B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad has walked back his initial opposition to calls to abolish the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, now saying he fully supports the Conservative plan. Antisemitic incidents account for a majority of hate crimes in Canada. A secondary school in Hamilton started the school year by informing parents that their children would be involved in a gradeless learning trial.
00:00:00.000B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad has walked back his initial opposition to calls to abolish the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, now saying he fully supports the Conservative plan.
00:00:14.040Antisemitic incidents account for a majority of hate crimes in Canada. However, a London, Ontario school board, quote, human rights training module, makes no mention of the phenomenon.
00:00:24.300A secondary school in Hamilton started the school year by informing parents that their children would be involved in a, quote, gradeless learning trial this year.
00:00:33.160Hello, Canada. It's Monday, September 8th, and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux.
00:00:39.860We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top strides of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:47.120B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad has reversed his stance on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program days earlier.
00:00:57.280He stated British Columbians need the program to protect the province's agriculture and tourism industries.
00:01:02.900Rustad reversed his position on the TFW program after blasting B.C. Premier David Eby for saying the Fed should cancel or significantly reform the program.
00:01:11.980It's time for a serious and adult conversation about addressing these immigration issues in our province and in the country.
00:01:20.500We can't have an immigration system that fills up our homeless shelters and our food banks.
00:01:24.600We can't have an immigration system that outpaces our ability to build schools and housing.
00:01:29.160And we can't have an immigration program that results in high youth unemployment.
00:01:33.220In response to a statement that Conservative leader Pierre Polyev posted on X, Rustad now says he supports the Conservative plan to abolish the program, saying a standalone program makes his previous concerns moot for the agriculture industry.
00:01:48.180Rostad did not respond to TrueNorth's request for comment on Friday about his original stance that the program was necessary because tourism destinations such as Whistler were, quote, in desperate need of TFWs.
00:02:17.460Out of work Canadians could do these jobs, yet the Kearney government is allowing corporations to hire temporary foreign workers.
00:02:24.420The post included several listings for TFW jobs paying anywhere from $25 an hour to $110,000 annually.
00:02:31.820The minimum wage in B.C. is $17.85 an hour.
00:02:35.860So, Alex, now both sides of B.C. politics, the Conservatives and other Premiers, have all raised issues about the TFW program.
00:02:42.320So what has Kearney and the Liberals said about this?
00:02:44.580Well, Kearney has said, somewhat confoundingly, that he has heard from stakeholders in Quebec and elsewhere that they need the temporary foreign worker program in order to continue operations.
00:02:57.180And that may be true in specific sectors such as the agricultural sector.
00:03:01.640But in the service sector, much like Michelle Rempel-Garner and also much like Pierre Polyev, I find that this is bunk.
00:03:10.020And the reason that I feel this way, Isaac, is that there are many businesses that are completely equivalent or adjacent to Tim Hortons.
00:03:19.300That's the classic example right now where they do not hire temporary foreign workers and they do not seem to have staffing issues.
00:03:27.500So, Starbucks, unlike Tim Hortons, does not run on a franchisee model and they have committed to not hiring temporary foreign workers, they hire Canadians.
00:03:37.000They don't seem to be having any trouble staffing their establishments.
00:03:41.760So, I simply don't buy the notion that the temporary foreign worker program is required for businesses outside of the agricultural sector, including remote businesses, to operate.
00:03:52.520There's just no evidence to suggest that that's true.
00:03:56.040Yeah, Alex, we've all seen the videos.
00:03:57.520It's certainly not a supply issue when these job fairs have hundreds, if not thousands, of youth lining up for these jobs.
00:04:04.700It just comes down to these companies want these jobs funded through the government, aka through the taxpayer.
00:04:11.720Well, I think a huge part of it as well is that not only specifically when it comes to the temporary foreign worker program for students,
00:04:18.560a lot of these franchisees receive a kickback from the government for hiring them, but they also receive the added advantage of this person being locked into that contractual obligation to work for that person.
00:04:31.460And in some cases, their housing is also reliant on that individual.
00:04:35.160So, as a crime reporter for True North, I can tell you right now, Isaac, we have seen cases of sexploitation in which franchisees or business owners have brought in temporary foreign workers and have made them do terrible things.
00:04:46.660And in the UN, of all establishments, one that you would think is very supportive of federal liberal ideas, because those two institutions, the federal liberals and the UN, seem to be in lockstep.
00:04:56.980Even they have said that the federal liberal temporary foreign worker program as it currently exists, and I understand that the program is not necessarily a liberal program, it's a hybrid of liberal and conservative policies, but the UN has said that this is a form of modern slavery.
