Three lockdown stories, all connected
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
159.47156
Summary
A reporter in B.C. asks Justin Trudeau a question, and he throws her away. CTV says it's the virus, not the pandemic, that s hurting kids, and Black Walks says it s the lockdowns.
Transcript
00:00:01.240
I have a few things I'm going to take you through in today's podcast.
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I'm going to read a few stories from CTV and Black Walks,
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but I'm also going to show you what happened to a reporter in B.C., Drea Humphrey.
00:00:16.320
He brushed her off, and boom, as if on cue, two of Trudeau's bodyguards came.
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One of them grabbed her, sort of like a rag doll, and wrenched her away from him.
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She was just asking a question he didn't like, and he had his bodyguards throw her away.
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We've set up a website at standwithdrea.com, and that will be at the end of today's show.
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Here's today's podcast, but before I get there,
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let me invite you to become a subscriber to the video version of the podcast.
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Tonight, I have three lockdown stories that are connected.
00:01:14.920
It's July 9th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
00:01:17.240
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, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody right to do so.
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The story is called, Most Ontario Youth Experience Depression During Pandemic, Early Data Suggests.
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I thought it only caused respiratory problems, coughs, things like that, and, you know, mainly in old people.
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But this pandemic, yeah, you learn new things every day.
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Preliminary research suggests the COVID-19 crisis is having sustained and significant impact on youth mental health in Ontario.
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Researchers at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children released initial findings Thursday,
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indicating that the majority of children and teenagers saw their mental health decline during the pandemic's second wave.
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Three times now, this story has claimed it's the pandemic that's doing this.
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The early data, which has not been peer-reviewed, shows that more than half of 758 kids aged 8 to 12 reported significant symptoms of depression from February to March.
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The psychological toll was even more pronounced among teenagers,
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with 70% of 520 adolescents aged 13 to 18 reporting significant depressive symptoms.
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The findings draw from the responses of roughly 1,500 parents and children in Ontario as part of a series of periodic surveys tracking youth mental health during the pandemic.
00:03:11.460
We've heard pandemic, COVID, pandemic, COVID crisis.
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But that's not actually what these doctors said, is it?
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Dr. Daphne Korczak, principal investigator of the ongoing SickKids-led study,
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says the research shows that Ontario's stringent lockdown measures,
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including extended school closures in some regions,
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have posed serious harms to young people that could have lasting consequences.
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God, boy, I had to read a long way through this, didn't I?
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It wasn't the virus, it wasn't the pandemic, it was the lockdowns,
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But there are some places in the United States that never stopped schooling at all.
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In much of Canada, Ontario's the worst, of course, school is by Zoom, so laptop computers.
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And hopefully you can have someone at home looking after your kids because they're not at school.
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And if the kids will only be doing work on the computer,
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is it really likely if they're watching Zoom all day that they're not also watching a movie or playing games
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Going to school by staying at home looking at your screen for eight hours.
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And then taking some relaxation by watching Netflix on your screen for a few hours.
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And then saying hi to grandma on your screen for a few hours via Zoom again.
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And then ordering stuff from Amazon through a screen.
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And ordering dinner and deliver through a screen.
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I think they're the official sponsor of the lockdown, CTV.
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Moderna co-founder says COVID-19 booster shots will almost certainly be needed.
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The co-founder of Moderna says a regular booster shot will almost certainly be needed to increase protection against COVID-19.
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Canadian stem cell biologist Eric Rossi told CTV News Channel on Wednesday that the body's immune system is primed by vaccination or primary infection.
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However, that immunity wanes over time if those systems are not challenged.
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I think boosters are most likely going to be in the cards.
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So this is the evidence emerging out of Israel that a booster is almost certainly the way, Rossi said.
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I presume he's one of the nine new pharmaceutical billionaires that have been minted because of the vaccines.
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And the CTV just publishes his wish list that people will have to take not one, not two, but now three doses and more boosters they're called.
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Can you imagine any other industry, any other billionaire who's selling something, let alone an experimental medication being given?
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Just a straight up stenographic boost like that.
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Just, hey, this billionaire says buy more of his stuff and let's just tell our viewers that and pretend it's not an ad.
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But as always, Theresa Tam is the most irritating and the most telling.
