Today, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith brings in a sensitive, sensible policy on transgenderism, and the Liberals go nuts. She says, "I care deeply about you, and I accept you as you are. ... As long as I leave this province, I will ensure you are supported and your rights are protected. In the case of children aged 17 and under, who identify as transgender, I work to eliminate the discrimination they often experience in their daily lives."
00:01:30.360As you know, we republished George Orwell's classic.
00:01:34.480It's in the public domain, so we published it with 30 new illustrations.
00:01:38.560You can buy your copy at the website buy1984.com.
00:01:42.460I'm going to read from you two pages from the book, which back then when Orwell wrote this more than 70 years ago, he couldn't have fathomed normalizing transgenderism.
00:01:54.900But what he talks about here is queer math, in a way.
00:05:49.680Making permanent and irreversible decisions regarding one's biological sex while still a youth
00:05:54.900can severely limit that child's choices in the future.
00:05:58.660Prematurely encouraging or enabling children to alter their very biology or natural growth,
00:06:04.180no matter how well-intentioned and sincere, poses a risk to that child's future that I,
00:06:09.160as Premier, am not comfortable with permitting in our province.
00:06:12.280Similarly, the risks and unfair advantages that young women and girls are experiencing when
00:06:16.640competing with biologically stronger transgender females in sporting competitions have also grown
00:06:22.180too high. After much discussion, the Government Caucus and I have therefore decided to implement
00:06:27.440the following policies and guidelines as it relates to transgender minors and athletes, including
00:06:32.640additional supports to assist transgender adults to secure the health care they need,
00:06:37.380and the counselling support for youth identifying as transgender to ensure they can successfully
00:06:42.240work their way through their complex feelings and emotions as they grow to adulthood.
00:06:46.960First, on the issue of gender reassignment treatments for minors.
00:06:50.840For minors age 17 and under, top and bottom gender reassignment surgeries will not be permitted.
00:06:58.380For children age 15 and under, puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender
00:07:03.940reassignment or affirmation will also not be permitted, with the exception of those who've already
00:07:08.960commenced their treatment at this time. Minors age 16 and 17 will be permitted to commence hormone
00:07:15.120therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes, so long as they are deemed mature enough to
00:07:20.100make these decisions and have parental physician and psychologist approval. For transgender adults,
00:07:25.400our Government is currently working to attract one or more medical professionals to practice in Alberta
00:07:30.540who specialize in transgender surgery to ensure those individuals transitioning have access to an expert
00:07:37.000in Alberta to assist them with their extremely unique and complex medical needs, rather than going to Quebec,
00:07:43.600which is now the practice. We will also be building a private registry of medical professionals who specialize
00:07:48.860in this field to better support the lifelong healthcare needs of transgender Albertans, including access to needed
00:07:54.880hormones and surgery aftercare. When it comes to classroom instruction on subject matter involving gender identity,
00:08:00.700sexual orientation, or human sexuality, we will be requiring parental notification and an opt-in requirement for each
00:08:07.520instance a teacher intends to give formal instruction on these subjects. Furthermore, all third-party resource materials
00:08:15.120or presentations related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality in our K-12 school system
00:08:22.000will need to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Education to ensure the materials are age-appropriate.
00:08:27.780For a minor age 15 and under, the Government will require parental notification and consent for a school to alter the name or pronouns of a child.
00:08:36.860For 16 and 17-year-olds who choose to alter their name or pronouns, parents do not need to give consent, but they must be notified.
00:08:44.800We know that nearly all parents, even those who may disagree with the decision of their children,
00:08:49.360will love and care for their children no matter what choices they make.
00:08:53.100However, in the handful of rare situations where one or both of the parents reject or become abusive to a child
00:08:58.880who identifies as transgender, we have child protection laws that will be strictly enforced.
00:09:04.180The Government is also designing a pilot project to provide appropriate counselling services to support parents and youth
00:09:11.300identifying as transgender to work through the unique challenges these families face.
00:09:15.220We encourage all teachers, parents, classmates, and youth volunteers to be on the watch for any instances of bullying of youth or children for any reason
00:09:25.200so adults can assist with putting a stop to it the moment it is detected.
