NDP critic urges all Ontario MPPs to write PEQAB and oppose giving CCC degree-granting powers

Glover says allowing CCC to grant degrees is an attack on marginalized communities

QUEEN’S PARK — Chris Glover, NDP critic for Colleges and Universities, contacted the Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB) Monday conveying his opposition to Canada Christian College’s (CCC) application to grant arts and science degrees in Ontario, and wrote all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario urging them to do the same before Tuesday's deadline.

“Any institution that has the ability to confer academic degrees in Ontario should comply with Ontario’s Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights against discrimination,” Glover said. “Charles McVety is well known for his bigoted and hateful views and has embedded that hate in Canada Christian College’s curriculum. Granting Charles McVety’s school the ability to confer arts and science degrees is an attack against marginalized communities in Ontario and undermines Ontario’s university accreditation process.”

McVety has a longstanding and ongoing record of Islamophobic, transphobic and homophobic bigotry. He has led hateful campaigns targeting 2SLGBTQIA+ people and was once taken off the air after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council found his show made “malevolent, insidious and conspiratorial” remarks about the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. He denies evolution as well as the climate crisis, calling carbon pricing “the Anti-Christ.”

In addition to concerns about McVety’s hateful views, murky finances and questionable credentials, regulatory authorities have consistently challenged CCC’s academic integrity and rejected its graduates.

According to facts revealed this weekend by Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star, the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario has turned down CCC applicants due to suspicious academic transcripts, unusual credit transfers and degrees being conferred before coursework was completed.

In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board expressed “doubts that degrees from Canada Christian College meet the standards and rigour normally expected of degree programs in Canada”.