This week on Battleground, David Menzies fills in for Ezra Levant while he's in London covering the Tommy Thompson case. Plus, a new piece from the Toronto Star's Sue Ann Levy on the Toronto Public Schools
00:00:00.000Hey, good afternoon. It is Friday, July 20th. I'm David Menzies, filling in for Ezra Levant, and this is Battleground.
00:00:15.040Hey, good afternoon. It is Friday, July 20th. I'm David Menzies, filling in for Ezra Levant, and this is Battleground.
00:00:23.060Well, yes, where is it? Hey, good afternoon. It is Friday, July 20th. I'm David Menzies, filling in for Ezra Levant, and this is Battleground.
00:00:37.060Folks, bear with me. We just have another technical glitch. What a way to end the week.
00:00:42.500But Mr. Producer number one is busily fixing it, and there we go. We have muted the computer.
00:00:49.560I didn't know that was on. My apologies. You know, it can only go up from here, right?
00:00:53.920I think on Tuesday, when it was my first time this week, it was a passable performance, according to the producers.
00:01:01.260Wednesday, Mr. Producer number two said, that was really, really rough, and he meant it.
00:01:06.400I could tell by the look in his eyes. Then on Thursday, it was, hey, good job. Good job, Menzoid.
00:01:10.840So on Friday, I was really hoping to knock it out of the park, but already off to a, I don't know, pop-up to shallow left field.
00:01:21.300Anyways, folks, let's get on with it, shall we?
00:01:23.860As you know, Ezra is just now coming back from the UK.
00:01:42.320I know you're not supposed to use that kind of terminology in the legal community, but even if it isn't, and since Tommy's no threat, as I've said over and over again, let the guy out already.
00:01:53.160He's not any kind of threat to the public.
00:01:55.920And so if you do want to contribute, by the way, I have to plug this, for Tommy's legal costs, it is SaveTommy.com.
00:05:16.160And I've, you know, clamored for them to come on the record and tell their stories.
00:05:22.340And they say, well, you know what, we really can't, you know, we don't want to rock the boat.
00:05:27.620We don't want to get on the bad side of the teachers' union.
00:05:31.820Teachers' union, by the way, in Sue Ann's piece, have been completely absent.
00:05:37.440They still haven't given her a comment.
00:05:39.980And so they've been cowered into silence.
00:05:42.640But I think we're at a breaking point because several teachers are coming forward and they're saying what a dangerous place some of these Toronto schools have turned into.
00:05:56.960And when it comes to calling the cops, there are no cops to call.
00:06:00.780Everyone in the administration, in the teachers' union, at the school board is holding their nose and turning a blind eye and saying nothing to see here, folks.
00:06:10.760So before we get more into this, Sue Ann Levy had a fantastic video with a teacher, Sean Goldman.
00:06:20.060And he, I think we're going to run a clip of that.
00:06:24.240And he's going to outline just some of the absolute egregious nonsense he and his colleagues have to put up with at his Scarborough school.
00:06:34.480It's disgusting what's going on to the staff.
00:06:37.540And the staff are being physically assaulted.
00:06:40.760I don't think there's any other job I can think of, I mean, other than cops maybe.
00:06:49.060And in fact, if a teacher actually does defend himself, then you get into trouble.
00:06:53.280The teacher that I know who, you know, said stop it when he was being physically assaulted and actually grabbed a kid by the arm is facing criminal charges right now, assault charges.
00:07:09.900I mean, yeah, you can talk about the problems with this kid or that kid.
00:07:13.120But overall, if you don't have a strong disciplinary policy, and this is what the issue was, that kids would be committing acts of violence, destroying property in the school.
00:07:24.260They go down physically assaulting either other students or staff.
00:07:28.600They would get sent down to the office and coddled and given a lollipop and sent back to class.
00:07:34.680And that's what progressive discipline is.
00:07:37.080And that policy was brought in under the Liberal government.
00:07:39.560And I'm hoping that the new government will look at, they said they're reviewing the math curriculum.
00:07:44.980And I hope that they're going to review the disciplinary.
00:07:48.800If a student dares to put their hand on a teacher, that kid should be out of this school.
00:07:54.040Yes, how you dig in that liberalism, that progressive approach to education now.
00:08:03.800And Sean Goldman isn't the only one to step forward in her piece yesterday.
00:08:08.720Sue Ann Levy spoke to an auto shop teacher, Rob Ball, who is also talking about what he has been going through and his colleagues.
00:08:18.120And Mr. Ball came up with a very important point.
00:08:21.320He spoke to the School Resource Officers Program, which was eliminated by the Toronto District School Board this past year.
00:08:31.940What this was, folks, is that those schools where there was a lot of these bullies, these malcontents, these kids that they're not there to learn.
00:08:42.960They're there to wreak havoc on everyone else.
00:08:46.940The Toronto District School Board would have a police officer at these schools.
00:09:12.080Yeah, Black Lives Matter Toronto, they went on a campaign and they actually convinced the nutty trustees on the Toronto District School Board that this was somehow, I don't know, racist to have cops at these at-risk schools.
00:09:30.820And the program was eliminated, even though the majority of parents want it there, even though I would suggest the majority of kids that are, which is to say those kids who are going to school and want to learn and don't want to be bullied and don't want to have a bunch of thugs shaking them down for their lunch money.
00:09:50.340They had no problem with this, but because Black Lives Matter Toronto wants something, we live in a city now where what Black Lives Matter Toronto wants, Black Lives Toronto gets.
00:10:03.720And that includes the basically banning cops from the gay pride parade too.
00:10:09.740Meanwhile, we have another summer of the gun, a disproportionate number of the gunmen and victims are black.
00:10:18.700And where is Black Lives Matter when it comes to black on black violence and homicide?
00:10:26.620The radio silence from this group, ladies and gentlemen, right now is deafening.
00:10:31.920So, you know, I don't understand when we, you know, you go to these schools and you see signs on the wall and it says zero tolerance for bullying.
00:10:44.480Yet when the bullies go beyond bullying, they're actually breaking laws.
00:10:52.280Well, we don't want to stigmatize anyone.
00:10:54.500We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.
00:10:56.040I'm assuming that's the ostensible policy reason behind not, you know, not having any kind of discipline in these schools.
00:11:03.780And I assume that because as Sue Ann Levy says in her story, the representatives of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation have promised to get in contact with her about this.
00:11:29.740And thankfully, I take my hat off to Mr. Goldman and to Mr. Ball because these two teachers have the testicular fortitude to step forward and to speak about this issue.
00:11:45.700Whereas for years and years and years, it has been absolute radio silence.
00:11:51.520But like I said earlier, folks, I guess the situation where you're actually experiencing physical harm at your workplace, when it gets to that point, what other choice do you have but at least to speak out?
00:12:04.940And let's go to the chat board and see what we have here from D.
00:12:09.120D. McClelley, leftist teachers reaping what they sow.
00:12:18.280Schadenfreude is that German term where you take pleasure in the suffering of others.
00:12:25.000Schadenfreude is that German term, D. McClelley, leftist teachers reaping what they sow.
00:12:30.620I'm thinking of those teachers who really do want to do their job and those students who really want to learn.
00:12:40.140And I would suggest, at least for those people, surely you would think that would be the majority.
00:12:45.120It is that progressive minority that is ruining things for everyone.
00:12:51.220I'm not taking any pleasure in seeing anyone, teacher, student or principal, getting threatened with violence or actually being physically assaulted in a school.