00:09:29.380Our Government also needs to deal with the emerging issue of the unfair disadvantages that young women and girls are experiencing
00:09:35.160when competing with biologically stronger transgender female athletes in sporting competitions.
00:09:40.340I strongly believe that those who were born male but have transitioned to or identify as female are owed the opportunity to meaningfully participate in sport.
00:09:51.160However, there are obvious biological realities that give transgender female athletes a massive competitive advantage over women and girls.
00:09:58.540It is not beneficial for those women, including those who are transgender, for this divisive and sometimes dangerous situation to continue.
00:10:08.280That is why the Alberta Government will work with sporting organisations active in our province to ensure that women and girls have the choice to compete
00:10:14.800in a women's only division in athletic competitions and are not forced to compete against biologically stronger transgender female athletes.
00:10:22.780We will also work with those same sporting organisations to ensure transgender athletes are able to meaningfully participate in the sport of their choice
00:10:30.680through the expansion of co-ed or other gender neutral divisions for athletic competitions.
00:10:35.760I understand how controversial and divisive discussions on topics of sexuality and gender can be, especially when those conversations involve children.
00:10:45.840I would therefore ask that as we work through implementing these policies, that we, as adults in this province, do all we can to depoliticise the discussion
00:10:54.740and focus on the wellbeing of the children involved, whether they are young people identifying as transgender
00:11:00.160or who find themselves attracted to those of the same sex, or are simply trying to understand the complex and often changing emotions and feelings of being teenagers.
00:11:09.560They all need our unconditional love and support.
00:11:12.680And it's to those children and teens that I want to say just how much we love you and support you in becoming the person you want to be.
00:11:19.240You never have to feel alone or isolated.
00:11:21.560If you do, reach out to your parents, family members, teachers, a coach, or other trusted adults and ask for support.
00:11:29.000We, as the adults in your life, will be there for you to make sure you know just how amazing and precious you are.
00:12:21.980You simply aren't allowed to do it before you're 18 because the government knows that you're not a fully formed grown-up.
00:12:28.020You're not as thoughtful and mentally experienced as possible.
00:12:32.560You're subject to persuasion and trickery.
00:12:36.060There's a saying, taking candy from a baby.
00:12:38.920It's because the baby doesn't know, isn't savvy enough to push back.
00:12:42.980I thought that that was a very balanced approach, and what was interesting was the discussion of bullying.
00:12:48.520There's an enormous amount of bullying going on, but the bullying I see quite often is from transgender women against anyone else who disputes them.
00:13:01.040I mean, following David Menzies' coverage of trans craziness around the country, and what's so shocking to me every single time is that moms and dads of girls are too terrified to stand up to these transgender bullies.
00:13:17.820Terrified not so much for physical punishment, but because they'll be deemed transphobic and marginalized and canceled.
00:13:24.820What Danielle Smith here is really doing is saying, you don't have to worry about that anymore.
00:13:29.300I'm going to be the bad guy for you, and I'm going to say there's no more transgenderism in sports.
00:13:34.620You can have women's sports and men's sports, and for people who are transgender, they can have their own third sports league, but they're not going to be able to smash women to pieces anymore.
00:13:44.160Now, of course, the reaction from the left—in my opening, I said liberals.
00:14:07.480There's no question that this horrifying policy will be tested and rejected by our courts.
00:14:12.440As such, the Premier will likely consider using the notwithstanding clause, which is yet another conservative attack on our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:14:23.340You know, if the courts are telling you that your policy is attacking the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights of individual citizens, that should be a clear indication that you're not doing the right thing.
00:14:34.540We, in the NDP, believe that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is an essential, foundational document for all Canadians, and that human rights must be protected, no matter whose human rights and what human rights we are focused on preserving.
00:14:52.640I'm not here to suggest that the federal government has to rule to come in and yell at health ministers.
00:15:00.460Health ministers provincially have the obligation under the Constitution to administer their programs in alignment with our Charter.
00:15:11.240So, we don't need the federal government to tell us whether this is right or wrong.
00:15:15.180What we need is for a health minister to administer their services legally.
00:15:20.980And what I'm saying here is that I think we will probably find that we're moving outside of that.
00:15:26.400Is this policy going to result, you think, in more attempted suicides, more marginalization of transgender youth, and more discrimination?
