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Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Degree stats show a “disconnect” between universities and what employers want

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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A briefing published by Statistics Canada shows that nearly 20% of college students already have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

One think tank told True North that this new data signals an increasing “disconnect” between the type of education offered by post-secondary institutions and what employers are looking for in the workforce.

“There seems to be a disconnect between the kind of education that institutions, including governments, promote and the kind of education employers want job applicants to have,” said Cardus work and economics program director Renze Nauta.

“We need better cooperation and coordination among universities, colleges, and the private sector. That would help ensure Canadians are getting the education they need for the careers they want.”

The federal department found that 19.4% of students currently in college had previous education credentials from a post-secondary university. Ontario (25.8%) and British Columbia (24.1%) reported the highest share of students entering college while already holding degrees.

Nauta pointed to existing research by Cardus which found that nearly 53% of working-class Canadians had some sort of post-secondary degree, diploma or certificate. 

“That works out to about three million people out of Canada’s six million-strong working class. By definition, a little more than half the working class has considerably more education than their jobs require. That’s a huge opportunity cost for them and the Canadian economy,” Nauta told True North. 

“So, how about we provide more co-op opportunities at the high school level? Why not re-evaluate how we allocate resources between university-oriented education and the skilled trades? These are some things we could do to accentuate the interests and skills of every Canadian and boost their abilities so that they can pursue their career goals.”

People pursuing college after a post-secondary degree is not necessarily a bad thing, Nauta noted, however, as the trades sector is in dire need of specialized workers. 

The federal government projects that between 2019 and 2028 an estimated 700,000 skilled trade professionals are expected to retire creating a potential labour shortage should those positions not be filled. 

“There also seems to be a bit of a cultural shift away from emphasising high-tech or office-based careers. There’s always been a lot of dignity in practicing a trade, for example, so it’s good if Canadians are increasingly seeing that,” said Nauta.

GUEST OP-ED: Public sentiment is now shifting against latest Trudeau gun laws

By
Lindsay Wilson
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As the Alberta government readies to rumble with Ottawa over standing up for our province and the people in it, the Trudeau government is certainly demonstrating gross federal overreach with what is believed to be the largest gun ban in Canadian history, leaving little confusion over why Albertans are getting amped up over autonomy.

Trudeau’s Bill C-21 is creating a firestorm among hunters, sportsmen and associations from across the country. It began as a ban on “military-grade” assault-style firearms – black guns. Then the feds turned their sights to legally-obtained handguns. And now the revisions made will impact thousands of rifles and shotguns that are “low-powered, slow to fire and only ever designed to shoot birds, deer or skeet.”

While some Canadians could see merit in the banning of “military-style assault rifles,” in light of our country’s deadliest mass shooting – the April 2020 rampage in Truro, Nova Scotia that claimed the lives of 22 innocents and injured three others until the RCMP shot the gunman – the scales of public sentiment on the current ban have seemingly tipped against Trudeau and his Ministers.

Unlike our southern neighbours, gun culture in Canada is more subdued and has a strong history of reasonable legislation. But get in the way of a northerner on his or her annual moose hunt or Sunday outing to fill the freezer with deer? Look out. That is a sure-fire way to ruffle some Canuck feathers.

Even Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price is speaking out against this draconian gun grab, taking to Twitter to tell fellow Canadians that Trudeau is out of line, with hunting rifle in hand, sporting camo garb: “What Justin Trudeau is trying to do is unjust. I support the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights to keep my hunting tools.”

Ironically, maybe it takes a hockey goalie to be the hero and defend common sense from our attention-seeking selfie-king prime minister, instead of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding gun owners in protest.

Trudeau now says he is “listening to concerns” over the impacts of the ban on hunting rifles. Sadly, if we look at his seven-year track record of listening – nothing built, back or better – this too is probably just poli-speak. But perhaps like his failed attack on Alberta beef, we could see the prime minister fold a bit.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have made it clear they do not support the federal push, with potentially more provinces to join. And while Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino wags his finger at them and calls their pushback “reckless” and “political stunting,” it’s pretty tough for even the greatest gun opponents to argue their reasons for opposition.

