The 905 Round-Up: Niagara & Gaza, Foreign Student Shortfalls and Liberal Milton

Jan 30, 2024
A lot of stories have come through the news cycle this week. Roland and Joel have taken several of them to follow up with for a 905 Round-Up! Coming off our episode on Anti-Semitism in the 905, we travel down the QEW to Niagara Region. This week past at Niagara Regional Council, the Middle East found its way onto the Council’s agenda. A motion was made to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to be endorsed by the Niagara Regional Council. St. Catharines Mayor and Chair Jim Siscoe put a stop to it by removing it from the agenda before the vote, citing it being a divisive topic for citizens of the region. We talk about why he’s right and why our political leaders in the region want to weigh in on topics outside their mandate. Then after our break, the federal government is restricting the number of foreign students able to come into Canada. This is already proving to play havoc with post-secondary institutions as overnight it seems that a major source of their funding has dried up. At Queen’s University alarms are sounding on the viability of programs and bankruptcy is being floated in the air. How many more post-secondary institutions are under threat, from decades of underfunding about to catch up with them overnight? The Ford government needs to ensure that post-secondary education remains vibrant and accessible to all. Will they make the necessary funding adjustments? Lastly, the PC MPP for Milton, Parm Gill is stepping aside to run federally for the Conservatives. If you can do the math like we did, this leaves an opening for newly elected Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie to run and win a seat in the Ontario Legislature. Will she do it though? We have thoughts on why she should. It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win! Or, why not buy us a coffee? Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Joel MacLeod

Related stories