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This one is about submission and political ideology and never forget who your real bosses are.
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Candidates in an expected COVID election must campaign with masks on.
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Canada's chief public health officer said yesterday, Dr. Theresa Tam said,
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even candidates who are fully vaccinated must be masked in the company of strangers.
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But I guess a working definition of being a boss is when you give orders, do people follow your orders?
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Even if you're actually just an obscure, quirky bureaucrat who hasn't had a real patient in years
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and no one ever heard of you until last year and no one ever voted for you.
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But if you act like a boss and Trudeau obeys and the media obeys, I guess you're a boss.
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I encourage all political campaigners and their teams to follow those rules and get vaccinated, Tam told reporters.
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Canada has never held a general election in a pandemic.
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I have no say on the timing of any election, replied Tam.
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Obviously, there is guidance provided to how to reduce your risk in terms of wearing a mask, she said.
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Even if you are vaccinated and you don't know who else is around, whether the people you are encountering are vaccinated or not,
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then the most prudent precautionary thing to do is wear a mask and make sure there are some distancing measures.
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Now, if vaccines work, why do you need to wear a mask in distance?
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Come to me, if vaccines work, why do you need a vaccine passport?
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And actually, if vaccines don't work, why do you need a vaccine passport?
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Teresa Tam has nothing to say about elections, but she wants to.
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Masks are indeed a flag, proof that you believe, that you obey, that you want to signal to others what group you're in.
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Trudeau takes off his mask when he wants to, including when he was just overseas with world leaders at the G7.
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He's double vaxxed, of course, but now that he's on the campaign trail, he's wearing his mask again outdoors.
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To show that he's part of the elite team, the A team, the inside team, the team that's in charge, the team that can lock you down,
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the team that can force you to wear one mask or two masks, take one or two or three vaccine shots,
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and keep changing the rules of the game, keep dangling a freedom date in front of you.
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But, oh, shucks, we have this new variant, you know.
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And, yeah, things aren't going to get any better, are they?
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And Trudeau's going to get another majority, isn't he?
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Well, remember a few years ago when Justin Trudeau decided to add a political purity test
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The federal government claims it wants to help kids get summer jobs,
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and to do so they would provide grants for the kind of jobs you'd expect kids to do over the summer,
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including, for example, being a camp counselor, that sort of thing.
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But all of a sudden, if you were a business applying for a grant,
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you had to sign something called an attestation that you agreed with Justin Trudeau
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on his particular brand of sexual and religious morality.
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You had to support his views on things like being pro-choice and things like gay marriage.
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In other words, you could not get money for a completely unrelated thing.
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You could not get money to hire a student unless you swore in writing that you agreed with Trudeau on moral questions.
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By the way, you don't have to agree with Trudeau on moral questions.
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You're allowed in Canada under the Charter of Rights to have any opinion you like.
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Now, you're not allowed to discriminate in Canada, but you can hold any view you like.
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Justin Trudeau, however, said otherwise, and he made a rule that if you didn't swear that you agreed with him,
00:11:09.140
Well, one university that applied for such dough is called Redeemer University, as the name suggests.
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They're based in greater Hamilton, Ontario, and they applied for grants for about 10 kids.
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They were told to fill out a form with more information.
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Not only did they win, the judge slammed the federal government for their bigotry and did something I have very rarely seen.
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They awarded Redeemer University their full legal cost down to the penny of the cost of challenging the ruling.
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Joining us now via Skype is the interim president of Redeemer University, Dr. David Zietzman.
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Dr. Zietzman, welcome to the program and congratulations.
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I would have thought this court victory, the federal court a couple weeks ago by Mr. Justice Richard Mosley, would have been national news.
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Maybe it's against the narrative of the establishment media because I haven't seen it widely covered.
00:12:22.600
Yes, certainly we're very pleased with the ruling that the court provided.
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We have certainly seen news in our neck of the woods.
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And Global News, I did an interview with them as well.
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So it's certainly received some traction, at least in our area.
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And we're glad that Canadians are talking about this a little bit.
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We think it's an important step for recognizing the charter rights of faith-based institutions like Redeemer University.
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Well, I'm very glad that it has received coverage, even if just on a local basis.