00:15:36.100I'm so deeply, deeply concerned for what this means for transgendered and other marginalized youth within the queer community.
00:15:45.500We know that houseless children disproportionately come from those communities because the relationships with their families have broken down.
00:16:04.540And I have to tell you, it's hard to get me angry at Daniel Smith these days because every day is a day.
00:16:10.320But when she suggested that the solution for a child who was rejected by their parents was to find support through our child protection services, I almost leaped through the computer.
00:16:25.820You know, I know a little something about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:16:31.400Section 33 is called the Notwithstanding Clause, which basically, as the courts say, it's a dialogue between the courts and the legislature.
00:16:37.780And the courts can say something's unconstitutional, but the legislator can say, well, thanks for that.
00:16:44.400But in this one case, we'll pass the law notwithstanding that the court says it's unconstitutional.
00:17:00.260I think she may be right that Danielle Smith may have to use the Notwithstanding Clause to stop meddling unaccountable judges from overturning her.
00:17:34.360I remember doing a show on it a couple of years ago that people, young, confused teens especially, if they go through with the drug therapy, and especially, God forbid, if they go through with the surgery, cutting off their breasts or their genitals,
00:17:51.440their likelihood to commit suicide goes up because if they're emotionally troubled, mutilating your body, pumping yourself full of drugs, and cutting off your body parts will not make it better, even if some doctors and activists say so.
00:18:08.720And that's just emotional blackmail, and it's BS.
00:18:13.140I think that you can see that it's the media, political, industrial complex that is pushing transgenderism, not severely normal folks, not parents.
00:18:24.300Here's the second clip of Rachel Notley.
00:18:26.500I'm very troubled by what they're talking about.
00:18:30.400There are complex issues in there, but they have reached in to an area that is broad and complicated around ensuring that a whole range of medical interventions are managed in a way on a sport-by-sport basis that ensures competitiveness.
00:18:50.960They've reached in and pulled out one example and lifted it up as the dog whistle that this is really meant to be.
00:19:00.840And the starting point for me is that a trans woman is a woman, and a trans man is a man.
00:19:09.860And this is an issue that Danielle Smith is pursuing because of extremist politics, not because there's a massive call for it amongst Albertans right now, I can tell you that.
00:19:26.600I really believe that this push is the approach to the sports issue is, as I said, it's not even broad-based and thoughtful.
00:19:36.620It is very targeted and irrational in its targeting.
00:19:53.360I don't know what she meant by the sports example is extreme.
00:19:57.200If you've been watching David Menzies' coverage or any other coverage of transgenderism in sports, it's the men who often aren't on meds or haven't cut off their body parts who are just competing to beat up women, to beat them.
00:20:11.440Second-rate men figured out they can win contests if they call themselves a girl.
00:20:15.840And that's unfair, it's unsportsmanlike, it's cheating, but it's what I talked about when I read that excerpt from 1984.
00:20:23.680And that's what Rachel Notley herself said, a trans woman is a woman, a trans man is a man.
00:20:52.700Here's a poll that Angus Reid did a few months ago when New Brunswick was taking similar baby steps towards giving parents information about what's going on with their kids.
00:21:03.140And if you can see, they polled Alberta too.
00:21:06.00088% of Albertans want informed consent for this sort of thing.
00:21:10.80088% can you tell me anything else that 80% of the population agrees on?
00:21:18.920It took Justin Trudeau's liberals a day to figure out what to do.
00:22:09.840Parents have these conversations all the time with children.
00:22:12.580They need to be able to have those conversations with children.
00:22:15.000Sometimes children don't feel empowered to have those conversations.
00:22:18.300That's a small amount of children around the country, even smaller amounts in Alberta.
00:22:22.380I think actually targeting that small minority for some political purpose in Alberta, as it seems that the premier is doing,
00:22:29.160is not becoming of her office and is, in fact, actually targeting and perhaps even demonizing those children.
00:22:35.220We're not talking about their exploration of their sexuality when we're banning kids from a schoolyard or from a playground or from a sports team.
00:22:41.800That looks more targeted, and that's what I have significant concerns about.
00:22:47.020There is nothing that is a completely speculative question.
00:22:50.840They've announced what they're thinking about doing.
00:23:41.040The decision that was made by Alberta places kids at risk.