These opposing provinces maintain that they won’t take part in the buyback program because they don’t have the RCMP resources to waste on harassing duck hunters, that the ban is virtue signalling and that law-abiding gun owners are being unfairly made to look like criminals. All of which are fair and truthful reasons to oppose the gun grab.

But if more provinces join the ranks of opposition at this latest measure of federal government overreach, how far will the feds get with this anyways? More importantly, why wouldn’t the feds listen to provincial voices of dissent if this is really a democracy?

It’s the same old story, where you can bet a lot of these pencil pushers in Ottawa have never protected a herd from a predator, fed their family by the grace of a bountiful November hunt or engaged in a family tradition like a Saturday afternoon at the gun range.

They just don’t get it.  And perhaps they never will.

Safe to say from our perspective at Alberta Proud, it just lends more to the winning argument that we need more Alberta and less Ottawa.

Never forget, once we give government an inch, they will always take a country mile. And it looks like Trudeau is putting an ultra marathon feather in his cap over this one.

Lindsay Wilson is President of Alberta Proud.

BONOKOSKI: The surprisingly small pay for small-town politicians

By
Mark Bonokoski
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Newly-elected Ottawa city councillor Clarke Kelly, his constituency on the western edge of the nation’s capital, has a dignitary working in his office — the Mayor of Arnprior (Pop. 9,000).

For Lisa McGee, the difference between Job. 1 as mayor and Job. 2 handling Kelly’s “incoming case work” is a 13-minute commute.

So it’s hardly an inconvenience.

Arnprior resident Sophie Smith-Dore told the CBC that juggling two jobs is a necessary by-product of trying to attract a more diverse slate of people to municipal politics.

“If you want progressive leadership, you can’t wait around for a 75-year-old retired white man,” Smith-Dore said.

“We have a young mayor serving our town in a part-time role,” echoed Arnprior Coun. Chris Couper. “Being able to obtain additional employment is a necessity for elected officials who aren’t retired and/or living on a pension.”

During this fall’s elections, several politicians told the CBC that higher pay is needed to attract more people to municipal politics. 

In nearby Drummond/North Elmsley, tucked between the Eastern Ontario towns of Smiths Falls and Perth, for example, the entire council, including the reeve, was acclaimed — and not for the first time.

McGee said travel concern meant her previous job as a customer service specialist wasn’t going to gel with her new mayoral duties. 

So as an empty-nester not ready to retire, she found a more flexible position on Kelly’s staff, having served years ago in a similar position for his predecessor, Eli El-Chantiry.

“I could potentially do it with just the mayor’s salary,” McGee told the CBC, referring to the annual pay that was hiked by Arnprior council earlier this from $37,000 to nearly $49,000.

But McGee added she likes to stay busy — and the mayor’s position is only guaranteed to last four years.

“Time on my hands is never, never a good thing,” she said.

In some small towns and townships in the northeast, mayors, reeves and councillors are paid only a small honorarium and in some cases are volunteers.

In Mattawa, the mayor for the town of 1,800 makes $10,000 while the councillors get $7,500.

Raymond Bélanger, the town’s former chief administrative officer, told the CBC’s Sudbury correspondent that he feels most municipal politicians deserve a raise, partly because social media means they’re never off the clock. 

“The public tends, (however), to think all politicians are overpaid, but municipal politicians are the ones you tend to see. You can see them walking down the street, you see what they do,” said Paul Seccaspina, president of Sudbury-based Oraclepoll Research, which tracks the opinions of voters across northern Ontario. 

“That’s the difference from federal and provincial politicians.”

Seccaspina says promising to cut or freeze council pay might get you a few votes, but candidates are better off talking taxes or road repairs.

In 2022, the number of Ontario mayoral or reeve candidates who reclaimed their seats by acclamation was 139, or one in three. In 2018 it was 118. In 2014, the number was 104.

