A government journalist wants to know if David Skok is still an independent and entrepreneurial company, and I'm here to give him a fair hearing. I'll tell you what he says, and why I don't think he's right.
00:09:18.380You see, he now deeply believed in it.
00:09:20.660So much so that he started attacking critics of it, like Michael Geist, the professor.
00:09:26.180So much so that he started joining the liberal team for liberal events.
00:09:30.940Just for example, here's David Skok, the independent journalist, participating in a liberal party conference hosted by the liberals party think tank called Canada 2020, starring the liberal cabinet minister, Pablo Rodriguez.
00:09:43.440Now, you can see David Skok at the bottom right here, happy as a clam.
00:09:55.280Now they're debating how much Google and Facebook should be forced by the government to pay journalists, too.
00:10:02.080It makes me laugh because David Skok, who a couple of years ago was boasting about how independent he was, he actually got into an argument on this liberal panel with the Toronto Star guy about how much a small outlet like him gets compared to the big guys when they're carving up the pie.
00:10:19.960That's what they're fighting about now.
00:10:45.160If you tell me, here's a quick clip of Big Boss and the Toronto Star telling you how it is.
00:10:50.740First of all, let me just, for the audience, just step back for a second and explain that while we have all of us here as panelists, the vast majority of reporters are represented by the Canadian News Industry Association and Ethnic Media News Association as well.
00:11:10.560Both of those associations, with the vast majority, we're talking 90-something percent of the reporters in the marketplace, strongly support this deal.
00:13:47.620I mean, yeah, $47,000 is a lot of money, but really, is that all it takes to turn a guy who leads, is it 23 journalists or almost 23 journalists?
00:13:56.640Now, I argued back and forth, and I'm going to spare you most of it, but he thought I was mean.
00:20:07.180But I think that the security situation in Kiev is a little more relaxed than it has been in the past because U2, the rock band, was there too.
00:20:18.440Wouldn't surprise me if that's why Trudeau chose to make his visit.
00:20:22.080In fact, they gave a concert, I understand, in the Kiev subway, which says that perhaps things in the capital city, at least, are not in crisis, as sometimes you might expect in a war.
00:20:32.880I think that what Trudeau said, there's some truth to it.
00:20:37.160I think that Russia is to be condemned for their invasion of their sovereign country.
00:20:42.780I think the invocation of the Second World War might be a bit dramatic given some of the affiliations of, for example, the Azov Battalion, which is given credentials and status in Ukraine, even though they are neo-Nazis, actual Nazis.
00:20:58.520I think when Trudeau says that he is concerned about Russian energy dominance, it rings a little hollow, given that Trudeau has ruled out, has specifically refused building pipelines to send oil or gas to Europe.
00:21:12.800And the part that irked me the most, I think, was his call that this was a battle against disinformation.
00:21:19.260It's not disinformation that's killing people in Ukraine.
00:21:22.180Disinformation is what Trudeau calls critics and dissidents he doesn't like.
00:21:25.880And the fact that he would roll that in to his laundry list of things he hates about Russia is troubling, given that Trudeau himself is cracking down on free speech and calling anyone he doesn't like disinformers.
00:22:03.260Well, you know, I think right now the idea of Trudeau, our deputy prime minister and our foreign minister,
00:22:10.500all showing up in Kiev at the exact same time, but bringing nothing other than more rhetoric is very telling about where we are in this conflict, where Canada stands and what we're actually doing to assist the Ukraine in their fight against Russia.
00:22:30.660I think it's a pretty sad testament to our legacy, especially when he made that announcement on VE Day and the sacrifices that so many made and how far above the bar Canada punched during World War II, that he shows up empty handed and delivers absolutely nothing other than words.
00:22:55.000I understand that Canada had made a promise a few weeks ago to deliver four pieces of artillery and please correct me if I'm wrong on that.
00:23:05.000So it was a very tangible promise of some military hardware.
00:23:08.940I understand that those have not yet been delivered.
00:23:11.720Can you correct me if I'm wrong on that?
00:23:16.060I saw them being prepared, crated up, put on boats, a couple put on planes.
00:23:24.900I've yet to been able to verify that they are operational in any sense of the matter, either in Poland or in Ukraine.
00:23:35.160I understand the United States has begun a train the trainer program on the exact same piece of artillery, and maybe that's what they're waiting for.
00:23:46.020But even more importantly, you know, there was very little ammunition shipped with those four guns with a promise that more would come.
00:23:56.020Ammunition is pretty heavy, and so it's going to have to go on a boat.
00:23:59.760And, I mean, it took them over 40 days to get our own artillery in place after they canceled it a couple of years ago and took it out of the battle court.
00:24:10.320So, you know, I wouldn't count on this arriving and getting the training done and being operational in the fight for some time still.
00:24:20.400Well, and that's the thing is you can't just give a weapons system, especially a modern high-tech weapons system, to an army that is unfamiliar with it.