00:05:11.560Internal documents obtained by True North reveal that human rights training modules at London's Taines Valley District School Board are out of touch with the patterns of religious discrimination reported across Ontario schools.
00:05:26.340These documents, covering four human rights training modules, were part of an internal staff meeting.
00:05:31.980The human rights training slides covered the foundations of human rights law, definitions of discrimination and harassment, and the legal duty to accommodate.
00:05:39.220All four sessions were identical, except for the final one.
00:05:42.700In April 2024, staff were shown two additional videos covering themes of what they call microaggressions.
00:05:49.940One was an American-produced clip about race politics, the second was a Canadian-made clip centered on anti-Muslim bigotry, depicting a young girl in a hijab bullied throughout the school day by white classmates.
00:06:01.620The training did not contain any material on the growing reports of pervasive anti-Semitism in Ontario schools.
00:06:07.760Exact hate crime figures for the London Metropolitan Area Census are not publicly available or by religious groups.
00:06:13.900However, a report to London police boards in 2023 showed that hate or bias-motivated hate crimes in the city rose by nearly 40% compared to the year before, continuing an upward trend observed since 2019.
00:06:24.900At the national level, Statistics Canada recorded 1,284 police-reported hate crimes motivated by religion in 2023, a 67% increase year over year.
00:06:35.320Jewish people accounted for over 70% of those cases, while Muslims represented just 16%.
00:06:41.640True North contacted the Thames Valley District School Board Director and Human Rights Office to ask why the human rights training module included no reference to anti-Semitism while still highlighting anti-Muslim hate.
00:06:53.260And to clarify as well, what measures were being taken to address anti-Semitism within the board, no response was received.
00:07:00.360So Isaac, this clearly isn't an isolated incident for Ontario school boards.
00:07:04.640What other criticisms have been levied at Ontario schools by Jewish Canadians and their allies with regards to anti-Semitism?
00:07:13.680Jewish Canadians and their allies have recently levied various criticisms against Ontario schools and school boards.
00:07:19.520And just briefly on what you mentioned there, beyond the gaps in training, parents within the Thames Valley District School Board have shared that their children are routinely subjected to anti-Semitic slurs and that complaints to staff are frequently dismissed or minimized.
00:07:32.780Some families say students no longer feel safe, openly identifying as Jewish in class or even on school property.
00:07:38.740Former federal anti-Semitism envoy Deborah Lyons documented 781 anti-Semitic incidents in Ontario schools between October 2023 and January 2025, and nearly half of them were never investigated, and about one in six involved teachers or school staff.
00:07:55.800The Jewish Educators and Families Association of Canada released a detailed report arguing that anti-Semitism in schools has become systemic and normalized.
00:08:04.780They tied the program directly to identity-based frameworks like critical race theory and culturally responsive pedagogy, which they said recast Jewish students as oppressors.
00:08:15.400Jifa also called for reforms across the ministry boards, the Ontario College of Teachers, universities, and unions.
00:08:21.680And speaking of the Ontario College of Teachers, they too have come under fire, because Lyons' report and parent groups highlighted that the college has issued only 14 disciplinary decisions on anti-Semitism in two decades.
00:08:32.600Critics, including parents and Jewish advocates, say the regulator relies on educating offenders rather than sanctioning them, leaving Jewish students vulnerable.
00:08:40.720University of Toronto sociologist Robert Brim, who conducted the survey behind Lyons' report, said anti-Semitism also stemmed from radical anti-Zionist activism, politicized DEI programs, and hostile attitudes among some teachers and students.
00:08:56.540He warned that equity frameworks often cast Jews as privileged, creating a moral justification for targeting them.
00:09:04.540But the Toronto District School Board has been singled out even more so.
00:09:08.360Brim's research found that the TDSB accounted for nearly 40% of all anti-Semitic incidents reported in Ontario schools during the 16th month study window.
00:09:18.400Incidents ranged from Holocaust denial to teachers wearing from the river to the sea slogans, with administrators often dismissing or downplaying complaints.
00:09:28.920Together, these findings show that Jewish Canadians and their allies are not only documenting rising incidents, but also criticizing Ontario's schools, boards, and regulators for systemic failures in addressing anti-Semitism while prioritizing other political or ideological agendas.
00:09:45.440Parents from a Hamilton secondary school started the school year with a letter informing them that their children would be part of a, quote,
00:09:55.660gradeless learning trial in secondary classrooms.
00:09:58.680The two-page letter shared with True North described the approach as, quote,
00:10:02.200graded through observation and conversation, with students expected to become, quote,