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Can I ask you, did you think that media coverage was fair or at least fair enough?
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I think generally you're always, you know, you'd always prefer to have the media cover your institution the exact way you want it.
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But overall, I can say the issues have been covered in generally a fair way.
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I want to read to you from Justice Mosley's ruling, paragraph 40, because I think this really shines a light on it.
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And, Doctor, I'm going to rely on you to correct me if I'm misunderstanding this.
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So you basically said, well, we're going to appeal our rejection.
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They sent you basically a demand for more info, but they didn't really pay attention to it, according to the ruling.
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Just some bureaucrat did a little Google search.
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Quote, what appears to have happened is that the program officer reviewing the application did a cursory search of the Internet
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for information about Redeemer's policies and practices, turned up a few pages about its faith-based approach to education
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and submitted them to the Escalation Committee as evidence of Redeemer's ineligibility.
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The missing information letter was not, in my view, a genuine attempt to seek clarification of further information from the applicant,
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as the letter did not address the real concerns held by the respondent.
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Those concerns related to the undoubtedly sincere beliefs of the applicant's community regarding the nature of marriage.
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Most importantly, the respondent, the respondent's the government here,
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failed to give the applicant, that's you guys, an opportunity to demonstrate how those beliefs did not result in discriminatory practices.
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Sending the letter was simply going through the motions to appear to be fair, not an exercise in fairness itself.
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So if I'm reading that correctly, and Dr. Zeitzman, you correct me if I'm not.
00:15:01.640
The court said that they were just asking you to fill out forms, and they weren't even really paying attention.
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As soon as they saw that you guys were believing Christians, that you had a faith-based approach to education,
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they knew they weren't going to give you the dough, even though you do not discriminate,
00:15:23.120
They just saw Christian, they saw faith-based, and they just threw it out.
00:15:37.860
Yeah, I think that's approximately correct, Ezra.
00:15:41.020
I mean, this goes back to 2018 as well, when Redeemer University submitted an application
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but did not check the attestation that was required during that year,
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and that court case is still before the courts.
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In 2019, while the government backed away from that attestation,
00:15:59.800
they gave an indication that workplaces had to demonstrate
00:16:06.880
that they were free from discrimination and harassment.
00:16:10.180
And as you said, our understanding is someone elevated us to high risk
00:16:14.940
because of something they found on the internet, referring to Redeemer.
00:16:20.060
And they informed us and asked us, actually, for more information.
00:16:24.260
So to be fair to the government, they asked us to provide information
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that demonstrated that we create a workplace free from discrimination and harassment.
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In fact, we provided extensive information, including our anti-discrimination policies.
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It is at that point that the government appeared to have already made up its mind.
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And we were informed later that we had been rejected
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because we did not provide a workplace free of harassment or discrimination.
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But there was no basis given to us for that allegation,
00:17:01.240
to have committed an act of discrimination or harassment.
00:17:08.100
No organization is, but we've never been found liable
00:17:13.640
So as far as we could tell, there was no basis for that allegation
00:17:17.700
and the rejection, which is what caused us, inevitably,
00:17:26.100
but we sought a judicial review of the decision,
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asking the court to determine whether we had been treated fairly in this process.
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And furthermore, whether we had been treated in a way consistent
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with our charter rights of freedom, expression, and conscience.
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And so that was the basis for requesting the federal court
00:17:49.200
Well, I mean, a judicial review, of course, is a kind of a lawsuit.
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You're suing to have a court overturn the decision by the bureaucrat.
00:17:57.720
But what stands out, and I was just reading the ruling here,
00:18:01.860
is that they called you high risk, but they had no factual basis for it.
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They said you were at high risk to discriminate,
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and their only reason for saying so, according to this ruling,
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if I'm reading it right, is because you are explicitly Christian.
00:18:19.280
And frankly, the irony here, they're the ones who were discriminating.
00:18:23.900
They were saying, we're not going to give any money to discriminators.
00:18:32.560
But they tagged you specifically because you're Christian.
00:18:37.600
That tells me that they're projecting with this whole bigotry thing.
00:18:42.580
Yeah, look, I think there's no doubt, Ezra, that they might view this as a case of competing rights,
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However, it's important that the government remain neutral
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and not promote one set of rights over another set of rights.