Most of the affected municipalities are small and rural with many found in northern Ontario, but the list of towns with an acclaimed head of council also includes larger municipalities like Greater Napanee, Ont., which had not acclaimed a mayor since amalgamating 24 years ago, and Newmarket, Ont., which had last acclaimed a mayor in 2000.

Drummond/North Elmsley is also one of 32 municipalities that has acclaimed its entire council, compared to 23 in 2018, and 18 in 2014.

In total, 546 seats on councils — or nearly one in five — have been filled by acclamation. That includes deputy mayors, deputy reeves and councillors, as well as regional or county councillors.

In 2014, 403 were acclaimed.

The Daily Brief | Food prices continue to soar

By
Anthony Furey
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The average Canadian family is now spending over $15,000 per year on groceries. As if that isn’t high enough, according to leading researchers that amount is going to grow by another $1,000 in the year ahead.

The Vancouver School Board recently voted to bring police officers back into schools, right as the Toronto District School Board debates the same — all at a time of rising violence in Canadian high schools.

Speaking of law and order, the Toronto police announced they have seized dozens of firearms and laid over 250 firearms related charges in one. Will Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gun legislation actually help with these problems? 

Tune into The Daily Brief with Anthony Furey and Andrew Lawton!

Vancouver School Board reintroduces police liaisons over safety concerns

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

The Vancouver School Board narrowly voted to reintroduce police liaisons into local schools after scrapping the program last year due to pressure from progressive activists.

Last week, the board, which includes some newly elected trustees, voted to bring back a “revised and reimagined School Liaison Officer (SLO) program, effective and operational no later than September 2023.” 

The rationale behind the decision cited a worrying increase in “troubling and violent” incidents targeting school-aged kids soon after the SLO program was scrapped in Sept. 2021.

“Subsequent to the discontinuation of the SLO program in June 2021, the city has seen a marked increase in incidents involving Vancouver youth, leading the (Vancouver Police Department) to raise an alarm in the spring of 2022 in response to a series of “troubling and violent” swarmings, robberies, and attacks on teens,” wrote Trustee Preeti Faridkot.

“The VPD also reports that since March of 2022, officers have encountered a concerning number of young people with imitation guns, bear spray, brass knuckles, and machetes near schools and in the community.” 

Bringing back the program was a key promise by municipal party ABC Vancouver, a campaign which led to the election of current Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim. 

Sim, who ran on a strict public safety ticket promising to hire 100 police officers and mental health workers, pledged throughout his party’s campaign to reintroduce police liaisons to schools also.


While still a candidate for ABC Vancouver Trustee Faridkot stated that “many students and parents” were calling for a return of the VPD in schools due to rising concerns about safety. 

“A return of the School Liaison Officer program is something that many students, parents, and educators have been calling for,” said Faridkot in September. 

“Reinstating an updated version of the program will be an excellent step towards creating safer, more welcoming schools while addressing concerns that led to the program being cut in the first place.”

The move to reintroduce SLOs prompted outcry from various groups including British Columbia’s Human Rights Commissioner, Kasari Govender. 

“Out of respect for the rights of our students, I strongly recommend that all school districts end the use of SLOs until the impact of these programs can be established empirically,” claimed Govender.

Ratio’d | Twitter Files trigger epic meltdown

By
Harrison Faulkner
-

The Twitter Files – a huge story detailing political interference inside Twitter during the 2020 US Presidential election by journalist Matt Taibbi dropped on Friday. The reporting confirms that senior officials inside Twitter were taking orders from the Joe Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to suppress damaging information on the platform leading up to the election. Everyone knows about the infamous Hunter Biden laptop being censored by Twitter just weeks before the election, but we didn’t know was just how much political interference was really going on behind-the-scenes at Twitter.

You would think that this story would trigger a wave of journalists on both sides of the border jumping at the opportunity to pick up on Taibbi’s reporting, but instead it triggered an epic meltdown. In Canada complete radio silence. In the United States, legacy media journalists who spent the past 2 years labelling the now-verified Hunter Biden laptop story as “Russian disinformation” are slandering Taibbi and trying to discredit his work.

Tune in to the latest episode of Ratio’d for a breakdown of the Twitter Files with Harrison Faulkner.

