Greg Wycliffe - September 28, 2022


Canadian Legion wants to CANCEL James Topp


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

174.6419

Word count

1,837

Sentence count

91

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Royal Canadian Legion blocks comedian James Topp from speaking at a branch of the organization where he was scheduled to speak. This is not the first time this has happened to Topp and his events have been canceled throughout his journey.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 I had the honor to be invited to speak and do live comedy at a James Topp event in Montreal
00:00:06.960 at the first Royal Canadian Legion branch that was going to allow him to speak there,
00:00:12.800 but it got canceled. How are we supposed to truly create unity in this country
00:00:18.620 if we can't even create unity amongst Canadian veterans? The good news is I still will get the 0.94
00:00:24.500 honor to speak with James Topp at the event on Friday here in Toronto. This is one of the final
00:00:30.880 meet and greets for James Topp on his journey. I'm going to get to do live comedy there and it's an
00:00:36.080 absolute honor and I can't wait. Limited tickets are available. More information link in the
00:00:41.340 description. Now back to the Royal Canadian Legion. This is not the first time this has happened to
00:00:46.340 James Topp. He has been banned or his events have been canceled throughout his journey. I believe
00:00:51.740 in Newfoundland last time it happened and I think this meme best puts it in perspective and the
00:00:56.240 quotation from this meme comes directly from the legion.ca website. The Royal Canadian Legion is
00:01:01.620 one of the most vocal supporters of Canada's military community. For nearly a century we have provided
00:01:06.220 essential services to veterans when they need it most. Advocated for veterans needs and helped
00:01:10.440 Canadians honor the sacrifices of those who serve. Hey I'm a veteran can you help me? Not you! James
00:01:16.640 explains in this video that this legion branch was under tremendous pressure from the national
00:01:22.940 headquarters of the Royal Canadian Legion. Because of the pressure that he's facing he's actually been
00:01:28.240 threatened with closure and or loss of affiliation. This is how bad this situation here is in this
00:01:35.100 country. The Royal Canadian Legion as opposed to reaching out to me directly to have a conversation
00:01:42.080 about why I'm doing this has chosen to listen to um innuendo rumor and outright lies and adopted this um
00:01:54.400 wall of silence and blocked me and and the team actually from speaking to the public about what we're
00:02:01.120 doing. Now doesn't that sound familiar? Someone refusing to talk to you, refusing to engage with you
00:02:07.200 with any conversation whatsoever. And after all once you engage with a protest that has a reasonable
00:02:14.160 request to end the mandates and restrictions, well it's it's pretty hard to disagree with that.
00:02:20.400 And especially considering the government has followed suit with the trucker convoy for example.
00:02:25.600 And similarly with James Topp, once you actually listen to what he has to say and what his simple
00:02:30.800 request is, well it's really hard for any politician to disagree with him. He wants to end mandates in the
00:02:36.800 military as he explains here. To make it clear to everybody is we are lobbying, that's right, we are
00:02:43.120 carrying to the federal government and our representatives the case of employees of the armed forces
00:02:50.480 who have been wrongfully released from service under a release item code called 5F because they are
00:02:57.120 unsuitable. They have been told they have been unsuitable because they will not participate in the
00:03:02.720 vaccination policy put in place there. And they have reasonable grounds to do so. I am one of those
00:03:09.520 people. James is one of those people and to represent all the others who are being discriminated
00:03:14.000 against in this country with existing mandates that exist in various places, he has marched across
00:03:20.240 the entire country. He is representing and trying to draw attention to the many other Canadians who are
00:03:26.960 out of a job or nurses who can't go back to work because of these unjustified mandates. This is a
00:03:32.560 very worthy cause that pretty well most of the country seems to be on board with but we're you know
00:03:37.840 it's just not permeating the mainstream because I guess that's not part of the conversation right?
00:03:42.080 Being forced to take an injection or lose your job is not a choice and now many of these restrictions
00:03:48.640 and mandates have dropped so we know that these mandates weren't justified to begin with. But I was
00:03:53.360 checking out the Royal Canadian Legion's Twitter and I just wanted to see how many times they've
00:03:57.920 tweeted about freedom. I wear my poppy as a visual pledge to never forget those who sacrificed for our
00:04:03.600 freedom. We wear a poppy to remember all veterans who have served and sacrificed for our freedom. Show
00:04:09.920 your support and get your poppy to honor the courage of those who sacrificed everything for our
00:04:14.480 freedom. But when it comes to James Topp marching across the entire country sacrificing his time and energy
00:04:21.200 and body to protest these unjustified mandates he gets the silent treatment from an organization that
00:04:28.960 is supposed to represent veterans and the Canadian military more than anyone? Where's the unity there?
00:04:35.680 Where's the understanding there? Where's the compassion there? And it's the same thing as the
00:04:39.840 Trucker Convoy. If you would just have a conversation this wouldn't have to be so painful and awkward and
00:04:46.160 just unreasonable. And of course like the Trucker Convoy when they refuse this hard to have a
00:04:51.840 conversation about this it leads people to think that there's something else going on. And speaking
