The National Post attacks their star columnist, Rex Murphy. Meet the members of the mob.
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Summary
The National Post bows to the mob and attacks their star columnist Rex Murphy for his recent column on race and identity. And then, an editor's note mysteriously appears on top of the column, saying there was a problem with the writing.
Transcript
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Hello my friends, today I go through the latest in the National Post's struggle session denouncing
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Rex Murphy. I go through the letter written by about 30 people, well it wasn't written by 30
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people, it was signed by about 30 people in the National Post newsroom denouncing Rex as a racist
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and I see some interesting things about those 30 names including there's not a single black person
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on the list. Oh and it gets better from there so stay with me for that and then afterwards I
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interview a member of the provincial parliament of Ontario who is sick of the pandemic lockdown.
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Oh it's a good show today. Hey before I invite you to listen to the podcast please consider
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becoming a premium subscriber. We call it Rebel News Plus. It's eight bucks a month. You get the
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video version of the podcast plus shows by Sheila Gunn-Reed and David Menzies and all that is
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available at rebelnews.com and just click the subscribe button. Okay here's today's show.
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Tonight the National Post bows to the mob and attacks their star columnist Rex Murphy. It's June 15th
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my
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A while back I showed you Rex Murphy's column in the National Post that made the case that
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while not perfect Canada is not a systematically racist country. In fact as Rex pointed out being
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un-racist being tolerant being multicultural that's the focus of so much of our public institutions.
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It's absurd to call Canada racist frankly and it only suits the purpose of federal politicians
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looking to divide us against ourselves for their own interests. So Rex Murphy wrote that column
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and a young Indo-Canadian woman from Sri Lanka actually fairly new to Canada. She still has a
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fairly thick accent. She condemned not only Rex as racist but condemned Canada as racist. Yeah
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unlike the tolerant paradise of Sri Lanka and its decades-long ethnic civil war about 200,000 immigrants
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have recently come to Canada from Sri Lanka. I'd be surprised if 20 people have moved from Canada
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to Sri Lanka to Sri Lanka. So that young woman Van Mela Subramaniam who is a junior writer for the
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National Post hasn't even been there for two years. She made a fuss about Rex Murphy and she was given
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a column in the National Post to rebut him. All right fair enough but I read it carefully. She
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she didn't rebut him actually. She just insulted him again and again for being white and 73 years old.
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Funny that sounds racist to me and ageist too. Maybe she proves her point though. Canada still has
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pockets of racism and intolerance. She just didn't mean herself did she? Maybe we do need to do a better
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job of teaching newcomers like Van Mela Subramaniam about respecting people of all backgrounds.
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She's a bit of a bigot. I was disappointed because I'd like to see a clash of the intellectual
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titans. I mean Rex Murphy I don't know if you know this he's a Rhodes scholar for heaven's sakes. He's
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the editor of a dictionary. I bought it. It's got a lot of words in it. If you if you come for Rex
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don't bring an intellectual knife to a gunfight is what I'm saying. Calling him names and saying he
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shouldn't even have the right to an opinion. She wrote that in the post. That just doesn't do it.
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It was so weak, so awful, so embarrassing. But that wasn't the end of it. On Friday I noticed
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this. An editor's note conspicuously put on top of Rex Murphy's column. Look at that.
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This column by Rex Murphy provoked a strong reaction from readers. Okay that's good. That's
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what you're trying to do. Upon review it was determined that there was a failure in the normal
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editing oversight that columns should be subjected to. This issue has been identified and policies
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changed to prevent a repeat. We apologize for the failure. Hmm? There was a failure in the normal
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editing oversight that columns should be subjected to? Well may I point out that that editor's note
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needs an editor. That sentence ends with a preposition subjected to? I'm kidding. Who are we
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kidding? There was nothing wrong with the editing of Rex Murphy's column. He's a Rhodes Scholar. He has
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the entire Oxford English Dictionary at his home. That's as big as an encyclopedia. You're telling me
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there was an editing problem with Rex Murphy from guys who don't even know how to end a sentence
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grammatically? Yeah no. The issue has been identified? Really? Okay uh what issue? It has been identified?
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Well it it hasn't been identified in this editor's note has it? Policies have been changed to prevent
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a repeat. Oh I thought it was an editing problem not not a policy problem. What policies plural have
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been changed? We apologize for the failure. Sorry mate I still don't know what the failure is. Is it the
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policy or or what's what's the issue here again? Other than the obvious Rex Murphy said something
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politically incorrect and the cowardly editors of the National Post don't quite have the courage to
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come right out and say it because they'd lose what remains of their plummeting circulation and Rex
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Murphy himself would probably quit if the truth came out. You're not allowed to say what Rex said.
