{~_~} Раиса
2014-05-06 00:16:49 UTC
Looks like 'the doctor' is not really a doctor. He just spends our
money like he is one.
Have we ever had a "Doctor of Divinity" in the Senate before? (>_<)
__________________________________________
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca - Posted: 05/05/2014
Tory Senator Don Meredith Touts Degrees From Unaccredited Schools
A Conservative senator earmarked as one of the Senate's top spenders
holds a master’s degree from a school whose phone number directs calls
to a customer helpline for a website that sells iPads and printers.
Senator Don Meredith, a Toronto-area Pentecostal pastor, has a master's
degree in religious studies from California State Christian University
(CSCU) – an unaccredited and unregulated private institution that has
shifted addresses at least four times within the last 10 years.
It’s an academic claim that has caught the attention of the office of
the top Tory in the Senate and triggered a request for Meredith to
provide details of his credentials, more than three years after his
appointment to the red chamber by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Meredith also says he has an honorary doctorate from an association of
Christian counsellors that has no standing as a degree-granting school.
Since receiving this honorary doctorate, Meredith frequently signs his
newsletters and press releases as “The Honourable Dr. Don Meredith."
The Huffington Post Canada has learned that the leader of the government
in the Senate, Senator Claude Carignan, asked Meredith about his
credentials in March but Meredith's office refused to produce records of
the degrees he lists in his online Senate biography.
Carignan would not comment on questions about Meredith’s degrees, citing
private “caucus management” reasons.
"But when someone tells you they are a doctor in something, well, only
doctors can say they are doctors,” he said.
“And when you know he's not a physician, well why are you calling
yourself doctor?”
Meredith has not responded to multiple requests from HuffPost Canada to
comment on the details of his degrees.
In 2008, Meredith was chosen as a last-minute Tory candidate to replace
international trade lawyer Mark Warner in a federal byelection race for
Toronto Centre. Meredith ultimately lost to former Liberal MP Bob Rae.
At the time, the biography on his campaign website did not include any
post-secondary education degrees. Meredith did attend Ryerson
Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University), but dropped out in 1994.
He was able to add a master’s degree to his resume in the two years
between his byelection loss and his Senate appointment in 2010.
One of Meredith’s online biographies states he is "an alumnus of the
prestigious California State Christian University, where he earned his
bachelor's and master's degree in religious studies."
The Prime Minister’s Office specifically mentioned Meredith’s master’s
degree from CSCU when it announced his appointment as a senator.
But the university has never been recognized as a legitimate
degree-granting institution by the Association of Theological Schools in
the United States and Canada, nor by the state of California since the
school was founded in 1972 by a Korean pastor.
The school has never been flagged by the Better Business Bureau of
Silicon Valley nor has it been red-carded by the state due to its status
as a private post-secondary school with religious exemption from
government oversight.
HuffPost Canada reached out to the school and several graduates to learn
more about the program. The only person who replied to our inquiries was
Arthur Tolliver, who coaches football at a community college in Buffalo,
N.Y.
Logging on from home, a bachelor degree from CSCU cost Tolliver
approximately $2,500 in 2003. When he returned in 2005 to pursue a
master’s degree, tuition cost him a “little bit more, not much." His
fees were inclusive of a round trip to CSCU’s campus in Riverside,
Calif., two weeks before graduation to meet professors and write his
final examinations.
“Did my time, got my degree and that was it,” he said. “Everything was
good about the school.”
“I had no problems with the school, it helped me and [my] ministry,” he
said. “That’s what I needed.”
As far as the state of California’s department of consumer affairs is
concerned, CSCU’s files have not been updated since 2004 after the
school failed to reapply for its exemption status.
“They never bothered to do any additional paperwork,” said a
representative from the bureau for private and post-secondary education.
But the move had minimal repercussions for the school because it was
exempted from regulatory checks anyway.
The school uses rolling admissions with no application criteria,
according to information posted on its website in 2004. Its terms are
semestered and lessons are conducted via online correspondence for
students who are not in the Los Angeles area.