Toronto firearms trafficking bust seizes trove of illegal firearms

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

The Toronto Police Service (TPS) announced on Monday that it had arrested six people believed to be involved in an illegal firearms trafficking ring.

According to the Organized Crime Enforcement Unit, the arrests came after an eight-month operation codenamed “Project Barbell.” 

A total of 62 firearms were seized as a result of a May 28, 2022 bust. Six individuals ranging from 27 to 62 years of age were arrested and face nearly 260 criminal charges. 

“Gun violence continues to be the most significant public safety concern for the people of Toronto. Every one of these guns was destined for our streets; our communities,” said TPS Chief James Ramer. 

“Toronto Police remain fully committed to working with our partner agencies, and all levels of government, on prevention and addressing root causes for those who are at-risk. But let me be clear, we are equally committed to targeting those who are high-risk; those who choose to carry and to use illegal guns in our neighbourhoods.”

All of the guns seized by the TPS are already illegal to own in Canada.

Those arrested include a suspect wanted for questioning in a reckless shooting incident at a Queen Street West bar last year. 

Among the accused are 27-year-old Syed Mohammed Ali Zaidi who faces various charges including possession for the purpose of weapon trafficking, 51 counts of possession of a loaded prohibited or restricted firearm, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and other charges. 

Zaidi was also charged in relation to a Oct. 19, 2021 shooting with discharge of firearm being reckless to the life or safety of another person, pointing a firearm and various other possession related charges. 

The other accused include 62-year-old Shaheen Abdul, 27-year-old Syeda Tirmizi, 29-year-old Michael Simpson. 

Suspects have been ordered to appear in court this Friday at 10 a.m.

Toronto has seen a major uptick in gun-related crime and violent shootings in recent years. In 2022 there have so far been 364 shooting incidents in the city with 41 deaths and 146 injuries reported. 

Shootings in major metropolitan areas have continued to accelerate despite federal gun control measures, including Bill C-21. 

A recent amendment to the law seeks to ban a wide range of firearms used by hunters and sportshooters. 

Various policing experts have doubted the effectiveness of such regulations including Toronto Deputy Police Chief Myron Demkiw, who earlier this year told the House of Commons that bans on firearms like handguns is “not going to deal with the crime problem” the city faces. 

“Our problem in Toronto are handguns from the United States,” said Demkiw. 

“The issues around investing in what you described is certainly not going to deal with the crime problem we’re facing in Toronto, as it relates to the use of criminal handguns.”

It cost $15K in 2022 to feed a Canadian family of four: report

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-
Source: Pexels

The average family of four dished out $15,200 on groceries this year and the cost is expected to rise further by 2023 a new food price index has found. 

Canada’s Food Price Report 2023 produced by Dalhousie University researchers in association with Saskatchewan and British Columbia, revealed that on average the price of food spiked by 7% in all categories. 

“To say that it’s been a challenging year for Canadians at the grocery store would be an understatement,” said lead researcher and Director of Dalhousie’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Sylvain Charlebois. 

“Consumers will continue to get smarter about grocery shopping as they navigate through this so-called food inflation storm.”

The report defined an average family of four as consisting of a 31 to 51 year old man and woman, a boy aged 14 to 18 and a girl aged 9 to 13. By next year, the same family will spend an estimated $16,200, or $1,000 more on basic necessities. 

The highest expected increase will be experienced by vegetables which are predicted to go up by 6% to 8% next year. Meat, dairy and baked goods are expected to spike by up to 7%.

To deal with skyrocketing prices, Canadians are turning to cheaper alternatives than they would usually purchase. 

According to the survey, 47% of people have reported opting for value brands to combat inflation.

“It is important to understand that as healthy food becomes more expensive, people are forced to buy cheaper, more calorie dense alternatives,” said research coordinator Janet Music in a statement.

“This has health implications, especially for children. There is an equity factor to food prices. Single income people, women, the elderly, and people living in Northern communities are much more impacted by these rising costs.”

Food banks across the country have seen a massive uptick in new patrons struggling to deal with the high costs of food. 