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What a bunch of weasels are at the National Post eh? I'm so embarrassed. I used to work there 20 years
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ago when it stood for something. All right so this is basically where we were the other week when I
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defended Rex Murphy's column the first time against Van Mello's Supermanium. I think it might have stung
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her a little bit because listen to this. I'm going to play this twice and please tell me if you
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understand this baffle gap. What has the response been like from this article? What have you learned
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from it? There were people who were very very supportive but there were also people who are very racist
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in their responses. Very very angry calling me a racist for saying for kind of saying that a white
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person was racist which in itself is a problematic statement for you know various reasons that would
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probably take us another 30 minutes to explore. People who were very racist for calling her a racist
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because calling a white person a racist which is problematic for various reasons. How does this
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person even work in communications industry? But she's lying. She wasn't called a racist because she
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called Rex a racist. She didn't actually call Rex Murphy a racist in the article which is odd that she
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didn't know that. It's almost like maybe she didn't write her own essay. She was called a racist because
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she denounced Rex Murphy specifically for being a 73 year old white male. It was her first and most
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adamant argument. She was shocked that she would be called a racist for being a racist because normally
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she gets to be a racist and nobody calls her out for being a racist and unlike Rex Murphy she really
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is a racist so I guess he he has a lived experience with racism now. Boy are these people full of crap
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and it's take a look at that one more time. It's unbelievable. What has the response been like from
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this article? What have you learned from it? There were people who were very very supportive but there were
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also people who were very racist in their responses very very angry calling me a racist for saying for
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kind of saying that a white person was racist which in itself is a problematic statement for
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you know various reasons that would probably take us another 30 minutes to explore. Anyways that was
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actually um weeks ago now that that whole thing happened but the editor's note went up just on Friday
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just as incoherent as Van Mela Subramaniam but then a story leaked to vice.com to a reporter who just
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happens to have worked with Van Mela at Vice. Gee I wonder I wonder who leaked it to her. Um it's this
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woman another Indo-Canadian woman it's so weird literally every single news outlet in Canada now has a
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racism columnist but none of them are black men all of them are Indo-Canadian women literally the
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highest income ethnic group in Canada. Someone will have to explain that phenomenon to me one day
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why you've got like six Indo-Canadian women writing about the Black Lives Matter beat. They're the richest
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people in Canada. Anyways put aside that let me show you what was given to Vice. Um journalists at
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Canada's biggest conservative newspaper revolt over column denying racism. In audio from a town hall
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National Post journalists are heard grilling their editors about the publication of Rex Murphy's column.
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The opinion editor called it a f-up. I won't say the whole word. Okay so now we know why that editor's
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note went up when it did and now we know what the issue and policy and failure were. It was nothing
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to do with Rex. I frankly doubt the man has had a spelling or grammar error in 50 years of work.
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It was a thought crime. That's what the problem was. There was a big struggle session at the National
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Post. I don't think Rex himself was in on it but boy the editors sure were. What a disgrace they are.
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Here read this. The publication of a column by Rex Murphy that denied the existence of systemic racism
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in Canada was an f-up according to the National Post's opinion editor who made the remark in an
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internal town hall. Oh so there was no editing problem. It was just Rex Murphy isn't allowed to
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have that opinion. It's an opinion column though. On the opinion pages though. But you see it's not
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allowed as an opinion now because a group of junior writers and interns at the newspaper didn't like it.
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Okay. Vice News has obtained an audio recording of the town hall which took place June 10th as well as
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an email exchange between journalists at the newspaper and editor-in-chief Rob Roberts. The email sent to
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Roberts June 4th described Murphy's column as lazy, ignorant, and dehumanizing the black and
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indigenous peoples. It was signed by around 30 journalists, more than half the Post's newsroom.
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Just stop there for a moment. Imagine calling Rex Murphy either ignorant or lazy. I mean you can call
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him wrong. You can call him unfair or unreasonable. You can call him a white male as Supermanium did.
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Those are all matters of opinion though. Wrong, you know mean, whatever. But lazy and ignorant? Yeah I don't
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think they've ever met Rex Murphy. Let me read some more. For journalists of color in the National
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Post newsroom, every time a piece like this is published we feel more unwelcome at this paper
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and come closer to giving up on this industry, the email said. Wow, 30 people signed it, more than half
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the newsroom. And they said they found it demeaning as people of color and indigenous people.
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Guys, there are no black people or indigenous writers at the National Post. Just none. There are a few of
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those wealthy and privileged antis from India, as we discussed at length the other day. It's a wonderful
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phenomenon. Indo-Canadians are literally richer than Chinese Canadians, literally richer than Jews.
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They're the top of the heap. And I say keep it up guys. We need to learn from how is that community
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so successful in Canada. I admire Indo-Canadians so very much. But yeah, they're not black or indigenous
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and they're not really thinking about giving up on the industry. Any of these writers, the white ones
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or the Indo-Canadians, sort of the opposite. The National Post and the rest of the media industry
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keeps laying off reporters every few months because no one wants to read their crap. People
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want to read Rex Murphy. Oddly enough, they don't want to read people who just came here so recently
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that they have a foreign accent, but they're telling us that we're bigots. Oddly enough,
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that doesn't seem to sell newspapers. But boy, is Matt Gurney a coward. He's the editor who said this
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was an F-up. They all stabbed Rex Murphy when he wasn't there. I remember when Matt Gurney was a
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conservative way back in the day. He was a conservative for about 10 minutes and then he
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decided he wanted to fit in with the cool kids in Toronto and not be marginalized for being, you know,
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conservative. So he specialized in being a conservative who isn't conservative, who craps on
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real conservatives. So liberals like conservatives like him. My old friend Charles Adler has gone the
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same path too. If you need to earn money and can only think of yourself working for one of Canada's
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few large media oligopolies, that's the way to do it. It's quite sad. Hey, do you believe Laurel and
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Hardy over there? I thought you edited it. No, I thought you edited it. Who's on first? No, who's on second?