00:19:02.060
The government has a responsibility, in our view, to protect and balance all rights,
00:19:08.480
And, you know, we understand that that's not easy, but it can't be a matter of just saying,
00:19:13.360
you know, we're going to pick these rights and prioritize them and ignore the rights of others.
00:19:18.560
So, you know, rights in the charter can be subverted or weakened
00:19:21.880
when a governing party shows preference for one set of rights over another.
00:19:27.100
And it can also set a dangerous precedent because governing parties change,
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and perhaps the next government might choose a different set of rights to prioritize
00:19:37.140
And so our goal here was to seek the court's intervention on principle.
00:19:43.300
We did not seek damages, nor, of course, could we seek restitution of the jobs.
00:19:47.600
That time had passed. The summer was long gone.
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But we wanted the court to weigh in on whether our charter rights had been violated.
00:19:54.700
Well, you know, it is quite a ruling, and the fact that you were awarded your full cost,
00:20:02.920
I should tell you, we sue the government from time to time, and at most, we get a fraction of our costs.
00:20:08.260
But for the judge to order every single penny of the lawsuit, like, you're correct to point out,
00:20:19.080
is that if we start allowing Justin Trudeau to make ordinary Canadian individuals, businesses, whatever,
00:20:31.240
if we force people to swear an oath that they obey the prime minister's whims
00:20:40.380
Well, why not before they give them a pension, before they're allowed to have a passport?
00:20:45.620
I mean, it's completely unrelated to the question of summer jobs.
00:20:50.200
I mean, it's almost as if you're not allowed to go to the hospital.
00:20:56.100
These are things that the government does for Canadians, regardless of our ideology.
00:21:00.300
This put a litmus test between Canadians and any benefits from the state.
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I think this is a slap on his hand from the federal court,
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but I think this continues to animate a lot of his public policy.
00:21:18.080
Can I ask you, in 2020 and in 2021, did this issue come up for you as well?
00:21:26.940
We applied for Canada summer jobs, both in 2020 and in 2021.
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In the case of the 2020 application, we heard nothing back until we successfully received
00:21:40.840
the funding in December for jobs that would have been needed in the summer six months previous.
00:21:49.600
So obviously, unfortunately, we were unable to hire any students for the summer
00:21:58.240
For this summer, for summer 2021, our application was successful,
00:22:06.740
And so we're probably only able to secure one student.
00:22:10.880
I mean, it's so close to the time of the program that it becomes very difficult for us to execute it.
00:22:17.640
So, you know, and we're trying to be gracious and understanding that during COVID,
00:22:23.360
you know, perhaps the processing timelines and other things are more difficult.
00:22:26.860
And so we're excited to get our application together for the summer 2022 program.
00:22:42.580
And what I see here is bigotry, having been slapped down by the federal court,
00:22:49.700
is now expressing itself with a disguise of incompetence.
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This government is, if there's one thing it's good at, it's spending money and throwing money out the door.
00:23:02.360
And the fact that they gave you your summer jobs grant money in December last year,
00:23:08.700
and this year, when the summer had begun, I don't think that's a coincidence.
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I know you're a man of good faith and, you know, give people the benefit of the doubt.
00:23:19.400
I am not as open-minded as you when it comes to assessing the motives of the government.
00:23:26.860
Listen, I wish you good luck in dealing with this bigoted government.
00:23:31.460
I think it's fair for me to call them bigoted, based on what Justice Mosley discovered in his judicial review.
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I think it's fair to call them incompetent with how they're, you know, messing with you.
00:23:43.940
We're now on, what, four years in a row for that.
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But I appreciate you coming on the show to tell the story.
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You're much better behaved than me, doctor, and that's why you're the president of a university,
00:23:57.400
But I wish you good luck, and I'm really glad you suited.
00:23:59.600
There's a lesson in there to stand up for your rights, and I'm glad you did.
00:24:02.900
Yeah, like, we really believe that, you know, it's important that Canada, as a diverse nation,
00:24:08.120
has a diverse and pluralistic set of post-secondary institutions.
00:24:12.400
Faith-based universities like Redeemer offer incredible degrees,
00:24:15.600
are an important part of the fabric of Canadian society.
