Only in Ontario can private college students who have not been charged with a crime have their funding assistance cut off by a government minister who still gets his salary despite the very fraud happening on his watch.
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who → charge → watch
The logic of Premier Doug Ford’s government is that until it is determined who was behind defrauding the OSAP system of millions of dollars, all of the thousands of innocent private college students must remain moneyless.
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all → determine → students
So, to be fair, Ford and his team should apply that same standard to themselves.
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Ford → apply → themselves
No one got their salaries cut when they screwed up on the private jet purchase or the Greenbelt mess or the delays and skyrocketing costs for their train and subway builds.
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they → get → builds
Instead, this time, Ontario is throwing the book at innocent students trying to better themselves.
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Ontario → throw → themselves
50,000 private college students scapegoated
But here’s the only fair way to go forward.
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way → scapegoate → ?
Since there is massive criminal fraud within the Ontario Student Assistance Program, which has resulted in 50,000 innocent private college students seeing their loans and grants frozen, the minister in charge should have his pay suspended, too.
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pay → be → charge
At least until the KMPG audit sorts who the good guys and bad guys actually are.
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guys → sort → ?
Colleges Minister Nolan Quinn, however, has so far not offered halt his pay in the interest of the system’s integrity, like he has demanded of the students – many of whom are single mothers who have gone back to school to become dental assistants, drug councillors, personal support workers, lab technicians, pastors, music production workers or hundreds of other occupations.
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who → offer → occupations
While no student so far has been accused of doing anything illegal, they are all paying the price for whoever the criminals are who fleeced millions of dollars out of the system in a fraudulent way.
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who → accuse → way
The minister is throwing the baby out with the bath water to make sure not one more taxpayer dollar goes out until they restore confidence in the system.
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they → throw → system
And even though this happened on his government’s watch, he and his Sunshine List bureaucrats still get their massive pay while saying, ‘don’t worry, we will fix the problems that occurred while we were in charge.’
They don’t want to accept any of the blame while making the people who had nothing to do with this fraud face the brunt of the pain and be the scapegoats.
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who → happen → pain
Minister lost 30 pounds at can’t sleep
For their poor handling of this, Ford and Quinn will be judged by the voters on this one day.
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Ford → lose → day
People don’t like mean, unreasonable bullies who thrust the blame on the innocent while living like fat cats as they punch down on less fortunate Ontarians.
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they → like → Ontarians
This is not the Doug Ford I know and I am waiting for the big-hearted caring version of him to intervene and reverse this madness while focusing the punitive efforts on the actual criminals.
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version → know → criminals
Staffers say Quinn has lost “30 pounds” during this ordeal and “can’t sleep at night.”
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Quinn → say → night
This is concerning and his health matters.
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health → matter → ?
But while there is an attempt to garner sympathy for him, he and Ford need to find empathy for people who are trying to go to school, pay their rent and feed their families with no money, too.
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who → be → money
They don’t pull down $214,000 a year like Quinn does.
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Quinn → pull → 214,000
He is doing fine.
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He → do → ?
For example, in a conference call Thursday between a deputy minister and many of the affected colleges, it came up that some students are depressed and in a “suicidal” state while others have nowhere to live as a result of having their funding frozen right in the middle of their school year.
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funding → affect → year
No one stopped the meeting, called in the authorities and said, ‘you know what the human part of this will have to come before the financial and political.’
Instead, they talked about new legislation and offered more delay tactics, spinning, lawyering and passing the buck.
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they → stop → buck
“As the minister and premier have repeatedly stated, we recognize the impact this pause has on hardworking students and legitimate institutions,” said a ministry spokesperson.
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spokesperson → state → students
“That is why we are working as quickly as possible to get good-acting students back into the OSAP system.”
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we → work → system
After they all drop out and go on welfare?
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they → drop → welfare
After someone commit’s suicide?
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someone → commit → suicide
Quinn told reporters: “Ultimately we will bring that back on line by the new year.
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we → tell → year
We understand the urgency because there are legitimate and good students and institutions caught up in this (but) we had to put a pause in place to ensure we bring back confidence.
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we → understand → confidence
But if he really means that, then it should start with his salary.
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it → mean → salary
Let him experience what it’s like to go to food banks and homeless shelters over Christmas and into 2027 like the students are facing.
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students → let → 2027
Instead of this nastiness continuing for one more day, they should think of it as building one of their highways and just restore the funding now, get the students back on track and weed out the criminals who scammed the system.
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who → continue → system
You better believe if Minister Quinn was financially affected, like the poor students are, that is what immediately would be happening.
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what → believe → ?
The Aporia