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No, that's just embarrassing. I read the story in Vice by Van Mela's friend about the town hall meeting
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at the Post. I like that. Like they're voters or something, like they're shareholders at a board
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meeting or something as opposed to what they really are, interns. As the Post's longtime chairman,
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Paul Godfrey says, the newspaper's pretty crummy these days, but it's not yet unacceptable. That's how
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he calls his papers. And they're going to keep cutting dead weight until they get some profit out
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of it, which means he's going to cut those self-important journalists at the town hall.
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But this, here's the chutzpah. But Gurney said, Murphy's column wasn't at a level that I would
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have wanted it to be. In particular, he said the statement declaring Canada isn't racist,
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which ended up being the headline was indefensible. Hey guys, Matt Gurney really wishes Rex were a
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better, you know, better writer, better thinker, you know. I mean, Matt Gurney has to defend Rex's work
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and he can't. It's indefensible. Rex really let Matt Gurney down, guys. Now I know you probably
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have never heard of this Matt Gurney I'm talking about. I just Googled him. I swear I chose this
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video by him at random. It showed up in the first Google results. I'm going to play it for you in
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full. It's only about 90 seconds. I want you to hear the kind of editorial level that the National
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Post aspires to. This is Rex Murphy's editor. I'm not even kidding. This is the guy who calls the
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publication of Rex's column an F up. This is the guy who says Rex Murphy's views are indefensible.
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This is 90 seconds, but it will feel like 90 minutes. Watch this. Normally I write about pretty
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serious stuff. Policy, international affairs, social issues. Don't really have any of that on my mind
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today, at least not yet. What is on my mind is that Twitter can be really annoying sometimes.
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Partially it's my fault because I only actually really follow fellow journalists. I mean, I also follow
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some of my friends, a couple of musicians I like, actors who've been in TV shows I've liked, things
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like that, but mostly it's journalists. Last night, wife's in bed, kids are down to sleep, don't have
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really anything going on. So I decide I'm going to read a book and just kind of keep up on Twitter. I'm
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looking for some easy, cheap entertainment. All I see are dozens of Canadian journalists all
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breathlessly reporting the same two vote lead or four point drop or whatever in the two by-elections
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that were going on that aren't going to matter because we have a general election coming up
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in a year anyway. So what we really need to do rather than have my entire Twitter feed,
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I can just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and see dozens of people reporting
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the same really preliminary useless news. We need to appoint a Twitter pool. We need to come up with
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a way, just like sometimes you can't send all the reporters with the prime minister. So you send one
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guy with a camera and everybody gets to share the coverage. We need someone like this on Twitter
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so we can have one person tweeting the news. It's something like this that's planned. And
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the rest of us can just go on tweeting about cats or stupid things our spouses have said or
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cute kitten videos or sports or music or video game controversies. You know, the important stuff
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we ought to be using the internet to talk about.
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What? I feel dumber now. I don't even know what that was. And that video was approved by someone
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and someone pointed the camera at him and said, you nailed it. You totally nailed it. Look at the
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view count on that video. It's a five views, including mine. How do you only get, that's for real.
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Yeah. Talk about a policy failure and editing failure. What even was that?
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How can that guy be Rex Murphy's boss? Oh my God. It's so weird. Anyways, I haven't heard the audio
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of this two hour struggle session like Vice has. I understand it wasn't done in person. It was over
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Zoom, which is like Skype people at all their homes on their webcams. I take it that Rex Murphy
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himself wasn't on the call. I doubt Matt Gurney or Rob Roberts, that's a great name too,
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would have had the courage to call Rex's column an F up if he had been there. I'd like to hear the
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audio in a slow down and rubberneck at a traffic accident kind of way. But I did get a copy of the
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complaint email that was circulated and I'd like to read some of it to you now. Some of it was quoted
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in the Vice article. I'll just read a little bit, but my main point is at the end of it. Okay. So stick
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with me for a couple more minutes. Good morning, Rob. We wanted to email you about Rex Murphy's
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column. Canada is not a racist country, despite what liberals may say. We are hurt, saddened,
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and angered by this column. Stop there for a second. Do you think that's really true? Do you think
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these 30 men and women are hurt, saddened, angered? Are you children or grown-ups? You know you work
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for a newspaper, right, that has an opinion section, right? Do you know what happens there? People have
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opinions, sometimes even different ones. Imagine saying you work for a newspaper, but you're hurt
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and saddened and angered because you didn't agree with something on the opinion page. I think I've
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seen this before. Donald J. Trump is now President of the United States. President Obama.
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What a great honor to be able to introduce for the first time ever anywhere that 40...
