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KITCHENER — Doug Ford’s scheme to give his supporter and friend Charles McVety the right to call his organization a university and grant degrees has been stopped by an independent advisory body — and on behalf of the NDP, Laura Mae Lindo, NDP critic for Anti-Racism and Colleges and Universities, said that’s a huge source of relief for Ontarians.
“Thank you to the independent advisory committee who did its job to ensure this favour to a Ford insider goes no further. It is a massive relief that the Doug Ford government’s plan to give Charles McVety’s organization university and degree-granting status has been slapped down,” said Lindo.
“This rigged scheme never should have gone this far. Doug Ford managed to ram through legislation giving McVety – a homophobe, transphobe and Islamophobe — power and legitimization as a university. This can’t go ahead now, and we need a guarantee it won’t go ahead, ever. Ford was returning a favour to a friend, and Ontarians would have paid the price. Legitimizing hate and discrimination has seriously dangerous consequences for people.”
McVety has a record of Islamophobic, transphobic and homophobic bigotry, and was once taken off television after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council found he made “malevolent, insidious and conspiratorial” remarks about 2SLGBTQIA+ people. He denies evolution, and denies the climate crisis, calling carbon pricing “the Anti-Christ.” He was an insider and close ally of Doug Ford while Ford ran for office.
Ford has already passed a bill to give McVety’s Canada Christian College university status, but held off on proclaiming it into law following revelations about McVety’s relationship with Ford, his bigoty, and questions about the McVety family’s use of Canada Christian College’s money.
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