00:24:27.220I mean, Ukraine still uses a lot of former Soviet-made weapons, so to give them Western weapons and training, it just doesn't happen overnight.
00:24:38.120I'll tell you this very candidly, Lee.
00:24:39.940I mean, I'm worried that some of the bellicose statements made by the West are too provocative.
00:24:48.260And I'm not just talking about the political statements like we want to have regime change or we want to destroy the Russian army.
00:24:58.360I mean, some of that talk you could just say is puffery.
00:25:01.300But when the U.S. Pentagon takes credit for helping to sink that mighty Russian naval ship, the Moskva, or when the U.S. intelligence community takes credit for targeted killings of Russian generals in Ukraine,
00:25:18.740you know, that bragging that it feels like the proxy war that Russia says it is.
00:25:25.080And I'm nervous that one day Russia might retaliate in kind, hopefully not against Canada.
00:25:31.420I'm just worried that this really is becoming the West jubilantly trapping Russia's military and killing it in Ukraine.
00:25:43.200And I suppose I can understand the strategic value of that, but I'm worried that strategically it will get out of hand and Russia might strike us.
00:25:52.360I think Russia, you know, is going to limit their attacks on the West.
00:25:59.080But over the last month, I've seen a dramatic change in the Russian approach to this conflict.
00:26:06.080They've begun strategically striking railroads, arms depots, NATO equipment, warehouses, and things of that nature.
00:26:19.140And so they're clearly saying that NATO equipment, and if NATO trainers are silly enough to move into Western Ukraine and the Lyev area and become targets,
00:26:33.700then it's going to be very difficult for NATO to claim that this is anything other than Russian self-defense attempting to keep these weapons out of the hands of their enemy.
00:26:46.120Honestly, I'm more concerned, I think, about over the last two months, we've seen a dramatic change in the way military pundits, the media, are analyzing and are portraying this conflict.
00:27:03.740You know, for going on 50 years now, ever since the Pentagon Papers, the media and punditry on television have been very questioning, to be polite about it,
00:27:19.220about what official military press flacks like at the Pentagon or at the White House are putting forward.
00:27:28.580In this case, you know, it seems like there's a lot of cheerleading going on, as opposed to accurate analysis.
00:27:37.360And I'm no fan of Russia. I'm no fan of Putin.
00:27:41.000I think what he's doing was inevitable, but, you know, it's horrific nonetheless.
00:27:47.080But at the same time, I don't quite understand what the West's goals are in this by continuing to antagonize and to act like this is the greatest defeat of the Russian army in the history of the world.
00:28:06.180When, in fact, over the last month, the Russians have made pretty significant gains in the Don Blask area and along the south.
00:28:15.160And they've consolidated their lines and set more realistic military targets and goals that I think they will achieve.
00:28:22.680You know, I'm not equating on a moral level Russia with America.
00:28:28.680I'm not. I believe America is a great force for freedom and democracy.
00:28:32.060And I think Russia is not. I think Russia and Vladimir Putin is a former KGB agent.
00:28:41.320I think he's an imperialist. I think he's authoritarian.
00:28:44.200That said, I can understand why Russia would want its own version of the Monroe Doctrine,
00:28:49.280which from America's point of view is no enemy's bases in our hemisphere.
00:28:54.880That's why Kennedy was so concerned about Russian missiles in Cuba.
00:28:59.920Cuba. Cuba was a sovereign country. Cuba was Russia's ally.
00:29:04.020Well, they were too close to America. And Ukraine abuts Russia.
00:29:08.620And there's territories that have gone back and forth between the two countries.
00:29:11.640And now Finland says they want in and all these NATO right abutting Russia.
00:29:17.200I'm not saying there's a moral equivalence, but there is sort of a strategic symmetry I can understand.
00:29:25.200And I think that there's sort of a I find some credibility to the argument that Western military adventurism is using Ukraine as sort of a battering ram to wear down the Russian military.
00:29:38.980Look, they sunk a major capital ship. And I believe it was with American help.
00:29:44.400That's that's what the Americans said. So, yeah, I get it.
00:29:47.200You're you're you're wearing down Russia the same way Afghanistan wore down Russia.
00:29:52.020And maybe that's a strategic objective. Frankly, I think China is the bigger threat.
00:29:56.140But I'm worried you're still poking the bear with a country that has nukes.
00:29:59.980Nukes. I I don't want to say I'm afraid of a nuclear war, but I'm more afraid than I have been at any time in the last 30 years.
00:30:09.440Yeah, I just don't I find it baffling whatever the West's goals are and and the way they're going about it and the promises they've been making to the public about Putin will be on his knees.
00:30:25.020His economy will be decimated. They may even trigger a coup within Russia.
00:30:33.180But when you look at the reality, a couple of months later, the rubles, you know, doing just fine.
