 Here’s what you need to know to get the day started: | | | Hidden camera investigation reveals many driving instructors willing to cheat system for cash | | |  | Marketplace met with a driving instructor who offered to help file information with the Ontario government saying drivers completed a beginner driver education course without completing a single lesson. (CBC) | | | Some Ontario driving instructors are willing to be paid to help falsify documents, a CBC News investigation has found. Marketplace called 20 driving school instructors in Ontario who posted online ads offering beginner driver education (BDE) lessons. Fourteen offered to help break licensing rules.
Historically, about 40 per cent of novice drivers have completed the beginner driver education training, which involves in-car lessons, in-class theory and homework at a cost of between $650 and $1,500. When new drivers can prove they've completed a BDE course in Ontario, it makes them eligible to take their road test sooner, and they may receive insurance discounts of up to 30 per cent once they have their licence.
When a Marketplace journalist, posing as a prospective student, phoned 20 driving instructors advertising in the Greater Toronto Area, the majority offered to register the student and keep forged documents at the driving school for between $150 and $400, depending on the instructor.
After arranging to meet in person at a Toronto parking lot, one instructor showed an undercover Marketplace journalist how false information is filed in the ministry database. He then offered to take them to a nearby driving school, where they could sign the forms that would be kept by the school in case of an audit from the ministry. "I've done it thousands of times," he said while being documented by a hidden camera. His fee was $385.
After calling the official BDE course a "waste of time," another instructor told Marketplace over the phone that "we have what we call option B." He, too, explained that the actual forgery would take place at the driving school. During a 15-minute appointment that took place inside the driving school office, a woman explained their part in the scheme while showing the documents that would be forged.
The process was brief, and when asked how long the driving school had been doing this, she said, with a laugh, "For about 15 years now. Yes, quite some time."
A 2023 report by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario raised the issue of driving schools breaking the rules around BDE certificates. The same issue was raised in a 2007 auditor general's report. The report says the ministry used to conduct mystery shopping programs, but it stopped in 2020, citing high costs.
After Marketplace shared its findings with Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, he said the government has a zero-tolerance policy and will come down on bad actors. He added that he is looking at increasing sanctions on "any type of behaviour that is not aligned with rules and regulations." | | | | | Float like a butterfly... | | |  | (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press) | | | | Steven Butler of Montreal jumps as he is introduced before his middleweight bout against Steve Rolls of Toronto, yesterday in Montreal. Butler won with a first-round knockout. | | | | | | | | | In brief | | | A 19-year-old man is charged with six counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the slaying of a mother, her children and a family acquaintance in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven Wednesday. Police said Febrio De-Zoysa is a Sri Lankan national who is believed to be in Canada as a student. The victims were newcomers from Sri Lanka, including the husband, who was injured and is currently in hospital in stable condition. Police said the family's youngest daughter was born in Canada. On Thursday evening, Algonquin College president Claude Brulé released a statement confirming De-Zoysa was a student at the college and that "it appears his last semester of attendance was winter 2023." De-Zoysa spoke little during a court appearance yesterday, stating his name and birthdate before sitting down. His next court appearance is March 14. Read more about the killings here.
A handful of regions in Canada are seeing a spike in local cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). There are about 200 cases of the disease in Canada a year, and up to 10 per cent of people infected die, according to Health Canada. Complications include deafness, limb amputations and permanent brain damage. Kingston, Ont., Manitoba and the Eastern Townships of Quebec have all warned recently of the presence of the infection, raising concerns about the cost of the vaccine, which is about $320. Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health is recommending the meningococcal B vaccine for people under age 25. It's not a routine vaccine like meningococcal C, typically given to babies at age one, or meningococcal ACYW-135, administered in Grade 7 in Ontario, said the health unit. Currently, no provinces or territories cover the cost of the meningococcal B vaccine for all children, according to the Canadian Paediatric Society. Read more about the disease and it vaccine here.
In the months before she was killed, 17-year-old Myah Gratton told friends and family she feared for her safety and asked to be removed from the Carman, Man., house she lived in with four other victims and the man now charged with murder in their deaths. Gratton's mother, Juliette Hastings, has sent a series of audio recordings and text messages to CBC News, saying they show the child welfare system and family and friends failed to protect her daughter when she asked for help. "She was ignored," Hastings said. Gratton didn't send any of the messages to Hastings directly; friends forwarded them to her after Gratton's death. Still, her mother blames herself for not doing more to advocate for her daughter. "I'm angry and mad at myself," she said. Ryan Manoakeesick, 29, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Gratton and four others, including three young children. Read more about Myah Gratton's messages here.
U.S. President Joe Biden's state of the union address last night was a re-election strategy — his blueprint for a comeback. Biden, who trails Republican frontrunner and former president Donald Trump in the polls, started with the issues he is keen to discuss: defending democracy from an authoritarian rival; defending reproductive rights, including abortion; defending Ukraine against Russia; and federal safety-net programs. He contrasted his ideas with those of his predecessor — calling his own ideas forward-looking, and his predecessor's old and backward. He referred to Trump as "my predecessor" roughly a dozen times, alluding to the former president repeatedly, but never using Trump's name in the non-campaign setting. The 81-year-old also broached his age, joking that in his career he's been called both too young to be in politics (he was elected to Congress at age 29) and now he's called too old. Read Alex Panetta's full analysis of the speech here.
Now here's some good news to start your Friday: A bald eagle nest in Toronto has birdwatchers and conservationists excited about what it means for the region's biodiversity. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) confirmed in an email to CBC Toronto that this is the first ever documented bald eagle nest in Toronto. "It's incredible," said Jules McCusker, who came across the nest near his Toronto home in December. "I mean, it's just absolutely mind-blowing." Experts say it's a significant moment, as bald eagles were only removed from the list of at risk species in Ontario last year. The number of bald eagles in North America hit a low point in the 1960s, when only a few hundred nesting pairs remained, says Michael Drescher, an environmental planning and conservation expert at the University of Waterloo. He said the resurgence of bald eagle nesting pairs across the continent, now estimated in the tens of thousands, is largely due to the prohibition of certain contaminants, including DDT, a once pervasively used insecticide that was banned in the 1970s. The TRCA is warning residents not to look for or disturb the nest as it may cause the eagles to abandon it and any eggs. Read more about the nest here. | | | FIRST PERSON | My mom's eating disorder sent me on a radical health kick. Did I take it too far? | With a family tree that includes anorexia and Holocaust survivors, documentary filmmaker Shawney Cohen is confronting the complicated legacy of disordered eating and attempting to make a change. Read his First Person piece here. | | | | | | | Your weekly look at what’s happening in the worlds of economics, business and finance. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong untangles what it means for you, in your inbox Monday mornings. Click here to subscribe to the newsletter. | | |  | Pierre Poilievre confronts Canada's media | | Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre isn’t the first politician to spar with the press. But is his relationship with the media different from what’s come before? Listen to today's episode. | | | Today in history: March 8 | | | 1867: The British Parliament passes the British North America Act. The act received royal assent on March 29 and Queen Victoria set July 1 as the date for Confederation.
1911: Fingerprint evidence is introduced as a crime detection tool in a New York City case against a suspected burglar, who was convicted.
1915: About 10,000 people march on the Ontario Legislature to present a huge petition — 825,572 signatures — demanding Prohibition.
2014: A Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 239 people, including two Canadians, vanishes on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Read more about the enduring mystery of the disappearance here. | | | (With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Reuters) | | | | |  | CBC NEWS APP | The most convenient way to get your news
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