“Each quarter each student is part of a class that focuses solely on the
development of their character so that the objective of having Godly
competent leaders who can change their worlds for Christ can be
achieved,” CSCU president Bob Orr wrote on his blog about the school’s
philosophy.
In 2012, California lawmakers vowed to crack down on diploma mills after
a series of reports singled out the state for issuing the most phony
degrees in the country.
“The most serious consequences occur when people are hired for positions
for which they are not qualified,” testified California State
Assemblyman Roger Dickinson during a hearing at the time.
Still, despite disappearing from government records 10 years ago, CSCU
continued to update its social accounts, and its website is periodically
active although it has also been offline for days at a time in recent
months. New “extension learning centers” have also been set up in
countries including Singapore, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Shortly after Meredith became a senator, he began crediting himself with
the title “Dr.”, even signing his email newsletters and press releases
with “The Honourable Doctor." His biography does not list a PhD or an
MD, but it does include an “Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree” awarded
by the Canadian Christian Clinical Counsellors’ Association.
The association is not a school or educational institution but a
registered business, according to Industry Canada. The group’s website
indicates it operates the Canadian Christian Clinical Counsellors
College, and lists an address in Calgary. The association also lists an
address in Ontario in the Industry Canada registry.
While several Christian colleges have been accredited by the government
in Alberta and Ontario, the Canadian Christian Clinical Counsellors
College is not among them.
A photo in one of Meredith’s newsletters from 2011 shows him accepting
the honorary degree at Crossroads Centre in Burlington, Ontario – better
known as the studio for the daily Christian talk show “100 Huntley Street."
Since Meredith’s appointment in 2010, he’s been named to and dropped
from four standing Senate committees. He was most recently removed from
the Senate standing committee on human rights after revelations surfaced
in March that he attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington,
D.C. Meredith had actually been denied authorization for the trip, but
he attempted to expense the total tab anyway. The senator reportedly had
to cover some of the costs out of his own pocket.
“I broke no rules. I did nothing wrong,” explained Meredith in a
statement issued three weeks after news of his unapproved trip broke.
“My work ethic is beyond reproach. My schedule and activities as a
senator are all a matter of public record. I have nothing to hide.”
money like he is one.
Have we ever had a "Doctor of Divinity" in the Senate before? (>_<)
__________________________________________
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca - Posted: 05/05/2014
Tory Senator Don Meredith Touts Degrees From Unaccredited Schools
A Conservative senator earmarked as one of the Senate's top spenders
holds a master’s degree from a school whose phone number directs calls
to a customer helpline for a website that sells iPads and printers.
Senator Don Meredith, a Toronto-area Pentecostal pastor, has a master's
degree in religious studies from California State Christian University
(CSCU) – an unaccredited and unregulated private institution that has
shifted addresses at least four times within the last 10 years.
It’s an academic claim that has caught the attention of the office of
the top Tory in the Senate and triggered a request for Meredith to
provide details of his credentials, more than three years after his
appointment to the red chamber by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Meredith also says he has an honorary doctorate from an association of
Christian counsellors that has no standing as a degree-granting school.
Since receiving this honorary doctorate, Meredith frequently signs his
newsletters and press releases as “The Honourable Dr. Don Meredith."
The Huffington Post Canada has learned that the leader of the government
in the Senate, Senator Claude Carignan, asked Meredith about his
credentials in March but Meredith's office refused to produce records of
the degrees he lists in his online Senate biography.
Carignan would not comment on questions about Meredith’s degrees, citing
private “caucus management” reasons.
"But when someone tells you they are a doctor in something, well, only
doctors can say they are doctors,” he said.
“And when you know he's not a physician, well why are you calling
yourself doctor?”
Meredith has not responded to multiple requests from HuffPost Canada to
comment on the details of his degrees.
In 2008, Meredith was chosen as a last-minute Tory candidate to replace
international trade lawyer Mark Warner in a federal byelection race for
Toronto Centre. Meredith ultimately lost to former Liberal MP Bob Rae.
At the time, the biography on his campaign website did not include any
post-secondary education degrees. Meredith did attend Ryerson
Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University), but dropped out in 1994.
