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Peter Fassbender and the back-to-basics education movement in the ’70s
B.C.’s new Education Minister Peter Fassbender‘s experience as a Langley school trustee was so long ago that I’ve been unable to find news reports from that era in Infomart, Postmedia’s media...
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School security doesn’t mean locking all doors: Vancouver report (UPDATED)
The massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut prompted questions about school safety in Vancouver. Trustee Ken Denike introduced a motion at a Vancouver board of education meeting earlier...
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Does the person in charge of justice in B.C. have to be trained as a lawyer?
How much relevant experience should a politician have before they take over a government ministry in this province? Should the education minister be trained as a teacher? Must the forestry minister...
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Silent protest planned before final vote on Capilano University budget
A final vote on proposed budget cuts at Capilano University is set for Tuesday night, and it’s not looking good for those who have been resisting the plan. The Senate Budget Advisory Committee (SBAC),...
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Employee expenses – Vancouver school district
The Vancouver school district employee with the highest expenses last year was Iris Leung, coordinator for the international education program, who spent $36,589 during recruitment trips to Asia. (Her...
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Premier Christy Clark’s instructions to her new education minister
Premier Christy Clark has sent a letter to Education Minister Peter Fassbender outlining her expectations of him in his new job. They are as follows (condensed and with my comments in brackets): -...
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B.C. school districts not likely to follow Calgary in hiring debt collectors
A collection agency working for the Calgary board of education has recovered $350,000 in unpaid fees from parents, says a story in Calgary Metro. The board still has many outstanding bills, but some...
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Employee expenses – Cowichan Valley school district
Below are details about the $69,510 in expenses claimed last year by Elizabeth Hollands-Gamble, district principal for the Cowichan Valley school district’s international student program. This is the...
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Future uncertain for another B.C. school district business company
The New Westminster school district business company has been a source of controversy since it was created a decade ago with the goal of selling the B.C. curriculum abroad and raising money for local...
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Educational bribery in China and why B.C. should be on guard
I’ve had the privilege in recent years of working alongside the talented and kindly Jonathan Manthorpe, who has travelled the world as a foreign correspondent and been the Sun’s international affairs...
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Here come the ‘spiritual but not religious.’ Lock your doors.
At first this controversial study seemed counter-intuitive. But then it started to make sense. Why are those who say they’re “spiritual” more likely to engage in property crime and even violence than...
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B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender: On the record
Part of my interview with new Education Minister Peter Fassbender was published Thursday in the Sun, but here is our full discussion (with only minor edits and I hope no typos on my part): Q: You’ve...
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Employee expenses – Surrey school district
Here is the sixth report on employee expenses – this one from the Surrey school district regarding the $51,929 in expenses claimed last year by Angela Olson, manager of international education Angela...
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Employee expenses – Langley school district
The seventh in a series … details from the Langley school district about the $50,560 in expenses claimed by Mark Leiper last year. Mark Leiper Langley School District Year Ending June 2012 Filed under:...
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Employee expenses: B.C. school districts
I have been posting the responses I received from several school districts regarding the top expenses claimed by employees during the 2011-12 school year (as reported in their statements of financial...
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A call for more accountability with school district spending
Doug Player was the first to invite fee-paying international students to Canada, and he did so when he was superintendent of the West Vancouver school district. To conclude my series on the highest...
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Farewell ….
This will be my final post as the Vancouver Sun’s education reporter. Along with a dozen colleagues in the newsroom, I have accepted the Sun’s buy-out offer and will be moving on to other adventures. I...
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Ramadan build-up thrown off by ‘crazy’ bomb plot
It’s been a bizarre lead-up to Ramadan for Metro Vancouver’s roughly 80,000 Muslims. The Islamic holy month of fasting begins Tuesday in B.C. That’s the same day two suspected Surrey terrorists, drug...
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Online messages may have triggered police investigation
Disturbing online comments posted last fall by terrorism suspect John Nuttall would have provided the RCMP with sufficient grounds to launch the investigation that led to charges this week, legal...
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More “unindicted co-conspirators” named in Bacon murder plot
A Calgary gangster arrested at Vancouver airport last week was recently added to an indictment alleging his involvement in a United Nations gang plot to kill the Bacon brothers, The Vancouver Sun has...
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