Giving at-risk students extra help – plus $750 a term in cash – can reduce the staggering 35 per cent dropout rate in Ontario's community colleges, wrote the Toronto Star April 29 in a story about new research on the subject. "I was an at-risk student – I repeated Grade 12, my high school grades were never good and I had no idea what I wanted to do at college," said Alexandria West, a general arts student at Mohawk College in the study group that got weekly help, but no money. "But having all that support – even just someone to show me how to sign up online for free tutoring – made such a difference, I'm now earning 90s," she said, "and I'm heading to York University next year for psychology."
Protesters ready to stay indefinitely
For the third day in a row, hundreds of Tamil Canadians protested on University Avenue, closing part of the downtown artery, with many saying they will stay indefinitely, wrote the National Post April 29.
The peaceful demonstration, which authorities expected would continue overnight into today, at its peak drew thousands of protesters to the front of the US Consulate to draw attention to the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka. Police shut down the street between Dundas and Queen streets. "We're going to be out here for as long as it takes," said Ghormathie Thevaraajah, a 21-year-old York University student. Police officials indicated that they have no plans to disperse the crowd.
National Post cites a traditional journalistic conceit
Some traditional socialist conceits have fallen by the wayside in the past 50 years (except, that is, in strange places such as Venezuela, CUPE headquarters, Naomi Klein's cranium and the political science department at York University) , wrote columnist Peter Foster in the National Post April 29. One, he said, is that government ownership offers superior business performance.