The Trudeau Liberals are proposing a new whizbang idea in this day and age of fake news. Namely, they want to monitor social media sites in order to determine which content is acceptable for Canadians. Ezra Levent has all the lurid details.
00:03:32.420Why would they object to their private sector competitors just being regulated just like they are?
00:03:37.440So the Justin Trudeau liberals think it's a jolly good idea that they should be regulating social media.
00:03:42.920I mean surely elected officials and government bureaucrats can be fully entrusted to decide what is and is not fake news or fair news or suitable for our consumption news.
00:03:55.220However, as much as I hate to be a nitpicker here, a certain Latin phrase comes to mind.
00:04:00.860In other words, who watches the watchmen?
00:04:08.500And with more on this astonishing Orwellian story is our very own rebel commander, Ezra Levent.
00:04:39.780Not the other way around, which is where it should be.
00:04:42.200And she says it's particularly urgent that we do that during a campaign because who knows what bad thoughts might be thunk if we let that happen.
00:04:49.720About a month ago, she and the defense minister, Harjit Sajjan, had a press conference to talk about media training for Canadians.
00:05:03.140And one of the things, I'm not even making this up, it's in the government backgrounder, is they're going to spend $7 million on media training for Canadians, including having, I'm not even making this up.
00:05:25.800And one of the things that will be at these government awareness sessions is how the proper way to read an editorial.
00:05:31.560No, Ezra, what I'm thinking is I wasted three years of my life and thousands of dollars in tuition going to the Ryerson School of Journalism back in the 80s.
00:05:39.160When you could have just asked Trudeau the way it's done.
00:05:41.080I mean, see, it wasn't enough for Trudeau to give a huge raise to the CBC, to take it up to $1.5 billion a year.
00:05:49.240It wasn't enough for him to offer $595 million in bailouts to the private media, because there's still some people who won't take it, like us.
00:05:59.260And, of course, so much of the political conversation these days is not through formal journalists.
00:06:31.420They're in the name of, well, we've got to be careful of all those Russian trolls.
00:06:34.980Yeah, no, it's not a real problem here.
00:06:37.940But using that as the excuse to regulate Facebook and Twitter of Canadian users, it's so gross.
00:06:45.160And even just today, the head of the Privy Council, Privy Council clerk said, I'm deeply worried about Russian interference in our country.
00:07:33.580And France, in the last national elections there, Mark Zuckerberg, who's so trustworthy, David, I mean, do we even really need to doubt anything he's doing?
00:07:44.140He knocked off 30,000 different pro-Marine Le Pen pages.
00:08:07.740And I should remind you that a year ago, the Toronto Star Wall places had a scoop that I didn't see picked up anywhere else.
00:08:14.820That Justin Trudeau personally threatened Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, that if they didn't start censoring his critics, he would force them to through regulation.
00:08:25.840You know, Ezra, and that brings me to the question, what do you think is most disturbing?
00:08:29.820The fact that Justin Trudeau and his minions have this view about a future Ministry of Media Affairs, or whatever it'll be called,
00:08:38.600or the fact that so many mainstream media outlets are absolutely silent on this incredibly profound issue in which they have skin in the game?
00:08:49.400Yeah, not only are they silent, but in fact, Andrew Scheer is silent.
00:08:53.140His critic, Stephanie Cousy, wants the government to be tougher on foreign meddlers.
00:08:58.240Well, sure, I want them to be tough on foreign meddlers too, but that's not what we're talking about with media awareness sessions run by the government
00:09:04.500and censorship of grandma's Facebook account.
00:09:08.260And I checked the websites of the Canadian Association of Journalists, CAJ, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association,
00:09:17.540the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.
00:09:19.880All these groups, as you can tell by their names, hold themselves out to be civil libertarians.
00:09:24.260Not one of them has had a word to say against this new social media censorship.
00:09:28.380I can guarantee you that if the prime minister's name was Stephen Harper, and if he were saying,
00:09:33.760I want to have awareness sessions for the right way to read editorials, and we don't want any meddling,
00:09:38.820I can assure you there would be a five alarm fire at each of these organizations.