00:23:45.900We know that one of the number one reasons why kids take their life is problems around sexual identity.
00:23:56.800And that the ability to be who you are, you know, is so vitally important.
00:24:02.840And I thought we were in a place in this country, you know, when we voted on C3 and we stood unanimously.
00:24:08.680I thought we were in a place in this country where we were moving past this.
00:24:12.740I think it's extremely dangerous to engage in this kind of thing, which is, I think, playing politics when you're talking about children's lives.
00:24:25.260And so affirming gender, making sure that kids and families have the health care that they need on extremely sensitive issues is so very important.
00:24:48.580I want to see if we can find a solution through talking to really understand what this is going to mean and the devastation that it's going to bring so that we can find an offering.
00:24:59.480So, you know, that's my first priority is to try through communicating.
00:25:03.300And as I say, I'll be in Alberta very soon to have that face-to-face meeting.
00:26:02.400He said, and I've never heard it put this way, that transgenderism is a war against gays and a war against lesbians because it's saying you're born in the wrong body.
00:26:15.080And the solution is a Joseph Mengele-style mutilation surgery.
00:26:23.120You heard Danielle Smith say top surgery and bottom surgery.
00:26:55.420They've gone so nuts, I guess they realize there's no turning back now.
00:26:58.860I mean, it reminds me of Justin Trudeau's important decision to make tampons available in the men's bathrooms at Canadian Armed Forces bases.
00:27:08.740I don't know if you saw, but the tampon distributor machine in the men's bathrooms was ripped out almost immediately.
00:27:17.440And, of course, that's being investigated by the Canadian Armed Forces.
00:27:21.640They'll probably court-martial whoever did it.
00:27:23.740Gee whiz, I wonder why they're having such a hard time recruiting soldiers.
00:27:28.060If it weren't for the vaccine mandate and now their tampon mission.
00:27:42.020I don't know if you saw this in the New York Post.
00:27:43.600Just yesterday, what a funny story, new state-mandated tampon dispenser in Connecticut, high school boys' bathroom, ripped down in just 20 minutes.
00:27:56.160The principal is outraged and he wants to get to the bottom of it.
00:28:20.500And once your kid's an adult, they can get the mutilation surgery.
00:28:23.880I guess theoretically, they could just leave the province and go and do it elsewhere right now.
00:28:29.640But I think the most important part of what Danielle Smith said is that she's going to let parents know what's going on.
00:28:36.800And to see the Alberta Teachers Union and see the mayor of Calgary, who's just the least popular mayor in history, say this is her line in the sand.
00:28:45.500Since when is the mayor of Calgary, is it her business to keep sexual secrets about children from parents?
00:28:54.660And since when do teachers have a higher priority in a student's life and parents themselves?
00:29:01.200I think that this is an excellent thing that Danielle Smith is doing.
00:29:36.500What a difference it made last week to have the federal court of Canada with an independent judge using the processes of civil procedure to render a judgment on the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the government two years ago.
00:30:03.340As you know, it was a stunning ruling rebuking the invocation of martial law using words like illegal, unintelligible, unreasonable, unjustified, and unconstitutional.
00:30:16.640And the reason I mention that is what a difference between that, a real court with an independent judge, versus what happened a year before that.
00:30:25.400The hand-picked liberal appointee, Justice Rollo, with a handwritten mandate given to him by Justin Trudeau.
00:30:34.220Surprise, surprise, that earlier fake commission of inquiry exonerated Trudeau.
00:30:40.320Well, of course, it was Trudeau investigating himself.
00:30:42.520And I mention that because there is a new judicial inquiry going on in Ottawa.
00:30:47.920And it has all the hallmarks of another Trudeau cover-up.
00:30:51.720I'm talking about the appointment of Justice Hogue to look into foreign influence in Canada.
00:30:57.580Well, she was selected and given a task that by design will exonerate and exculpate Trudeau.
00:31:05.820It's in fact worse than nothing because some of the politicians credibly accused of being agents of influence of communist China have been granted standing with this commission,
00:31:22.060which means not only are they participants, they get early opportunities to review confidential matters.
00:31:29.820We are literally letting credibly accused Chinese agents of influence inside the security process while we have this inquiry,
00:31:42.320while others like the conservative opposition in Canada merely have outsider intervener status.