00:24:18.000
So, you know, we want to continue to fight for those principles
00:24:21.440
and to have a diverse post-secondary sector that includes faith-based institutions like Redeemer University.
00:24:29.160
And I'm familiar with your lawyer, Alberto Polizagopoulos, and he is a great fighter for freedom.
00:24:42.900
All right, there you have it, Dr. David Zietzman, a much more polite man than me.
00:24:46.520
He's the interim president of Redeemer University.
00:24:49.380
A huge win in federal court, but just as troubling as what they did to him there
00:24:56.000
was what they did in the subsequent years, don't you think?
00:25:12.460
Instead of reading you mail today, I'd like to show you a new video I just made.
00:25:18.880
I don't know if you know this, but she got assaulted, I think is the word, by one of
00:25:26.600
I'll say goodbye to you now, but check out this video we put up at StandWithDrea.com.
00:25:33.800
Our Vancouver reporter, Dre Humphrey, was physically manhandled by Justin Trudeau's personal bodyguards
00:25:41.160
for simply asking questions Trudeau didn't like.
00:25:45.200
You talked about Canada's last wrongs, the past things they haven't done right.
00:25:52.080
When will you speak out about the 20 vandalized churches?
00:25:55.280
They're burning churches and vandalizing them, and you're not calling it a hate crime.
00:26:02.960
Dre is an accomplished journalist, a registered member of the Independent Press Gallery.
00:26:07.540
She was invited to attend Trudeau's campaign press conferences in British Columbia this week
00:26:12.960
during his pre-election swing through the province.
00:26:15.880
She asked Trudeau about the wave of arson targeting churches across Canada, especially in B.C.
00:26:23.200
Now, Trudeau refused to take her questions and walked away from the podium to pose for selfies
00:26:32.900
Dre politely walked beside him, asking her questions again.
00:26:40.600
She never posed any physical danger to Trudeau whatsoever.
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She was simply asking him questions he didn't like.
00:26:48.020
Trudeau brushed her off, and a squad of Trudeau's RCMP bodyguards immediately swooped in, physically
00:26:55.160
grabbed her, and pulled her away from asking her questions like she was a rag doll or something.
00:27:05.840
This is simply unacceptable in a liberal democracy, but it fits with Trudeau's growing reputation
00:27:11.260
as a thin-skinned politician who can't stand criticism, especially from strong women.
00:27:19.660
Trudeau prefers to call on hand-picked journalists that he can control, usually CBC state reporters
00:27:29.080
They're calling in armed bodyguards to physically assault Drea is a new low, even for Trudeau.
00:27:38.000
Go to standwithdrea.com to sign our petition to Trudeau, telling him to call off his bullies
00:27:44.280
and stop ordering the RCMP to assault journalists.
00:27:48.300
And at that same page, you can read our complaint letter to the RCMP Complaints Commission,
00:27:58.540
I know that in Trudeau's male feminist world, you get to assault women you don't like and
00:28:04.740
Often a man experiences an interaction as being benign or not inappropriate, and a woman, particularly
00:28:13.340
in a professional context, can experience it differently.
00:28:17.740
If this is how Trudeau behaves now, you know it's only going to get worse during the stress
00:28:23.120
of the campaign when he doesn't like more questions.
00:28:31.340
And if you can help us cover the cost of our lawyer's intervention, please do.
00:28:34.600
You know, Drea is too polite to say it herself, but I really think that Trudeau has a problem
00:28:41.100
Whether it's Jane Philpott, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Selena, Cesar, Chavan, he really seems to
00:28:47.060
hate it when a woman questions him, especially a woman of color.
00:28:50.960
Imagine the national outcry of Trudeau and a CBC reporter assaulted this way.
00:28:55.300
But of course, that would never happen because a CBC reporter would never ask Trudeau a real
00:29:00.240
question, so he would never lose his temper this way and give in to his rage.
00:29:04.680
Please go to standwithdrea.com to sign our petition and chip into our legal complaint against
00:29:11.700
And one more thing, you can be sure having Trudeau's tough guys push her around isn't
00:29:16.380
going to stop Drea from being Vancouver's most effective independent reporter.