00:09:42.660But when it's Justin Trudeau, well, they know the Civil Liberties Association's Journalists for Free Expression Association of Journalists.
00:09:50.660They know that he's only going to go after the wrong sort of people like you and me, Dave.
00:09:54.980Yeah, and you know, you raise a great point, and that is the double standard, as you said in your commentary.
00:09:59.840If Stephen Harper had suggested this, in the South, if Donald Trump had suggested it.
00:15:53.260CBC is looking to hire someone to support the corporation in the implementation of its 2018-21 Diversity and Inclusion Plan.
00:16:04.800And more specifically, its vision to be the media leader in drawing on the wealth of unique Canadian perspectives to shape our content, workplace, and workforce.
00:16:18.200CBC and Radio Canada wishes to increase its employees' awareness and cultural competencies.
00:16:26.900The objective of this request is to select one or more providers for CBC and CBC Radio Canada's Diversity and Inclusion Program.
00:16:37.160More specifically, as it relates to unconscious bias and cultural competency trainings.
00:16:45.580The program can be delivered in person and or online.
00:16:49.780And the corporation welcomes innovative and cutting-edge solutions.
00:16:54.860The corporation's cultural competency training focus is on Indigenous peoples and persons with disabilities and other areas of interest, including visible minorities and the LGBTQ plus community.
00:17:11.940I don't know about you, but I haven't cracked open the CBC website recently and thought to myself, boy, oh boy, they're really treating sexual minorities unfairly over there.
00:17:25.380But yet, here they are at the CBC trying to find someone, anyone, to brainwash themselves.
00:18:13.760But, Sheila, I have to say, I was deeply offended that the CBC is using such an antiquated descriptor for the gay community by merely referring to it as the LGBTQ community.
00:18:28.200Because we know from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario that we're supposed to refer to this sector with that 15-letter identifier, namely, LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP.
00:18:42.800So, Sheila, why can't the CBC even practice what they preach?
00:18:46.560This is why they need the diversity coaches.
00:18:50.580This is why they're having that program.
00:18:52.980I mean, it speaks for itself that they can't get this stuff right, that they forgot half the alphabet in their acronym.
00:18:59.160But I just thought it was so funny that this news agency, who literally obsesses about these issues.
00:19:07.440I mean, I went to CBC Kids, and I just plugged in LGBTQ into the search engine.
00:19:15.820And I got sick of the results that I was getting because it's all they focus on.
00:19:25.600But this idea that CBC needs to be more culturally sensitive to Indigenous people and minorities, they literally have an Indigenous bureau.
00:19:34.500Like an entire bureau devoted strictly to Indigenous issues.
00:19:40.380So how much more sensitive do they need to get, I guess, is what I'm asking.
00:22:32.580They're not working on, hey, half the country is, for better or for worse, not a liberal.
00:22:38.500Maybe we could tailor our viewing so that we're not annoying them with their own tax money all the time.
00:22:45.260But that's not what they're worried about.
00:22:46.620They're worried about ticking the right boxes in the offices.
00:22:50.660And, you know, when it comes to ticking those boxes, when we get down to the nitty gritty of this, I mean, Sheila, at the beginning of your commentary, you read out the directives, which was giving me a headache.
00:23:02.380It was like a horrific masterpiece of bureaucraties to the point that it didn't even resemble English anymore.
00:23:12.220But in tangible terms, when it comes to, you know, meeting all these diversity inclusion targets, does somebody actually sit down with a checklist and go, let's see, we only have one person of color of native descent in a wheelchair.
00:23:40.100Actually, you know, tangibly defining this diversity and making sure they go out and hire these people for that diversity as opposed to, as I said earlier, merit or talent?
00:23:52.800You're asking the wrong lady here because I am not a gender studies graduate.
00:23:57.960And I think these are I always wonder, like, what did gender studies graduates do when they graduate?
