MPP urged to speak against Christian College accreditation

Dear MPP Dave Smith: Have you read the Toronto Star of Oct. 31? There is a front-page article entitled “The untold story behind Ford’s bold college try” by

Martin Regg Cohn. Bill 218, currently before the Legislature, is primarily about COVID-19, but Doug Ford has included the accreditation of the Canadian Christian College to grant degrees in counselling.

First, Ford seems to have snuck this little bid for accreditation in the Bill thinking no one would notice. However, some MPPs apparently warned him it would be a “PR disaster” because the college does not merit this status. Were you among those who warned him?

Second, the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario has repeatedly turned down applicants from the college because of that institution’s poor academic record and because its president, Charles McVety, is outspokenly homophobic and Islamophobic. For example, he describes same-sex marriage as a “dagger in the heart of man” and he says “Islam is not just a religion, it’s a … mandate for a hostile takeover.”

Why would our premier, and the head of your party, want to accredit an institution whose president expresses such prejudices? Apparently because McVety holds the key to thousands of votes and Ford wants, dare I say needs, these votes.

In addition to buying votes, Ford is surely flying in the face of the Ontario Human Rights Code which, as the premier of Ontario, he represents! He must remove the accreditation section from Bill 218.

Gay Bell, Hedonics Road