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Yeah. I'm not going to read this whole complaint, but here's more. This column dehumanizes black and
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indigenous peoples, erasing their lived experiences of racism in this country. Murphy's argument that
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Canada is not a racist country is not a controversial opinion. It is outright false. I'll get back to the
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race thing in a moment, but I say again, Rex Murphy offered an opinion. Opinions are reasonable or
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unreasonable. They're persuasive or not persuasive because they're opinions. If someone says,
00:19:15.880
those vegan Beyond Burgers are delicious, it's not true or false. It's an opinion. You can agree
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or disagree or call someone crazy, but it's not outright false because it's an opinion.
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These critics are not real journalists. They're children throwing a tantrum. Let me read some
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more. As post-media employees, we would like to know what the editorial standards and processes
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are that would allow a piece like this to go live. Imagine the chutzpah of junior interns demanding
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to know why Rex Murphy, the National Post's only remaining brand name columnist, is published.
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Imagine not knowing the answer. Whether you agree with them or not, imagine the chutzpah of these
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no-name millennial cannon fodder journalists, many of whom are going to be laid off next quarter
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in Paul Godfrey's next round of cuts. Imagine them demanding to oversee the editor-in-chief's
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decision. I'd like to speak to the manager, please. And then they go back home to their
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parents' basements and feel hurt and saddened. Let me read some more.
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Murphy's generalized statements about a welcoming immigrant system and tolerant schools are lazy,
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ignorant, and frankly, point to how little care he gave to the subject of his column.
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You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
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Okay, I promised I wouldn't read it all. Let me just read a little more.
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For the journalists of color in the National Post newsroom, every time a piece like this
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is published, we feel more unwelcome at this paper and come closer to giving up on this industry.
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Hey, guys. Please don't give up on the industry. I mean, please hang in there a little bit longer
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for Paul Godfrey to give up on you. Actually, he doesn't even own Post Media, does he?
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That's right. Post Media is owned in New Jersey by a cutthroat hedge fund called Chatham Asset
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Management. They're headquartered in the States. No offense, I don't think Chatham Asset Management
00:21:14.180
in New Jersey could even find Canada on a map of North America. They're not called Chatham
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Editorial Management. They're called Chatham Asset Management. And their only goal is to wring
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every last penny from a dying company. I just read the biographies of their senior officers.
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Their MBAs, their bankers, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers. Guys, I'll let those asset managers
00:21:39.180
in New Jersey know that you really don't want to give up on this industry. Okay. Let me read some more.
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We ask that you, along with senior editors involved in publishing Murphy's Column, begin taking the first
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steps towards accountability. Hey guys, you're junior writers and interns. Van Mella has been at the
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Post for not even two years. I think it's wonderful that you're asking your bosses to answer to you.
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I think you should write a letter to Chatham Asset Management too and demand accountability from them.
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I mean, they're a bunch of old white guys. They're that bad. Total Rex Murphy types. You'd hate
00:22:15.960
them. You should ask them to begin to take the first steps of accountability. Maybe they'd fly in
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on their private jet from Chatham Asset Management and you could take the bus from your parents' house
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and you could meet up somewhere and talk. Let me read some more. An editor's letter published to
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the website could be a great start. Well, they did that, didn't they? Rob Roberts and Matt Gurney
00:22:39.260
Caved In. We would also like to have this issue addressed in a newsroom town hall. Well, they did
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that too. They caved in. Anyways, it rambles on a bit more and it's signed by a bunch of whiners.
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And I say again, not a single one of them is black or indigenous. I swear to God, not one of them is
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black or aboriginal. So they put all the minority names right at the top just to make it look a little
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bit less white and male. Like I say, it's largely Indo-Canadian women, literally the most successful,
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wealthiest, most privileged group in Canada. And they're just role play. It's almost like they're
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in blackface in a way. Devika Desai, junior web producer, two years on the job. She came to Canada
00:23:23.020
from Dubai. So yeah, she must really hate racist Canada. Deanna Duong. She's been at Post Media.
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I kid you not. She's been there for eight months. She's still on probation. Bianca Barty. She graduated
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from school last year. She's a junior web producer at the Post. Has she found the bathroom yet and the
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cafeteria yet? No matter. She knows that Rex Murphy's wrong because she knows the newspaper
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business. She held down a job at the Toronto Star for five whole months before coming to Post.
00:24:00.340
Sounds like you guys hired a real keeper there. I mean, good going. Anisha Demon, another junior web
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editor. She graduated in 2018. So she's been at the Post for two years plus two months. So she's the old
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pro. And that is it for minorities. There are no more minorities. Then it's just a bunch of white guys
00:24:23.940
who are just as white as Rex Murphy. But unlike Rex Murphy, they're terrified of being called racist.
00:24:31.280
So they will sign literally anything so they don't get smeared like he did. Some intern wrote a childish
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tantrum letter. And some of these reports, I know some of them. Some of them have been at the Post
00:24:44.040
for 20 years actually. They actually signed this Dear Diary letter written by some Marxist intern
00:24:50.980
saying they were hurt and angered and saddened by Rex Murphy saying that Canada is a great country.
00:24:57.620
No, they weren't hurt and angered and saddened. They were just cowardly like Matt Gurney and Rob Roberts.