He was able to add a master’s degree to his resume in the two years
between his byelection loss and his Senate appointment in 2010.
One of Meredith’s online biographies states he is "an alumnus of the
prestigious California State Christian University, where he earned his
bachelor's and master's degree in religious studies."
The Prime Minister’s Office specifically mentioned Meredith’s master’s
degree from CSCU when it announced his appointment as a senator.
But the university has never been recognized as a legitimate
degree-granting institution by the Association of Theological Schools in
the United States and Canada, nor by the state of California since the
school was founded in 1972 by a Korean pastor.
The school has never been flagged by the Better Business Bureau of
Silicon Valley nor has it been red-carded by the state due to its status
as a private post-secondary school with religious exemption from
government oversight.
HuffPost Canada reached out to the school and several graduates to learn
more about the program. The only person who replied to our inquiries was
Arthur Tolliver, who coaches football at a community college in Buffalo,
N.Y.
Logging on from home, a bachelor degree from CSCU cost Tolliver
approximately $2,500 in 2003. When he returned in 2005 to pursue a
master’s degree, tuition cost him a “little bit more, not much." His
fees were inclusive of a round trip to CSCU’s campus in Riverside,
Calif., two weeks before graduation to meet professors and write his
final examinations.
“Did my time, got my degree and that was it,” he said. “Everything was
good about the school.”
“I had no problems with the school, it helped me and [my] ministry,” he
said. “That’s what I needed.”
As far as the state of California’s department of consumer affairs is
concerned, CSCU’s files have not been updated since 2004 after the
school failed to reapply for its exemption status.
“They never bothered to do any additional paperwork,” said a
representative from the bureau for private and post-secondary education.
But the move had minimal repercussions for the school because it was
exempted from regulatory checks anyway.
The school uses rolling admissions with no application criteria,
according to information posted on its website in 2004. Its terms are
semestered and lessons are conducted via online correspondence for
students who are not in the Los Angeles area.
“Each quarter each student is part of a class that focuses solely on the
development of their character so that the objective of having Godly
competent leaders who can change their worlds for Christ can be
achieved,” CSCU president Bob Orr wrote on his blog about the school’s
philosophy.
In 2012, California lawmakers vowed to crack down on diploma mills after
a series of reports singled out the state for issuing the most phony
degrees in the country.
“The most serious consequences occur when people are hired for positions
for which they are not qualified,” testified California State
Assemblyman Roger Dickinson during a hearing at the time.
Still, despite disappearing from government records 10 years ago, CSCU
continued to update its social accounts, and its website is periodically
active although it has also been offline for days at a time in recent
months. New “extension learning centers” have also been set up in
countries including Singapore, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Shortly after Meredith became a senator, he began crediting himself with
the title “Dr.”, even signing his email newsletters and press releases
with “The Honourable Doctor." His biography does not list a PhD or an
MD, but it does include an “Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree” awarded
by the Canadian Christian Clinical Counsellors’ Association.
The association is not a school or educational institution but a
registered business, according to Industry Canada. The group’s website
indicates it operates the Canadian Christian Clinical Counsellors
College, and lists an address in Calgary. The association also lists an
address in Ontario in the Industry Canada registry.
While several Christian colleges have been accredited by the government
in Alberta and Ontario, the Canadian Christian Clinical Counsellors
College is not among them.
A photo in one of Meredith’s newsletters from 2011 shows him accepting
the honorary degree at Crossroads Centre in Burlington, Ontario – better
known as the studio for the daily Christian talk show “100 Huntley Street."
Since Meredith’s appointment in 2010, he’s been named to and dropped
from four standing Senate committees. He was most recently removed from
the Senate standing committee on human rights after revelations surfaced
in March that he attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington,
D.C. Meredith had actually been denied authorization for the trip, but
he attempted to expense the total tab anyway. The senator reportedly had
to cover some of the costs out of his own pocket.
“I broke no rules. I did nothing wrong,” explained Meredith in a
statement issued three weeks after news of his unapproved trip broke.
“My work ethic is beyond reproach. My schedule and activities as a
senator are all a matter of public record. I have nothing to hide.”