Ontario will ban research testing on dogs and cats, Premier Doug Ford said Monday as he called the practice “cruel.” “You aren’t going to use pets — dogs or cats — to experiment on any longer,” Ford said at an unrelated news conference in London, Ont.  “Simple as that. We just don’t do that, it’s […]

A national advocacy group for Jewish educators and families has, after a 21-month-long investigation, concluded that antisemitism is being “tolerated by our schools and even seeded by our schools” and is urging the Ontario government to overhaul the education system. Released Aug. 11, the End the Crisis in Education: A Plan for Equal Rights and […]

As the Ontario legislature considers a bill that would give municipal councils the power to remove misbehaving and unethical members, some critics say the proposed legislation has serious flaws that must be addressed to ensure accountability. The Progressive Conservative government’s bill seeks to standardize municipal codes of conduct and give councils the power to vote […]

As far as Norfolk County’s top civil servant is aware, town hall is not a hotbed of corruption. But chief administrative officer Al Meneses still recommended the municipality set up a “waste and fraud hotline”  to allow county employees — and eventually the general public — to  anonymously report “inefficiencies and incidents of wrongdoing involving  […]

In early October 2023, a senior bureaucrat in the Ontario Energy Ministry emailed an Enbridge official with a “sort of urgent” request.  Newly released internal documents show that Premier Doug Ford had called the natural gas giant that month to discuss delays in obtaining a natural gas connection for a facility whose name is redacted […]

A student elopes from school. A meltdown grows violent. Toileting has become completely out of control. These are the type of incidents that could cause a kid to be excluded from school while a safety plan is put into place, Kate Dudley-Logue told The Spectator. As operations vice-president of the Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC), Dudley-Logue […]

Ontario is investigating an alleged breach of 200,000 home care patients’ personal health data, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Friday. Ontario Health atHome, the provincial agency co-ordinating home and community care, said late Friday afternoon that one of its vendors informed the agency that it had experienced a cybersecurity attack and a breach of its […]

More than 300 civil society organizations are calling on the Liberal government to withdraw its new border bill, saying the legislation threatens liberties, refugee and migrant rights and the privacy of all Canadians. Representatives of four major coalitions held a news conference today to ramp up pressure on Ottawa to scrap the proposed Strong Borders […]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government broke its legal, record-keeping obligations amid its now-reversed decision to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt lands for housing, the province’s information and privacy commissioner has found.  Political staff were using code words to thwart document requests and left a surprisingly small paper trail for such a consequential policy, […]

A 35-year-old Toronto man is facing charges after allegedly approaching children at a park, making physical contact and asking them for their names and other personal information before committing an indecent act.  City police say they were called shortly after noon on Friday to Earlscourt Park in the St. Clair Avenue and Caledonia Road area, […]

LISTOWEL – At its April 29 meeting, North Perth Council requested a report from staff to help council members to understand the new strong mayor powers, in order to avoid exploiting them.  As of May 1, strong mayor powers have been expanded to an additional 170 Ontario municipalities, including North Perth. Bestowed by the Ontario […]

Ontario is increasing funding for its autism program to $779 million this year, the government announced in this week’s budget, but advocates say it’s not yet clear exactly where that money will go. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s budget, tabled Thursday, contains two lines on the Ontario Autism Program, including touting the new funding. Children, Community […]