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Let me read some more. Richard Warnica. He's so white he's pink. Adrian Humphreys. I really like Adrian
00:25:09.920
Humphreys and his work. I've interviewed him before for a book he did. He's so white. I think
00:25:15.700
he actually might be an albino. I'm not being mean. I'm just describing him how white he is. I think
00:25:20.980
he's an albino. Nikola Sokic. He's another baby journalist. He's been there for eight months and
00:25:27.780
he's telling them what, look at this guy. Jacob Dubé hasn't even been with the Post for a year.
00:25:33.280
Here's what he's like in his normal life. His Twitter feed calls for the abolition of police.
00:25:40.300
So yeah, good hire, National Post. I'm shocked that he wants to tear you down the same way he
00:25:45.620
wants to tear down society. Caleb Marsh is a hoot, judging by his social media posts. He's all about
00:25:52.060
being alternative and zigging where the world is zagging. Diversity, a little bit eccentricity.
00:25:57.360
diversity. He's for a diversity on everything except a diversity of opinions. Not on that.
00:26:06.380
Well, either that or he's just scared of being labeled a white racist, so he turned on Rex.
00:26:12.820
Here's Victor Ferreira. Surely he should respect Rex Murphy just by virtue of his uncomfortable hair.
00:26:21.760
The guys are like twins. All right, I'll stop there. It's just pitiful. Talk about cultural
00:26:27.220
appropriation. Not a single black or indigenous reporter. A few Indo-Canadian women of wealth
00:26:32.320
and privilege. A bunch of kids just out of school. Seriously, some of them, I think, are still doing
00:26:37.060
their co-op work placement. And a few anti-sympathizers, according to their own social media, plus a bunch
00:26:43.220
of old white guys who are just plain terrified of getting labeled it racist if they don't keep their
00:26:47.960
heads down and go along with anything and sign anything and just let the girls from India do
00:26:53.260
the talking. You know, if the National Post had any self-respect, they'd bring in a black lecturer
00:26:59.240
to tell these bigots what's wrong with stereotyping. Someone like Candace Owens. To tell these non-black
00:27:06.500
activists that not all black people have the same opinion. And that it's a little bit racist to think
00:27:12.280
all blacks think alike and happen to think like they do. And it's really racist for a bunch of privileged
00:27:17.140
white kids plus three privileged brown women to claim to speak for black people. I think they
00:27:23.720
all need some lessons on free speech too, by the way. And I think Rex Murphy himself could give that
00:27:28.340
lecture to the newsroom. And I think each of these kids needs a bit of a spanking. A reminder that they
00:27:37.680
are junior employees and interns, not the board of directors. Hey guys, I don't think the coward Matt
00:27:45.040
Gurney would actually bring in Candace Owens for a talk. And I don't think Rex Murphy feels the need
00:27:50.420
to answer a bunch of lazy, ignorant people who call him lazy and ignorant. But I bet those guys down at
00:27:58.100
Chatham Asset Management, I bet they're preparing the spanking right now, even as we speak. You know,
00:28:07.880
I think the National Post could lay off pretty much everyone on that list and just keep Rex Murphy
00:28:14.600
and be even more profitable as if the reverse happened. What do you think? Stay with us for more.
00:28:37.880
Welcome back. Well, we have been covering the weekly rallies outside of Toronto's Queen's Park
00:28:43.520
legislature of severely normal people, often working class people, begging the government for
00:28:49.880
to let them go back to work. There are many very thoughtful arguments made from the abstract idea
00:28:57.740
of freedom to the practical idea of people have to pay their bills and every argument in between.
00:29:04.140
But alas, from within Queen's Park, it seems unanimous. Every politician is enjoying this lockdown just
00:29:13.040
a little bit too much, except for one MPP. That's what provincial politicians are called in Ontario.
00:29:20.520
Let me read to you from his website and let's see if you can guess who it is before I introduce
00:29:27.280
him to you. He's on hold and we'll interview him via Skype in a moment. Here's what his website says.
00:29:34.140
On March 13th, we declared a state of emergency. I was in support of giving the Premier the authority
00:29:40.020
to make swift decisions to handle the COVID-19 outbreak while the legislature was in recess.
00:29:46.940
Now, three months later, I can see this power has been abused to the detriment of the people of Ontario.
00:29:56.100
Throughout this outbreak, we have seen groups come together in defense of democracy,
00:29:59.820
with the hope of keeping our economy from ruin and to protect those left behind by our shuttered
00:30:05.540
healthcare system. Phone call after phone call began to learn the damages this lockdown has created
00:30:11.480
for countless people in my riding. From business closures to bankruptcies, ignored medical procedures
00:30:18.120
to unnecessary deaths. None a result of COVID-19, but rather the orders put by this government to
00:30:24.700
fight it. Has the cure become more dangerous than the disease? Very thoughtful questions.
00:30:33.040
And it won't surprise many of you to know that the MPP who wrote this is our friend, Randy Hillier,
00:30:39.420
the MPP for Atlantic Frontenac and Kingston, who has represented that riding and its predecessor
00:30:45.960
since 2007. What a pleasure to talk with you today, Randy. Welcome back to the program.
