Juno News - $5B land claim in Quebec expands property assault to national crisis

00:00:00.000 Okay, yeah, well, we have a special episode of Off the Record today, because, of course, it's Halloween, and also the Blue Jays could win the World Series tonight, so we'll see what happens there.

00:00:10.000 But, yeah, for the Halloween, I know we talked about ostriches last week, Alex, but you found this clip of an ostrich costume, which certainly had me laughing.

00:00:18.480 Yeah, so, I mean, some of these do-it-yourself costumes, it's like, how do people even come up with this? I don't know how that woman came up with creating the costume, because that is, like, I mean, the level of creativity that goes into making something like that is something.

00:00:34.420 But, yeah, Alex, imagine someone shows up to your door trick-or-treating, and that's what you open the door to. I mean, would you give them extra candy?

00:00:43.180 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. No gentle floss for those kids. 0.99

00:00:49.800 You guys live in neighborhoods where the kids actually still trick-or-treat? Like, I'm disappointed. Where I live, the kids don't, they just don't trick-or-treat, so they obviously congregate in some other neighborhood, but mine's just not one where they come. I don't know why that is.

00:01:01.360 Yeah, I mean, over here in the east side of Ottawa, it's very common where I live, that kids and even teenagers are trick-or-treating, normally starts with the younger ages, goes older as night, matures.

00:01:13.380 And I think, frankly, it's less than in years past. When I was young, when I was young, I mean, it was every house next door and in front of our house, you would have candy boxes in front of every porch.

00:01:26.800 But now it's, I guess you'd say, one every two or three houses are actually participating in giving the candy, and you have a lot of doors that are being knocked that aren't even prepared.

00:01:36.000 So perhaps that might be a cultural demographic shift you're seeing. I mean, I guess Halloween is a tradition more bought into by, you know, Canadians of a longer heritage in the country, whereas a lot of first-time or first-generation immigrants may not participate for different reasons.

00:01:51.980 There's just cultural differences, and essentially, what I'm trying to say is that now that, you know, we're much more, we have a lot more newcomers in the neighborhood and community, we have much less participation in Halloween proportionally, although we're in a larger population today for it.

00:02:07.960 Yeah, just quick before we start the show, what was your guys' favorite candy to get as kids there?

00:02:15.780 Alex, you're muted.

00:02:17.600 No, I just said, oh, that's a really good question.

00:02:19.460 I mean, I can't remember what my favorite candy was. I always like Campinos, but I don't see those anymore. Do you guys remember those?

00:02:28.800 I have no idea what those are.

00:02:30.580 Hard candies, they're great.

00:02:33.780 What about you, William?

00:02:35.080 It's got to be Kinder Bueno. It's always been my favorite chocolate, always will be, and I think Halloween, if you're really lucky, you might get one of the small mini versions, but pretty Kinder Bueno, and maybe even like a coffee crisp as well.

00:02:46.420 Yeah, mine, my favorite might not get enough love, surprisingly, was actually Rockets. You know, the candy, I'm pretty sure they're like 99.9% sugar, and then 0.01 is whatever solidifies it.

00:02:59.940 But yeah, obviously, we started off on a fun note here, but just hopping into the show, of course, I'm Isaac Lamu from True North here, joined by my colleagues, Alex Zoltan and Waleed Tam Tam.

00:03:10.460 Yeah, so as I was saying, we definitely started off on a fun note, but for our first story here, not fun at all.

00:03:21.500 Alex, you've been all over this. Richmond residents, potentially, and even all BC residents, for that matter, potentially looting their land titles.

00:03:31.000 I mean, what's going on here, Alex? It just seems too astonishing.

00:03:35.100 Yeah, so this story goes back to August. Well, actually, it goes back to like 2017 or 2018. This was regarded as the longest trial in Canadian history.

00:03:48.200 It had 518 days of trial court dates, and basically what it is, I actually made a map, if that's helpful. So, this cost $70. I had to go to Staples.

00:04:03.840 This is the disputed area, essentially, in Richmond. So, I can't really show it very well on here. This isn't the best camera angle.

00:04:13.820 So, the map's too big.

00:04:16.800 Yeah, yeah, yeah. The map is really big. It was kind of a waste of money, because when I went to the town hall, there was like 20 of these that the city had already made.

00:04:24.300 But essentially, like this area is along the northern bank of the Fraser River, and it is owned partially by the city of Richmond, partially by the government at the provincial level.

00:04:37.160 But it is also owned by a lot of private homeowners. So, an activist judge in Vancouver, Barbara Young, decided that this land, because the Cowichan tribes, we really want to get into the weeds on this.

00:04:51.580 The reason I call them the Cowichan tribes is because it's actually like several different tribes.