00:30:39.120Putin is more popular at home than he's been in probably five or six years.
00:30:44.800There is no internal threats against him that are at least obvious.
00:30:49.880And and I don't get what the West is trying to achieve here.
00:30:55.340I don't get what the media and the pundits are trying to achieve by convincing everyday Canadians and Americans that somehow Russia is is, you know, being destroyed and embarrassed.
00:31:07.660And and and they'll eventually pull back and Ukraine will win.
00:31:12.320I also don't understand the turning Zelensky into Churchill when you consider before the war, no EU leader would take his call.
00:31:22.140He was massively unpopular at home for his inability to end corruption.
00:31:31.060So, I mean, I really just I'm finding this entire thing, you know, I guess mentally I'm finding it fascinating, but in such a horrible way that the average Ukrainians are dying every day.
00:31:48.180And it just I can't figure out what the goal, the end state is or what the end goals are for for the West.
00:31:57.960Yeah. Well, let me wrap it up by referring back to Trudeau.
00:32:02.720And we started off with his visit there, which he's had several visits to the region.
00:38:24.080And that look on Patrick Brown's face was just, oh, I won't forget that either.
00:38:28.060Vezo Sobot writes, David Menzies is one of the best commentators in the media in Canada today, delivering outrage with a wonderful teaspoon of humor.
00:39:20.120And so I had the opportunity to see Melissa Lansman.
00:39:25.640And I went to see her to ask her a couple of questions about a petition that she endorsed recently.
00:39:33.780Canada is currently one of the few countries that still prohibit their own citizens from leaving their country based on their vaccination status.
00:39:45.000As if that wasn't enough, Air Canada employees who are currently not fully immunized against COVID-19 have received a letter informing them that they will be permanently laid off on May 2nd.
00:40:02.740Following my report on Air Canada, Sergei Lina, President of the Air Canada Quebec Employee Union, contacted me to inform me of a petition he has submitted to Parliament in Ottawa.
00:40:18.280The petition E3934 has been endorsed by Melissa Lansman.
00:40:24.900For the people who don't know Melissa Lansman, she's the Conservative MP for Thornhill.
00:40:30.140Let's check out my interview with her.
00:40:32.740Recently, I talked with Sergei and you're the one from the Conservative Party who take the petition against the vaccine mandate and the people who lose their job and in the aeronautics.
00:40:48.760Can you explain why you take the decision to put the petition at the Ottawa Parliament?
00:40:55.200Yeah, look, I think, first of all, one of our jobs is to represent those who don't feel represented and those whose voices aren't being heard.
00:41:03.260And I think in the case of these mandates, I think they're outdated.
00:41:39.440It falls within something that I'm interested in.
00:41:42.600And, you know, I've stood up in the House of Commons on an almost daily basis, trying to understand what evidence the government's looking at, when they got that evidence, and whether they'd table that evidence.
00:41:54.280Because right now, it's all one big secret about why this country is so far behind other countries.
00:42:00.220It's been 48 hours that the government went from doing nothing to a national emergency.
00:42:05.90048 hours into using the measures, 48 hours without providing Parliament with a justification.
00:42:13.680When will the Prime Minister admit that he's lost control of the situation, that he's lost control of his country, that he's lost control of his caucus, and that he's lost control of his leadership?
00:42:22.740Some people are losing already their job, not for Air Canada, but some other company.
00:42:28.120Do you have any plan or any action that you want to do for the next couple of months?
00:42:34.220Yeah, look, I think we need a plan from this government.
00:42:38.080We need a date from this government about when these mandates end.
00:42:41.640And what we don't want to do, we don't want to rise, you know, rise from the House of Commons where we have the opportunity to hold them to account and go into a long summer where Canada is such an outlier in this.
00:42:52.380You know, we have four or five, potentially six million Canadians, because of little kids, who can't travel.
00:43:41.660And what is your thought about the Freedom Convoy who came to Ottawa?
00:43:46.060Look, in terms of, you know, it's very hard to ignore the frustration of individuals who feel like they've had their livelihoods taken out.
00:43:55.060And we want to know that we are listening.
00:43:57.060That said, you know, in terms of those who break laws, we're the party of law and order and rules.
00:44:04.940So you can't block critical infrastructure and you can't commit things that are against the law.
00:44:13.160But in terms of the Freedom Convoy, I want them to know that there is one party in that House of Commons who hears them, who will continue to fight for their rights.
00:44:22.400And just for finishing, for all the leaders that are putting their candidate for the leadership race, do you have one favourite?
00:44:56.820And I love to see a good race where we talk about ideas.
00:45:00.760So it will be interesting to see how the race will play out and especially for the two other debates that's coming up, the French one and the English one.
00:45:10.620And at Reben News, we will try to be there to cover it for you guys.
00:45:15.380So please stay tuned for more to come.