00:30:50.520
Great to speak with you today, Ezra. Well, likewise, and hearing those and your website goes on for
00:30:57.560
several more paragraphs, I would invite everyone to read it for themselves at RandyHillierMPP.com.
00:31:03.660
You really make the case to lift the emergency powers because I really think that flatten the curve
00:31:12.820
for two weeks has turned into flatten everything for three months, hasn't it?
00:31:17.280
Well, we certainly have flattened our economy. We have certainly flattened our access to health
00:31:24.140
care and medical attention. We have suffocated and killed off social interactions, which are
00:31:31.040
exceptionally necessary for people. And we've killed our education system. So we have flattened a lot of
00:31:40.340
things, Ezra. And it has caused significant harm, significant injury, significant consequences to a great
00:31:50.320
many people who are really not at risk to any great degree. You know, we know a lot more about the virus now
00:32:04.440
than we did back in March. And, you know, and if you're elderly, if you're in confined locations,
00:32:13.140
if you have poor health, you are at exceptional risk. But that doesn't apply to a great many people or the
00:32:25.140
majority of people in Ontario. And they are now facing significant hardship. Like I said, the numbers of
00:32:35.460
people that we've talked to who can't get necessary medical attention and who are in pain and suffering as a
00:32:44.700
result are not considered during this state of emergency. And it really is. It's time. It's it's long past time,
00:32:56.460
in my view, that elected members of the legislature are permitted once again, to engage in discussion,
00:33:05.480
engage in debate, and pass approval or disapproval on behalf of their constituents on government policies.
00:33:15.620
Randy, I remember those early weeks, no one knew a lot about this virus, because you couldn't trust
00:33:21.860
China, even if they were telling the truth. You really couldn't trust them. And what every public
00:33:28.080
health official said was we have to flatten the curve. And I mentioned that phrase, it doesn't mean
00:33:33.020
we're not going to get sick. It means we have to slow down the infectiousness of the disease,
00:33:39.920
so it doesn't overwhelm the hospitals. They never said, stay at home, so you don't get sick. It was so
00:33:46.600
that we don't all get sick at once. But here I'm showing on the screen now, a graph published by the
00:33:53.040
government of Ontario, of the number of outbreaks, we never reached that overload point, we have
00:34:00.060
absolutely flattened the curve. It's lower than even the best case scenario models predicted.
00:34:06.560
The new rate of infections is as low as it's been in two months. So the rationale has changed,
00:34:13.340
hasn't it? They said, don't overwhelm the hospitals. The hospitals are ghost towns now. Why are we still
00:34:18.740
in lockdown? Well, that's right. You know, we've met the objective. The objective was not to overwhelm
00:34:26.800
our health care system. And we beat that in spades. And kudos to the government for that part of it,
00:34:34.000
because they have, especially in the early days, when there was so much uncertainty, when there was so
00:34:40.400
much misinformation, when there were so many unknowns, you had to take a precautious attitude towards
00:34:47.200
this in a very cautious approach. But, you know, evidence has been revealed. And facts and evidence
00:34:55.960
are apparent now. But we achieved the objective. Our health care system was not overwhelmed. Our
00:35:04.560
hospitals are near empty. Our emergency rooms are empty. Our doctor practices, you know, physician
00:35:12.620
practices are still not, many of them are still not operating yet. And so we achieved everything
00:35:19.120
that we set out to achieve. And we know that those, you know, the peak of this was mid-April.
00:35:31.680
And we've seen since that time, a very steady decline. You know, we never, the most we ever had
00:35:43.320
was 1,000 people in our hospitals, where we added additional capacity of like 15,000. So, you know,
00:35:53.200
that's been achieved. Why are we still in this state of emergency? Why are elected members not permitted?
00:36:01.560
To discuss. Hear the, hear the advice. And, and past, as we're elected. You know, it's,
00:36:12.660
it's unwarranted and it's unjustified over three months later. And now talk today, coming out of
00:36:21.280
Queen's Park, is there going to extend it through July for this state of emergency? You know,
00:36:28.440
we did, again, we, we couldn't trust the numbers from communist China, but now we have so many
00:36:34.760
numbers from Canada itself and the United States and even Italy, which sort of got the virus before
00:36:40.820
we did. And it is not a virus that, uh, that affects the young in a great manner. I don't think
00:36:48.720
there's a single Canadian under age 20 who has died from the virus. I was looking at, uh,
00:36:55.120
well, we know that's true. There is nobody under the age of 19 has been, um, has died as a result
00:37:02.960
of COVID. And if you look at the Ontario numbers, um, you know, it is well over 90% of, uh, people who
00:37:12.940
have, um, suffered fatalities are, uh, over 60 and with, um, other serious health problems as well.