00:24:02.940Like, what's the real world use for that?
00:24:07.920It's, you know what, let's be real here.
00:24:11.100If you are holding expensive meetings because you think you have some undisclosed, unrecognized personal bias against minorities, you're probably not biased against minorities.
00:24:23.080If you're losing sleep over this, you're probably not biased against these people.
00:24:27.120And Sheila, one last question you alluded to in your answer there.
00:24:31.180When it comes to the bottom line, we don't know, as you said in your commentary, how much this costs.
00:24:37.080But I've got this really queasy feeling in my tummy that we're talking maybe high six figures because they know how to, you know, live high on the hog down there.
00:24:48.300What do you think the bill is going to be for a redundant exercise to begin with?
00:25:12.960Yeah, I bet that's what this comes in at, because it's supposed to be multiple teachings and multiple different delivery methods so that they can access their brainwashing remotely.
00:26:51.420First, how would someone's ego be so inflated they would feel like the representative and focal point of an ensemble TV show like SNL,
00:26:58.300the face of entire TV networks, and also be the prime example of media as a whole?
00:27:04.520So much so that Trump would, as Baldwin put it, that he would be exhorting his followers to be a literal threat to him and his family.
00:27:11.160You know, because criticizing a show, the network, and media as a whole must obviously be a critique towards you, Alec Baldwin.
00:27:18.120This is because the left not only believes that it's morally superior, but must also look for hate anywhere as dog whistles and read between the lines to find it.
00:27:25.360I mean, really, the left seems so desperate to find hate and come off looking as if brave or as a victim that they might even stage hoaxes of hate crimes to fulfill this fantasy.
00:27:36.780I mean, no rational person or celebrity would use the empathy of the public to slander other people or their beliefs solely to prop themselves up, would they?
00:27:45.120Okay, so let's try to connect the dots here, folks.
00:27:47.380The president tweets out criticism about a TV program, and a member of that TV program, Alec Baldwin, interprets that criticism to be a call to violence?
00:27:58.260A threat to his personal safety somehow?
00:28:02.180But yeah, apparently somebody saying that they don't like something on air is akin to a hate crime, at least according to those on the loony left.
00:28:11.840Joining me now with more on this really bizarre story is our Tinseltown rebel, Ben Davies.
00:34:42.520Of course, it didn't take all that long for law enforcement to track down the 19-year-old Marcella.
00:34:47.620Oh, if only all criminals videotaped their criminal acts and posted their mayhem on YouTube.
00:34:53.860Yet it is Marcella's walk of infamy after her court hearing the other day that really makes one scratch the old noggin for there was no garbage bag over the head routine here to conceal her identity.
00:35:09.820For there was Marcella, center stage, all glammed up and flashing a million-dollar smile so befitting a future dental hygienist.
00:35:19.080Indeed, she was seemingly basking in the attention of what she likely deemed to be the paparazzi.
00:35:26.600It's as though she had lived all her life for this moment.
00:35:29.740Oh, at long last, Marcella snagged that which is known as fame or infamy, as the case may be.
00:35:42.120But hey, fame, infamy, what's the difference as long as it's accompanied by millions of keyboard clicks the world over?
00:35:49.840Remember when you had to have some sort of tangible skill set in order to become a celebrity?
00:35:54.740Well, these days, thanks primarily to the internet, one can achieve that Andy Warhol allotted 15 minutes of fame simply by doing something utterly stupid.
00:36:05.660Thankfully, this chair-tossing incident didn't end in tragedy, which is a bit of a miracle, all things considered.
00:36:13.380But in any event, here's what some of you had to say about Marcella Zoya and her act of selfish idiocy, something that she apparently thinks is cool.
00:36:26.180She'll be on The Ellen Show next week.
00:36:28.740I don't know if she's Ellen material, Dave, but I'd be surprised if Big Brother Canada or some other so-called reality TV show hasn't given her a call yet.
00:36:39.540And in a worst-case scenario, there's always the porn biz.