00:04:56.640 of the Trucker Convoy the Royal Canadian Legion tweeted this, veterans saddened by use of Canadian flag
00:05:02.800 by convoy protesters. The iconic Canadian flag symbolizes hope, pride, and peace and represents our
00:05:08.720 country's unity and strength. Its use as a symbol of protest is not its intended spirit. I'm sorry,
00:05:15.360 do you speak for all veterans Royal Canadian Legion? Because I interviewed plenty of veterans down at
00:05:21.280 the Trucker Convoy and I can assure you they would not agree with this sentiment whatsoever. And I think
00:05:26.480 the harsh reality to the situation is this, in order to unite the country and to unite Canadian veterans,
00:05:33.040 well we need to decide upon shared values. And over the past two years, what it means to be a free Canadian,
00:05:39.760 those values have been completely distorted. Because it's not about being a free Canadian anymore,
00:05:44.640 there's this huge sentiment about being a safe, safe Canadian. And for me personally,
00:05:50.960 I choose the side where Canadians and Canadian veterans value freedom more. Why? Because I don't 1.00
00:05:57.040 know, I've seen people pepper sprayed in the name of safety, beaten, arrested in the name of safety,
00:06:03.040 businesses shut down and business owners persecuted by the government in the name of safety. Because
00:06:08.640 freedom becomes an afterthought in the name of safety. It's crazy what you can justify in the name
00:06:14.320 of safety. And while we're talking about the Legion, I wanted to bring up how they treated the Don Cherry
00:06:19.200 situation. Mr. Cherry's personal opinion was hurtful, divisive, and in no way condoned by the Legion.
00:06:25.280 We do remain appreciative of his passionate support for veterans. This sounds a lot like doublespeak,
00:06:31.520 doesn't it? I mean, we don't really agree with his opinion. It was divisive, but you know,
00:06:35.200 thanks for your support as well, man. Don Cherry was your best spokesperson. And then you just threw
00:06:40.240 him under the bus, Royal Canadian Legion. And they probably made this tweet about Don Cherry for the
00:06:44.880 same reason they shut down the James Topp event. Someone at headquarters put pressure and said,
00:06:50.240 no, we can't, we can't condone this. We need to say, where's the bravery? Where's the conviction?
00:06:56.960 Where's the courage? Where is the values of freedom in being a Canadian? And this Don Cherry
00:07:03.440 example is important because essentially the way it was dealt with, it said, hey,
00:07:07.040 people who aren't wearing the poppy, potentially offending those people, we need to make that a 1.00
00:07:12.880 priority over honoring our veterans during Remembrance Day. Are you kidding me? It says all
00:07:20.160 over their website, these people made the greatest sacrifice. Oh, but we don't want to,
00:07:25.680 we don't want to hurt someone's feelings and pressure them into wearing a poppy. Why not?
00:07:30.880 We are forgetting. Lest we forget, we are forgetting. At least the Canadian establishment is certainly
00:07:36.000 coaching its citizens to forget. But hey, I'm not a veteran. So let's hear what James Topp has to say
00:07:42.720 on the issue. So what I have to say to the Royal Canadian Legion is there was 28 years where I served
00:07:48.480 in the regular armed forces where I went to a Legion branch every Remembrance Day and stood outside
00:07:56.160 at attention, rain or shine, and I honored the memory of our veterans. And you are not going to
00:08:02.320 even do that for our recent veterans who have been 5F'd. So Royal Canadian Legion, if you have anybody
00:08:10.480 working in your establishment who has any honor or courage, then reach out to me at canadamarches
00:08:16.880 at protonmail.ca and let's have a conversation. Just asking for a conversation, guys. That's exactly
00:08:22.320 what people were asking for at the Trucker Convoy. But if you're a Canadian veteran or a Legion
00:08:27.360 member watching this, you need to unite on the right side of this issue. Do you want to unite on the side
00:08:35.360 that's all about being safe and all about listening to whatever headquarters has to say?
00:08:42.800 Or are you going to be on the side that is about freedom? The side that is about honoring veterans?
00:08:48.400 The side is about debate and conversation, which is fundamental to a free society. We need to unite
00:08:56.560 on the right side. Because guess what? The people on the freedom side are not saying we don't care about
00:09:02.160 safety, okay? And I would argue that simply the people who are stuck on the safety side
00:09:07.840 are believing in the propaganda that is designed to divide us on a very straightforward issue.
00:09:14.880 If you're in Toronto, come out this Friday for the final meet and greet with James Topp.
00:09:19.280 You'll see me perform live comedy. You'll get to shake hands with the man himself. It should be a lot
00:09:23.840 of fun. It's at Louis Cypher on the Danforth. Tickets are very limited right now for Friday,
00:09:29.280 but if people buy enough tickets, then there's going to be a meet and greet as well on Saturday
00:09:33.120 at the same location. And thank you to James Topp and his team. I'm very honored to be able to speak
00:09:38.000 at his event on Friday. I'm going to leave you with a clip from the trucker convoy from a veteran
00:09:42.960 named Alex, who has some choice words. And division is key for any, any dictatorship,
00:09:48.720 authoritarian style government to divide everybody and keep everybody from joining together.
00:09:52.880 So terrorist, racist, misogynist, whatever you want to say, those are words that they slam at you to
00:09:58.320 stop any conversation and to get public opinion to pull away from that person. And that's actually
00:10:03.120 disgusting. Without freedom of speech and without, without freedom of speech, there is no democracy.
00:10:07.920 There is no debate. But when it comes to James Topp marching across the entire country
00:10:14.800 to protest mandates, unjustified mandates, he gets the cold soldier.