00:37:24.460
You know, in the area that I represent, Ezra, we have the two health units, uh, has a population
00:37:31.500
of about 400,000 people. And this is, I think, important for people to realize because different
00:37:37.740
areas are affected and impacted differently, but in this area of 400,000 people, we have had three
00:37:45.980
deaths from COVID outside of long-term care and the average age was 86. Um, and, you know, just to keep
00:37:54.700
that in perspective, you know, the, the life expectancy in this country is 82. You know, as much as we would
00:38:02.380
like to live for, for a long, long time, um, you know, there is an end date for us all. And if you
00:38:10.140
are sick and elderly, um, um, you know, the virus is a far greater and an elder with other illnesses
00:38:21.580
ought to be taking greater precautions, but it closed down our education system to close down our healthcare
00:38:28.620
system, uh, to close down our economy, uh, reduce our standards of living, reduce the social determinants
00:38:36.780
of health. Um, uh, you know, we have to look at that and look at it critically. And is this a reasonable
00:38:47.500
approach to continue on? Yeah. Um, passing judgment on, on those early days, because I do think there was
00:38:54.780
a lot of good things done in the early days, um, some not so good things as well, but, uh, but that
00:39:01.020
was more from the unknowns in the misinformation. Um, but is it, is it justified to continue down that
00:39:10.060
path today? I don't believe so. Well, I mean, you, you mentioned the average age in your district,
00:39:16.700
400,000 souls, the average age of the, uh, of the three deceased in the mid eighties. And of course,
00:39:23.020
each of those deaths is a tragedy for the family, but it, it points to where we ought to point our
00:39:27.820
care as opposed to closing down all the schools, closing down all the sports, closing down. I mean,
00:39:33.580
it's summertime now, all the summer activities for kids camps. It, it's just madness to me that
00:39:41.020
if the people in jeopardy our, our, our grandparents and great grandparents,
00:39:45.820
give them 90% of the attention, 90% of the care and 90% of the worry and let the kids run around.
00:39:53.900
I, it, it boggles my mind. And here's my question to you. You know, Doug Ford a lot better than I do.
00:40:00.220
You were originally elected as a conservative and you know, the man and you knew his late brother.
00:40:06.700
Those were reasonable business people, common sense. They had, uh, you know, a foot on their
00:40:12.380
feet were on the ground. They weren't part of this elite, uh, bossy authoritarian class of public
00:40:19.020
health officials and, and, and I know better than you types. How, how is it that Doug Ford
00:40:26.220
is now not only listening to what the elites say, but disparaging those let us work protesters,
00:40:33.820
calling them yahoos and whatnot. What's happened to Doug Ford, the man who used to stand up to the
00:40:39.740
elites and the bossy people? Yeah. Listen, the, uh, referring to people as yahoos
00:40:45.820
for having a view and having an opinion that is contrary to your own is, you know, it's contemptible.
00:40:54.460
And, you know, listen, I, I, um, I think Doug is a, is a good individual. Um, I also believe that, um, he's
00:41:05.340
placed all his confidence, all his faith in, um, and misplaced his confidence and faith
00:41:16.060
in only public health officials. And as much as public health is important, uh, to us all,
00:41:24.780
important to society, um, there's other, uh, aspects of our lives that are also important
00:41:31.900
that ought to be taken into consideration. And, and, and he's made this choice that not only,
00:41:38.460
uh, you know, most of us expect experts to provide guidance and advice, but we don't expect experts
00:41:48.700
to make the decisions on our behalf. And this is what Doug has done. And he has said it clearly cabinet
00:41:56.140
will debate and discuss policy, but the COVID command table, that unaccountable, that unelected group of,
00:42:05.580
uh, public health officials who we won't even identify, will make the decisions.
00:42:10.940
Um, and they're not, they're not suited. They're not competent to make decisions about the economy,
00:42:20.860
about our education, about, um, you know, our social interactions. They're, they're public health
00:42:27.820
officials. You know, as it reminds me, you know, of, of, uh, Stephen Leacock's old saying about experts,
00:42:36.940
you know, an expert is somebody who goes to university to learn more and more about less and less every year,
00:42:48.140
until such time that they know everything there is to know about very little.
00:42:53.900
Uh, um, you know, and we need to understand that that's why our, our governance, our country has been
00:43:03.820
so blessed and so effective is we listen to in a democracy. We listen to everybody. We hear
00:43:11.740
various perspectives from in various diverse opinions, and we use that knowledge to make a
00:43:18.620
policy that is beneficial to everyone. We don't look at just a singular, uh, facet of life to make
00:43:27.660
all our determinations on. Yeah. Well, I tell you, show me someone who's calling for a
00:43:34.860
lengthened lockdown, and I'll show you someone who hasn't missed a paycheck. The average paycheck
00:43:40.700
for a lot of these public health officers is in the $300,000 plus range. Not only are they enjoying
00:43:46.780
a healthy living, they're, they're having the time of their lives. People listen to them. They're,
00:43:50.700
they're celebrities on TV. And as you say, they don't have any messy business, like actually having to
00:43:56.060
listen to constituent concerns. Hey, I got one last question for you, Randy. And by the way,
00:44:00.780
thank you so much for joining us. And, and I would refer everyone to your website,
00:44:04.620
RandyHillierMPP.com, where you refer to a petition on the subject. I know, uh, informally that there are
00:44:13.020
close to half a dozen conservative MPPs who share your skepticism of this never ending lockdown.
