Toronto District School Board loses Superior Court appeal on Central Tech field

As those following my TDSB Trustee campaign know, I am opposed to the commercial development of the Central Tech field and the manner in which the Toronto District School Board obfuscated about and then tried to ram through the process. So this court decision comes as good news:   

The fate of a recreational facility at a Toronto high school is in jeopardy after the school board lost its court appeal against the city.

The Toronto District School Board was looking to overturn a decision by Superior Court Justice David Corbett, who ruled in June that the board’s plan to enter into a private partnership and build an artificial turf field and seasonal dome at Central Technical School was not exempt from the city’s zoning regulations.

The divisional court ruled on Tuesday that the city’s move was reasonable and that the $6-million sports facility, operated by Razor Management Inc. (RMI), would not qualify for the “teaching or instructional purposes” bylaw exemption.

“The [chief building official’s] finding that the bulk of the RMI use would not include an instructional component was a reasonable finding of fact, based on the information provided to the City,” wrote the panel of Ontario Divisional Court judges.

The TDSB said in a statement Tuesday that it was disappointed with the decision and will be moving forward with an Ontario Municipal Board appeal. A hearing has not been scheduled.

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition's election guide is out!

I'm running for Public School trustee in Toronto's Trinity-Spadina ward.

"Richard Klagsbrun’s answers were very specific and addressed all issues, and he proposed unique and detailed solutions such as analyzing the value of TDSB conferences and alternative schools, forensic audits of expenses, and contracting out some services while still giving careful thought to the issue of students with special needs."

You can read about some of my policy proposals HERE

eBay/Participant Media's Jeff Skoll endorses Toronto School Board Candidate Richard Klagsbrun

Participant Media's Jeff Skoll

TORONTO, Sept 16,2014 /CNW/ - World-famous Canadian philanthropist, entrepreneur, and Hollywood movie producer Jeff Skoll has done something unprecedented for him this week. The eBay innovator who was both its first employee and first president, took a public position in Toronto politics by endorsing Richard Klagsbrun for Public School Trustee in Toronto's Trinity-Spadina district.

Skoll's eponymous Skoll Foundation is one of the premier catalysts for Social Entrepreneurship in the world and his Skoll Scholarship program has awarded millions in education grants. Among Skoll Foundation awardees is Sal Khan'sKhan Academy, whose highly effective methods Klagsbrun has proposed utilizing to a greater extent in the Toronto District School Board.

Said Skoll, "I have personally worked with educators in both Canada and the US at a systems level.  Amongst other partners in education, the Skoll Foundation has been a long-time supporter of Free the Children in Canada and the US and as such we have had great visibility into both country's systems.  While the Canadian system in many respects is superior to that of the US, both systems suffer from bureaucratic logjams.  It takes someone like Richard Klagsbrun, who is passionate, knowledgeable and fearless, to break these logjams and help our kids get the best possible education to prepare them for the modern world."

Klagsbrun was one of the first employees at Skoll's Participant Productions, where as a Strategic Planning and Creative Executive, he helped formulate the organization's unique model of tying social action campaigns to the company's films in partnership with legislators and social action groups.  That model is considered one of the main reasons of the tremendous success of Participant's Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

A writer and consultant who has been a fierce critic of the decline in standards in public education, particularly inToronto, Klagsbrun has been featured in national publications and as a television commentator.  He also served for a year as co-Chair of the School Council at Central Technical School, the largest school in Trinity-Spadina.

"We need a complete overhaul of the way education is delivered in Toronto's public schools, where our kids are becoming victims of a politicized curriculum,"  said Klagsbrun. "The current political establishment will only make things worse. The NDP is trying to impose a candidate on Trinity-Spadina who represents deplorable aspects of identity politics. She was a speaker at a rally that supported the terror group Hezbollah and at a pro-Marxist conference, and according to the University of Toronto newspaper, The Varsity, as a U of T union official, colluded in a corrupt investigation of a crooked student election. The other ward candidates have offered nothing but meaningless platitudes. This election is an opportunity for Trinity-Spadina voters to choose between real change or the dismal status quo."

Among Klagsbrun's other endorsers are author and CFRB radio host Tarek Fatah,  Harvard University professor Aurel Braun, broadcaster Michael Coren, and Toronto FC Goalkeeper Chris Konopka.

Added Skoll, "I have known Richard Klagsbrun for over 20 years and he is thoroughly knowledgeable and passionate about public education and the need to improve it. Ward 10 couldn't hope to have a better representative at the TDSB.  As education standards are declining and the curriculum is becoming increasingly politicized, Toronto needs Richard, who will fight for the next generation's right to an education that provides them with the tools they will need to succeed."

SOURCE Campaign for Richard Klagsbrun

 For further information: The Campaign for Richard Klagsbrun at voltaire@hotmail.ca, Website: www.klagsbrun.ca

Math education that doesn't add up

Some background HERE

Teaching Kids that Capitalism is Bad and that Facts Don't Matter

Here's some background on that Queen's University course I discussed with Brian

Extremist Richard Klagsbrun wants logic returned to public education

Join me, Adam Giambrone and others for a free movie and a talk about Social Justice in Education

UPDATE - There have been a couple of cancellations and some new people joining us for the post-film discussion:

Remember Thursday November 14 in the Auditorium at Central Technical School (at the Corner of Bathurst & Harbord Streets) in Toronto, you'll get to join former City Councillor and current NOW Magazine columnist Adam Giambrone, as well as Paul Koidis, Associate Dean of at the School of Media, Art and Design at Durham College and me for a fantastic movie and what promises to be a very interesting discussion about Social Justice and Activism in the education system.

It starts promptly at 6:30 PM, so be sure to be there early!