00:31:48.420It is, as Woody Allen would say, a mockery of a sham.
00:31:52.180Joining us now to talk about it is our friend Andy Lee, who has been following the foreign influence beat for years.
00:32:21.060I think a lot of us had high hopes for this public inquiry that had a little bit of different powers, the power to summon witnesses and cross-examine.
00:32:29.500The only problem is that some of the people who are under suspicion of perhaps acting under foreign influence or even on the more serious side of things,
00:32:39.040there's some accusations that they could actually be actively working for a foreign country or foreign government, mostly the PRC.
00:32:46.360Some of those people have got those powers to cross-examine.
00:32:52.920And so that's unfortunately led to some human rights groups.
00:33:04.620They're not happy with the way that it's been conducted.
00:33:07.460And they're not comfortable with the idea, rightfully so, that they could be cross-examined by the people who are accused of maybe aiding and abetting foreign influence.
00:33:19.540And of course, we're talking about Michael Chan, Han Dong, and Senator Wu.
00:33:33.940But I mean, this is the way that Ottawa operates.
00:33:35.640It's almost impossible to get a judge who doesn't have some sort of ties to someone somewhere, right?
00:33:41.960But yeah, and it's sort of falling apart.
00:33:45.580And now we're getting new information as well, that it seems like the scope of the foreign interference is maybe bigger than we first thought.
00:33:54.580So Stu Bell from Global put something out saying that there was definitely meddling in the 2019 and 2020-21 elections.
00:34:04.360Sam Coopers followed up with that today with a story saying that there were 117 briefs, which they're calling specifically defensive briefs, to politicians telling them that, you know, to be aware of foreign interference that's been going on.
00:34:22.660So that's a little bit more serious than what's been let on.
00:34:26.660I don't know if this is going to change Justice Hoag's perception of things, given that there's new information.
00:34:34.140One of the people who was the victim of foreign interference with Michael Chan, we know that earlier on in the year, we heard that there were threats made against his family.
00:34:45.160He said that he didn't learn about these threats until they came out in stories in, I believe it was the Globe and Mail that published them first.
00:34:52.660Um, so if there were 117 debriefings given to politicians since May of 2021 on foreign interference, how did Michael Chan get missed in all of this?
00:35:08.180How did that information get overlooked?
00:35:13.040Of course, he was a conservative politician who was critical of communist China, and he was kept in the dark.
00:35:18.360That's an interesting story in itself.
00:35:20.020But 117, I take it that means that CSIS or the RCMP would have contacted.
00:35:25.280I'm guessing, if I understand it, 117 candidates are sitting politicians and saying, hey, you are being targeted by China to be boosted or defeated.
00:35:36.540That's an extraordinarily wide battlefront that China has opened up here.
00:35:42.660I mean, even if, let's say, four of those are in each district.
00:35:48.800So let's say you have a riding, like there's some Vancouver area ridings or Toronto area ridings where there's a lot of Chinese Canadians.
00:35:56.180I could imagine that the Chinese government would target those districts and every candidate in there.
00:36:01.700So maybe you have 30 districts where four of the politicians eat, but that's still an enormous, that would make the difference.
00:36:09.68030 districts, 30 ridings being swayed one way or another is absolutely enough in our minority parliament to choose who wins the election or not.
00:36:21.400117 is, and as you point out, that doesn't even include Michael Chan.
00:36:24.840I don't think Canadians knew the scale of this, and that's just China, sounds like.
00:36:31.400Who knows what Iran is up to and others also.
00:36:35.820Yeah, that was another interesting thing.
00:36:37.720So just going through Sam Cooper's report following up on Global News.
00:36:41.440So he said specifically it was 71 MPs.
00:37:03.820You know, we have the SITE task force, and that's our election sort of watchdog, and what they're supposed to do is they're supposed to do election monitoring, things like that, and, you know, alert us if there's any sort of threats to the integrity of our elections.
00:37:18.580SITE wasn't activated, to my knowledge, for 2019 and 2021.
00:37:23.760It was just activated, though, recently when they were monitoring, they say, for a by-election, and that's when they picked up a secondary campaign against Michael Chong, and that was news as well, right?