00:44:21.740
First, it was two weeks, then it was a month. Now it's three and a half months. Do you sense that
00:44:27.020
there is anyone else in the legislature, either within the government benches, or perhaps in the
00:44:33.020
opposition, who would say enough is enough? And the reason I asked that is because the emergency act
00:44:38.700
under which Doug Ford and the other political leaders in this country operates, they have sort
00:44:43.260
of fail safes in them. And if a certain number of MPPs or federally MPs object or want a, uh, a do over
00:44:51.900
or another vote or want to hold things to account, it's possible to trigger that accountability with a
00:44:58.540
handful of other MPs. Do you have any indication that conservatives, NDP or even liberal MPPs share your
00:45:07.180
growing concerns? People are sharing those concerns, Ezra. However, um, you know, party discipline is a
00:45:18.700
significant component of, uh, uh, every elected member's, um, um, determinations. I'm fortunate that I'm
00:45:28.700
independent, uh, and I can speak my mind without fear or favor, um, you know, and, and let's not be, uh,
00:45:38.700
there is still a significant public opinion as well, Ezra, uh, and it goes back to what you've just
00:45:45.980
previously said, um, you know, there are a lot of people in the pub, in public service and in, uh, in political
00:45:54.700
life who continue to derive their full incomes, continue to have their, uh, their pensions building,
00:46:02.300
um, and, and not having to go to work. And, you know, um, that's, that's a pretty good life. Um, you
00:46:10.860
know, they're not suffering in that regard, um, you know, um, you know, and, and there is a significant
00:46:19.980
amount of fear that still is there, you know, the, for the last three and a half months, people have
00:46:25.260
been faced a barrage every day, um, a continuous barrage every day of the fear of COVID. So let's not
00:46:34.060
be, um, you know, we can't dismiss those circumstances. Um, but I do know there are other MPPs
00:46:41.500
who share my views, but however, um, they're not able because of party discipline to speak as freely
00:46:53.100
as I am. Yeah. Well, we sure are glad that you are there speaking freely and thank you for joining us
00:46:58.220
today. I know you're out in your riding and you're in a, uh, somewhat public place there. So I appreciate
00:47:03.900
you jamming us in for this interview. It's so nice to see you again. It's so good to hear a blast
00:47:08.700
of common sense. I will refer people to your website, RandyHillierMPP.com. We'll have a link
00:47:14.900
to that under this video. It's great to see you. I hope we can keep in touch, not only on this issue,
00:47:20.060
but other issues. I feel like you are, as you say, you have the liberty to speak your mind,
00:47:25.820
whereas most MPPs don't. So it's great to see you. Good chatting with you, Ezra, as always, and hope to
00:47:31.980
keep in touch. And, uh, um, and yeah, uh, being independent does provide me that opportunity and,
00:47:39.900
uh, um, I'm not going to lose sight or, uh, and I will take advantage of, uh, having that freedom
00:47:47.340
to speak independently. Right on. Well, thank you, my friends. Stay safe, stay healthy, keep fighting
00:47:53.140
for freedom. Right on. Right on. There you have it. RandyHillierMPP.com. He is the member of
00:47:59.780
provincial parliament for Lanark, Frontenac, and Kingston, and has represented that region of
00:48:05.780
Ontario since 2007. Stay with us more. Hey, welcome back to my monologue of Friday on cancel
00:48:20.420
culture. Sherry writes, this woke culture nonsense seems more like censorship in disguise. It is
00:48:25.860
clever in that it keeps people in line with whatever narrative is being pushed, always afraid
00:48:29.700
to voice a real opinion because of fear of the mob. Oh, exactly. You know, I was looking at the names
00:48:35.780
of the people who signed that letter condemning Rex Murphy. There are people on that list who I know
00:48:41.620
support Rex. I used to work in the National Post 20 years ago. Um, some of the people have been there
00:48:46.660
the whole time. Rex is beloved at the post, maybe not by some of these new woke interns, but those
00:48:54.180
folks who have been there 10, 20 years signed this letter. They are utter cowards. They're afraid.
00:49:01.300
They're afraid. I don't know. Is it morally acceptable to knife someone in the back, call them a racist
00:49:07.380
to save your job if you're worried your family will go hungry? I don't know. I don't know. I think it
00:49:13.540
would take probably more than that for me to defame a friend as a racist falsely. Bruce writes,
00:49:19.940
how true it is that today's cancel culture are like Maoists holding self-denunciation sessions
00:49:24.500
and self-criticism sessions. Oh, yeah. I mean, seriously, all we were missing at the National Post
00:49:30.580
were those big dunce caps with signs on them. Um, just utterly pitiful. On my interview with Candace
00:49:37.700
Malcolm, Paul writes, great to hear from Candace. Being a big fan of True North, Canada's political
00:49:42.500
parties represent the interests of a handful of elitists and special interests, not the interests
00:49:46.100
of the Canadian people. Candace Malcolm, one of my favorite people. And I'm so glad she still has a
00:49:51.700
forum at the Toronto Sun from time to time. And I hope that will continue. But, you know,
00:49:59.460
she hasn't denounced Rex Murphy. So will she be next for the high jump? I sure hope not. But,
00:50:04.900
you know, post media, it's, if they'll, if they'll treat Rex Murphy that way, they'll treat anyone that
00:50:11.060
way. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,