Last month, the Mississauga Food Bank reported a 60% spike in new clients compared to before the pandemic. A total of 30,000 people have accessed their services this year, compared to only 19,000 before Covid-19 hit Canada. 

FUREY: The growing violence in our schools and the need for parental involvement

By
Anthony Furey
-

Toronto politicians and school board officials are scrambling to figure out what to do with the incredible violence unfolding at York Memorial Collegiate Institute. Whatever happens next, let’s hope more parental involvement is one of the outcomes.

The high school has been in the news the past couple of weeks for reports of fights with weapons, students swarming the office, death threats to teachers, fight clubs taking place in the washrooms and more. Teachers are going on stress leave and everyone seems to be at their wits’ end.

This is the sort of extreme disorder that we’re used to hearing about in American news. It’s not something you expect in Toronto. And yet here it is.

It seems like the higher ups were just trying to ignore the problem, because they’re only now talking about it publicly after the news stories surfaced. All signs indicate the issues started a while back.

On Monday evening, the Toronto District School Board will be addressing these problems in a meeting. They’re expected to deal with a motion to bring police officers back into schools. Let’s hope they vote for it, because that’s obviously something that needs to happen. The 2017 TDSB vote to remove school resource police officers was clearly a massive mistake.

But bringing back cops can’t be everything. We also need to start thinking outside of the box.

Toronto Mayor John Tory, in a statement on the problem, discussed the need for “enhanced youth programming, mental health and well-being supports as well as food security initiatives in schools”. He also referenced a summer jobs program.

These measures can no doubt play a role in the solution, but we’ve been hearing this sort of stuff on and off for years. Toronto is now clearly besieged with a broken windows problem – where small instances of disorder throughout the city have culminated into a general sense of lawlessness.

It was one thing to have urban decay problems isolated to certain parks that everyone knew to avoid, but now we’re at the point where it’s spilling over into all neighbourhoods, on public transit and within our schools.

One idea out of the United States that can serve to inspire us here is the Dads on Duty program.

Last week, Pine Forest High School in Florida introduced a version of this program. It’s where fathers from the community come in to patrol the halls and engage with students.

Pine Forest High was considered the most violent in their part of Escambia County and the administration finally decided something had to be done.

“If that mentor is consistent and coming then they can have those positive conversations and reinforce positivity to the students here at Pine Forest,” Assistant Principal Bakara Franklin told local media.

While that school’s program is brand new, the original Dads on Duty – which went viral on social media last year – has been touted as a successful model.

It all began after 23 students were arrested following a series of fights at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. Fathers got together and determined it wasn’t right but that part of the problem was that too many of the kids had no positive male role models in their lives. 

Dozens of fathers then began patrolling the halls. What they mostly appear to do is give out high fives and tell dad jokes. But based on a CBS News report that went viral, that alone goes a long way and the project seemed to work. The violence came to a halt.

“No matter what side of the political aisle that you’re on, we all have a love for children,” said Dads on Duty founder Michael LaFitte. “We all have a love for doing what’s right.”

After the news segment aired nationally, school boards across the United States started talking about introducing similar programs for their violent schools. It’s something to consider for Toronto, and any other Canadian schools plagued with violence.

The past couple of years, there’s been the growing sense that parents have either been shut out of the schools or have themselves dropped the ball for too long. Whether it’s on matters of curriculum or safety, parents need to get back in the game.

The Daily Brief | Google ramps up campaign against C-11

By
Anthony Furey
-

Google is now ramping up its campaign against Bill C-11 with pop-up ads all over the Internet.

The bill, known as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s internet censorship bill, will see the government manipulating online algorithms, the tech giant warns.

Meanwhile, people want answers as to how a notorious alleged anti-Semite was able to attend an event on Parliament Hill with MPs – but so far no one will admit to inviting him.

And while Justin Trudeau said no to providing natural gas to Germany, Qatar has rushed in to fill the void. A lost opportunity for the country?

Tune into The Daily Brief with Anthony Furey and Jasmine Moulton!

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