00:37:35.780And I actually, we did some work, and we published, we actually traced that campaign directly back to the PRC.
00:37:42.080They said that they could not trace it back to the People's Republic of China.
00:37:46.900It was very, very quickly able to determine who was putting out this information.
00:37:52.240It was by, it went back to Global Times.
00:37:54.760So that's a state propaganda process, starting to put out this information.
00:37:59.360So we found that, and we published that article.
00:38:01.780So, yeah, I mean, fascinating, you know, to think that 15 federal ministers had this information, and this is the first that we're hearing about it, and this was through an access to information that anybody could file.
00:38:15.120And the other thing is that five senators were aware.
00:38:36.500And we know so many of these cabinet ministers are going to China all the time.
00:38:40.880Even when the two Michaels were held hostage, you had cabinet ministers going to China, not only to suck up to the Communist Party of China, but perhaps to be influenced by them in return.
00:38:54.660Do you think that this ruling, this judge will issue some sort of a finding or report that will be useful?
00:39:03.500Or do you think the real use here is to give people an opportunity to air facts like what you've just said?
00:39:10.020I would say, at least if we hear things like what you've just told me, there's some use to this inquiry.
00:39:16.600But I'm skeptical that the judge is going to actually give suggestions that are of any use.
00:39:21.880I think she was handpicked by Trudeau for a reason.
00:39:24.000I think that she said it's not so much about pointing fingers or placing blame.
00:39:34.860Yes, it is a bit of a fact-finding mission.
00:39:39.120I'm also of the opinion a little bit that the how is more important than the who and the why.
00:39:47.060But the who matters as well, because you can't get to the bottom of the why and the how unless the people who maybe were involved were honest.
00:39:59.420If you want to take Handong, for example, and I've done a lot of work on Handong, and he's the people who ran his campaign, specifically one man who's been mentioned as a person of interest to ceases, Wei Cheng Yi.
00:40:11.660You know, I've traced his whereabouts in Canada back to 2010 so far.
00:40:19.780You know, he's been deeply involved with the Chinese Communist Party from the get-go.
00:40:23.880This is one of the people who's actually been invited to the political conferences.
00:40:28.200He was personally recognized and singled out in Beijing by Xi Jinping himself.
00:40:35.880And then he came back here and, you know, threw his weight behind Handong.
00:40:41.020So when Handong says that he wasn't aware of any sort of foreign interference and, you know, that he was maybe getting some help or some, you know, some support from a foreign government, I'm sorry.
00:40:54.860I don't believe that he doesn't know that the person who was working on his campaign, he announced his run from this person's office.
00:42:03.680They start at school boards and at the municipal level and then work their way up the chain.
00:42:09.380So and this is what happened to Handong, right?
00:42:12.020He started meeting with these people before he was a federal candidate back, you know, way back when.
00:42:18.560So unless those people are honest and say, yes, I do think that maybe some people who were involved in my campaign had insider links to the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
00:44:32.960And to bring a bit of credibility back to this after the Uyghurs pulled out, you know, perhaps to grant standings to some people who were intervener status standing.
00:44:43.840To some people who were denied it before and give them an equal opportunity to call witnesses and examine and cross-examine.
00:44:51.960Because that's the only way that we are going to get somebody who's going to ask those questions to some of the people who are maybe have questionable ties.
00:46:34.640I hope you're following TexasBorderReports.com because Lincoln and Alexa are just pumping out tons of videos.
00:46:40.420Mr. Vivalos Legos says, in Trump's defense, he tried several times to build a better wall, but Congress continually blocked him from doing so.
00:46:48.420Yeah, I don't think he tried hard enough.
00:46:50.380Listen, I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I get the feeling that if Donald Trump wanted it done, truly wanted it done, he could have got it done.
00:47:00.800But I think that breaking that – or not keeping that promise was one of his greatest failures.
00:47:08.540Elizabeth Monsell says, thank you, Rebel News, for covering this, for speaking frankly and truly and putting boots on the ground.
00:47:15.160This is impacting USA and Canada so much.
00:47:17.120Well, one of the things that Alexa talks about, because she's covered that Roxham Road border crossing, is when people come from New York State into Canada or other border crossings too, including, for example, in Manitoba, they're obviously not Americans.