The Educrats' 'politically correct' War on Halloween

With David Menzies discussing Halloween and political correctness in the education system:

Toronto District School Board presents prostitutes, Marxists and other awfulness

Background HERE  and HERE  and HERE

Discussing the promotion of Communism in Toronto's public schools

More on this HERE

York University makes its contribution to the decline of western civilization

Background on this can be seen in an excellent report by Blogwrath

UPDATE: Looks like I'm offending all the right people...

@queernature What, no more? Is that all the vapid Equity Studies jargon you know?
— Richard Klagsbrun (@EyeCrazy) February 13, 2013

The New Democratic Party, Iranian-linked Muslims and Jew hate in Canada

Diligent work by the blogger Blazing Cat Fur exposed the Jew-hate of Canadian Shia groups who use  anti-Semitism as a scapegoat for the murderous internecine violence between Muslims in Pakistan.

One of the leaders of this hateful thinking is Zafar Bangash, who has blamed Muslim fanaticism on "Zionist" and American plots.

Bangash and other acolytes of the Iranian dictatorship are deeply tied to leftist groups like the Canadian Peace Alliance and to Canada's New Democratic Party.





thanks to SDAMatt for the video

With Chris Spence's departure, the Toronto District School Board could get even worse

One of the ironies of the humiliating plagiarism scandal at the Toronto District School Board that led to the resignation of Education Director Chris Spence is that it need never have happened.

Spence got his EdD. degree at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, a place with such ridiculously low standards that he could have written a 120 word essay about his feelings and still have been awarded an advanced degree from them.

Naturally, as is her style, OISE Dean Julia O'Sullivan has not commented on the controversy. But it is interesting that it took a Globe and Mail researcher one day of inquiry to find Spence's plagiarism, while it went unnoticed by OISE professors and thesis advisers who are supposed to be experts in the field.

But those who think Spence's resignation is a victory over the TDSB's ludicrous so-called social justice agenda are wrong. The people waiting in the wings to take over from Spence are no better and in all likelihood may be even worse. These same people participated in the TDSB and Ministry of Education's "Futures" conference, where all the ills in the education system were blamed on white privilege. At that same conference, keynote speaker Uzma Shakir, a woman who once wrote that Muslim immigrants don't owe full loyalty to Canada because of the government's pro-Israel policies, condemned Canada as a paternalistic, racist society while lavishing praise on her native Pakistan.

Spence's successors will still push race-based nonsense in classrooms, plus neo-Marxist activism disguised as education.

The only way change will happen is if pressure is put on politicians at the provincial level, because ultimately it is the provincial Ministry of Education that is responsible for the school curriculum. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't continue to also pressure your local school Trustee, because they are politicians too and need to be reminded they can be removed from office at the next election.




See also: Chris Spence's Golden Parachute

Good news everyone! Canadian school kids are now getting Marxist indoctrination in Math class

More on this here

special thanks to SdaMatt2a for the video

Talkin`about stuff with Michael Coren

Last night on The Arena with Michael Coren on Sun News Network



(Thanks to SDAMatt2a for the video)

Some background on the above includes the night with Khadrites

and with the NDP polling about even with the Tories, it seemed appropriate to discuss a matter I`d written about before regarding the now Official Opposition`s Deputy Leader, Libby Davies:

Generally ignored at the time, Libby Davies introduced a 9-11 conspiracy petition into parliament in 2008. One thing to consider is that it is typically unheard of for an MP to introduce a petition to parliament if they disagree with its premise. For example, Davies isn't going to introduce a petition requesting that abortion be re-criminalized or that immigration numbers be reduced.  

But even then, there's a pro forma means by which an MP will introduce a petition to parliament which gives them plausible deniability. They say they're introducing it on behalf of constituents and then read the petition verbatim.

Davies doesn't just introduce the 9-11 conspiracy petition in the routine manner. It was signed by only 500 delusional oddballs scattered across this nation of 35 million and she doesn't read it verbatim. She summarizes it and presents it as if it contains facts to which Canada's Parliament must be alerted and act upon. 

Davies' own words introducing the petition are:

"It draws the attention to the House of the following, that scientific and eyewitness evidence shows that the 9-11 Commission Report is a fruadulent document and that elements within the US government were complicit in the murder of thousands of people on 9-11, 2001. This event, the petition points out, brought Canada into the so-called War on Terror that has changed the domestic and foreign policies for the worse, and will have negative consequences for Canada."

You can see Davies` insanity in the video below:

Talking about the depraved union of Canada's socialist left and Islamists

On The Arena with Michael Coren tonight

Some background here




Thanks again to SDAMatt2a for the video!

Some additional background:



and breaking - Prime Minister's office denies reports that a decision has been made to repatriate Omar Khadr

Rot in the Toronto District School Board

More here on this at The Toronto Star.

and at Blazing Cat Fur

Thanks very much to SDAMatt2a for the video!

"Occupy" was an old movement using a new tactic

Michael Coren and Richard Klagsbrun discuss the aftermath of the Occupy Movement





Thanks to SDAMatt2a for the video

Tax the rich more? Vote yes or no

Watch Richard Klagsbrun and Doug Donderi debate the proposition: Should we tax the rich more? at the Munk Debates website (click here).

You can vote for your favorite and please help spread this debate by clicking the facebook "like" button on that page when you get there!

Is Halloween going to be banned by politically correct school board pinheads?

The move to ban Halloween in schools is a facet of cultural relativism and insane equity policies pushed by pinheads in school boards who are proponents of Critical Pedagogy.

Michael Coren and Richard Klagsbrun discuss something really scaaarrrryyy!!!



thanks to sdamatt2 for the video!


Now wasn't that scary, kids??!!??