Thread by @TDotResident

#ONpoli

Thread 🧵on Doug Ford's ties to the international student scandals at Ontario's colleges, which also intersects with the foreign influence scandals.

Let's dive into Doug Ford and St. Clair College...

1/ St. Clair College is based in Windsor with over 16,000 total students, including almost 5,300 international students. There is even a GEM residence exclusively for international students (more on that later).

2/ Many of the St. Clair College students not at the main Windsor campus attend Ace Acumen Academy, which is a private career college with a licensing arrangement for providing college certificates from St. Clair for International Students. Ace Acumen Academy has 3 GTA locations.

3/ To get an idea of what these locations look like:

Don Mills Rd is a basic office building that runs the college AND also a private high school for international students. Mississauga is also a generic office building, and Brampton is an office building behind a Walmart.

4/ And, to get an idea of the programs offered at Ace Acumen Academy - these are mostly general "business" certificates.

5/ Now, let's get into who owns these international student career colleges, and how that ties to Doug Ford's government. Global Education Mihome Corporation is the company that runs Ace Acumen Academy and also runs the GEMS residence for international students, founded in 2018.

6/ There are 6 directors of this company, including John Wu (President/Principal of Ace Acumen Academy), and Wentao Sui - who has the same name and the same address as the director of the Canada Gansu Federation of Chamber of Commerce Zhaoan Sui (either same person or family).

7/ Zhaoan Sui appears in St. Clair College/Ace Acumen photo ops, and also in many Ontario PC Party fundraisers and meetings with Premier Ford.

8/ Zhaoan Sui is a big PC Party donor. His donations have been to both Billy Pang and Vincent Ke (now independent), as well as the PC Party. John Wu is also a big donor to Doug Ford's PC Party, including Jill Dunlop's Simcoe riding (she is in charge of colleges now).

9/ There is an entire other thread on the influence and fundraising network in those 2 PC Party ridings in 2018, but I will leave that separate:

10/ So, this company incorporated in 2018 after Ford got elected and now has 3 private career colleges (and the GEMS residence for intl students). St. Clair College has grown from 1100 international students before Ford to over 5300 (almost 5x growth in 5 years) and 9094 visas.

11/ And, overall, St. Clair College has seen massive growth thanks to both these international student programs and their skilled trade programs... but as far as I can tell, they have 992 total residence beds (408, 72, and 512 in 3 buildings) for their 16,000+ students.

12/ Must be why Doug Ford gets a free puffer vest.

13/
In November 2019, Doug Ford's government announced that removal of restrictions on private college partnerships. Ace Acumen Academy then opened their 2nd location (Mississauga) in January 2020 and the 3rd location (Brampton) in 2021-2022.

14/

St. Clair College / Ace Acumen Academy is just one of the many private colleges tied to the current international student & housing scandal - there are likely dozens more. Someone should be looking into ALL of the connections to Ford, and to other levels of government.

BONUS:
I happened to find the fee schedule for a typical international student at Ace Acumen Academy from 2022-2023

$21,368 for the first three terms (not including housing etc, just tuition and fees)