs. So what are we talking about here? So did the College of Nurses of Ontario recognize? that we have this crisis and we also have this this stable of potential talent that's just sitting on the sidelines exactly we have this pool of internationally educated nurses so they've taken their education outside of Canada and so they have the starting of the foundation but we need to fill in those gaps with the program that's going to allow them to build the

confidence and the capabilities to adjust to the Canadian healthcare system and that's we design this program in connection with the College of Nurses of Ontario so that we can meet the exact gaps and competencies that we want the IEN to kind of leave this program with and be ready to take care of patients and the way we know in this in this realm in the Canadian system. Look, in an ideal world, we would snap our fingers in all those IENs would immediately be, would rise to the level of what we expect here in the province of Ontario, but I know that's not the case. I also know that Toronto, and then by extension, Ontario, exceptionally multicultural place with people coming from all over the world, more countries than anywhere else make their

home here, which means you're probably dealing at Humber with, I mean, how many different systems, national systems are you dealing with? A dozen because there are so many different types of programs, you know, requirements. So the College of Nurses is doing a really good job at sort of streamlining and they've been able to bring it down to a set of competencies that in general, we can agree that the IEN needs to have that exposure and knowledge base in. And then once they've developed that, we want to take them into the clinical setting, into placement so that they can apply those skills before they're licensed and on their own. Okay, so give me sort of a high-level description of the program that somebody,

who is licensed elsewhere would have to go through to become licensed here in the province of Ontario? So if there's an individual who's taken a nursing program outside of Canada, they would be in connection with the College of Nurses, Ontario, and the CNO would advise them that they would need to take an IEN education pathway, and that would lead them to our program at Humber Polytechnic, because so far this is the only program that's available in Ontario, and so they We would take this program that consists of weekly synchronous theoretical courses, so there's going to be an instructor that will lead them through the theoretical perspective of content.

And then they will come in every week and we have a simulation lab at Humber Polytechnic. We'll be able to see them because the IEN is a unique group where they have sort of that knowledge base but they really need some guidance to draw it out and to apply it to cases. scenarios and learn from those who are working in within the Canadian health care system. Is there, are there, because I have to assume that there are people come from country A, who are very close to being eligible. Like, their knowledge base is closer to what we'd expect in Ontario than people say from country B.

Right. Okay, so, but everyone goes to the same system. Everyone goes through the same courses. Yes, everyone will go through the same system, but it starts with the College of Nurses going through the person who came from country A. Do they have their own standards to determine if they are eligible to take this program? Because they need to meet a certain level of education before taking this program. They need to have some foundation before coming in. But once the college advises them that they're eligible and they can take this IN education requirement pathway,

then that's who we are taking into this program. Okay, but those who have to sort of be recognized by the college, it's based on their certification from that country, right? Not the individual themselves. No, no, the certification. Okay, so if I'm, you know, Bob and I'm a nurse from, say, Ghana, and then there's also Steve, who's a nurse from Ghana, we're both treated exactly the same in front of the,

the college? Yes, assuming that you've graduated from the same program and the same university in Ghana, then yes. And how long is this program? Because I think a lot of people are hoping, listen, so long as everybody, we check all the boxes and we do things right, the quicker we can get people in to the Ontario system, the better. Exactly. So this program is eight months. So it's one term or four months of the theory and lab components.

and then it's one semester of preceptored, so one-on-one preceptored clinical placement for 400 hours. So from the moment it starts to the time they ideally are welcomed into the Ontario College is eight months? Eight months for this program, yes. And if I may ask, can you tell me what the cost is? For this program, it's roughly 3,600. Roughly 36. All right. Including the clinical placement.

Are there talks with hospitals? If I'm a hospital and I'm in desperate need of nurses, I may want to subsidize some of these potential nurses. Right. I'm not familiar of anything yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's sort of where we're going to move towards, especially as this program launches and we work towards what we're all working towards as quality nurses that are ready to get right into the Ontario system and be,

you know, bedside ready. Is your program up and running now? Are there people actually taking these courses now? It actually starts next week. First of all, congratulations. This is a huge deal. How many people do you have in the program? Right now we're keeping the numbers low, so we're going to keep them at under 20

so that we can really kind of, we expect, as any new program launches, we expect adjustments to be made sort of even week to week so that we can kind of use this first round as a learning, so we can adjust it. and we're hoping to be able to take in a lot more for the next term in January, 2026. In an ideal situation, how many do you think you could bring through the system? Because eight months, you could do two a year. Oh, yeah. We actually, we're hoping to be able to do three a year, like September, January, and May,

so that when one group is in placement, the next new group is starting their theory. So we have this sort of rotation, but that's why we're cautiously approaching this first term. so that we can, you know, we want quality to come out of this. Salam, this is an inspiring and exciting turn of events. I promise you, in me, you have somebody who's cheering you on and championing you, and I hope to, I hope to heck, this becomes the best version of whatever you're expecting. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ben. I'm Jordan Bonaparte and this is your invitation to join me for an exploration of Canadian crime, mysteries, and the just plain weird on the nighttime podcast. Over the years, we've dove deep into many of Canada's most unique cases. From the haunting disappearance of Jack and Lily Sullivan in Nova Scotia. That's something I have to live with until truth makes its way out and the truth always makes its way out. To the bizarre mystery of the unexplained death at a Halifax Walmart. Walmart says a large bakery oven will be removed. And of course, we provide a weekly roundup of Canada's weird news stories. Psychic said he could make the woman fall madly in

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