00:04:55.420 They're the largest First Nations group in British Columbia. They had gone there to fish and also to capture slaves back in the 1850s.

00:05:06.160 So, she decided that their aboriginal title was still valid. What does that mean for the people that live there?

00:05:13.700 Well, that means that they now have to live under what she deems dual title, which means that you can own it privately, Isaac, before we leave, but the Cowichan tribe also owns it.

00:05:24.480 Yeah. So, let's just jump into the lending process, Alex, because, of course, for those who don't know, you have a background in finance, which is very useful here.

00:05:36.060 And on top of that, you talked to a homeowner on the site there at one of the debates or whatever, and he had owned a house there for 50 years, I believe, but he still had a mortgage on it.

00:05:46.700 So, maybe he refinanced or something or took a loan out against the house.

00:05:49.760 There's plenty of reasons why he would still have a mortgage 50 years after buying the house.

00:05:54.000 But, yeah, so the lenders wouldn't, they said they're not renewing his mortgage? Like, what happens there?

00:06:00.660 It's not clear.

00:06:01.480 So, people asked the mayor of Richmond that exact question, and he said, well, you'll have to talk to the province, because in Canada, land title acts, I believe, are dealt with provincially.

00:06:12.240 So, then I asked three conservative MLAs, BC conservative MLAs, who explained to me that the province has provided these people with no insight on what goes forward from here.

00:06:25.380 So, it's highly inconvenient timing as well, because the vast majority of Canadian mortgages are coming up for renewal this year.

00:06:37.120 So...

00:06:37.520 Yeah, has David Eby said anything about this, or has he just been tight-lipped?

00:06:42.280 Yeah, so him and Nikki Sharma, she's the Attorney General of BC, they're both seeking a stay of proceedings.

00:06:47.880 So, what that means, in other words, is that the ruling that Barbara Young made, that this is subject to dual title, meaning private ownership and aboriginal title, would essentially be stayed.

00:06:58.940 It would be, so the ruling is valid, but it's not enforceable until there is an appeal.

00:07:05.440 Well, that does little to nothing to assuage lenders, right?

00:07:09.260 I think that it's important for people to understand that when it comes to mortgages, if the property is not, if you cannot repossess a property, then the collateral is worthless, right?

00:07:24.280 So, if you, for instance, if you borrow a million dollars from me to purchase a factory, I can give you a lower interest rate on the assumption that if you don't pay me back for that money,

00:07:35.700 I can repossess the property, I can repossess the property, and therefore, you know, make myself whole, if you're a bad borrower or whatever.

00:07:43.580 But in this case, I can't, because I would have to repossess it from both you and the Cowichan tribes, which would be a long, drawn-out legal process. 0.98

00:07:51.600 The cost of adjudicating that would probably be more than the property is worth. 0.92

00:07:57.440 So, this is an utter shitshow and a disaster.

00:08:01.040 So, but normally, let's say, if you, I don't know, fail to pay your mortgage for X amount of time, like, the bank's going to foreclose on your home. 0.96

00:08:10.600 So, in this case, if the bank won't lend you money for your mortgage, are they the ones who then repossess your home?

00:08:17.460 Like, I don't, I just don't get what happens in the end here.

00:08:20.340 I'm not even certain they would know how to repossess the home, because they would have to repossess it from both you and the Cowichan tribes. 0.99

00:08:27.140 This is completely unprecedented.

00:08:28.700 Like, is there any world where the Cowichan tribes take your house from you?

00:08:34.400 That's a really good question, actually.

00:08:36.080 So, the Cowichan tribes put out a statement, and my impression, and people are maybe going to accuse me of being a liberal on this one, because it is a little bit subjective and whatever.

00:08:46.500 But, like, my impression is, is that the Cowichan tribes asked for an inch and got a mile.

00:08:50.860 Like, they had no interest in taking away private property owner's property.

00:08:55.800 But the judge gave them that ability anyway, because theoretically speaking, if the Cowichan tribes did want to take the property, the judge's decision almost not only allows them to, but almost implores them to, because she says that aboriginal title supersedes, it exceeds the importance of private ownership.

00:09:14.800 So, the Cowichan tribes, luckily, are pretty good actors, it would appear at this point, but that, again, does nothing to calm the concerns of lenders, who are really the important part of all of this.

00:09:30.500 For people who aren't aware, like, in finance and in economics generally, credit is the lifeblood of any economy.

00:09:39.000 Like, if you don't have credit, you have nothing.

00:09:41.820 Development stops.

00:09:44.000 Just everything comes to a complete standstill.

00:09:47.740 And contextually, this is very relevant and important.

00:09:50.900 120% of BC's land is subject to a land claim from an indigenous tribe.

00:09:57.740 So, when I heard that, I was immediately kind of skeptical.

00:10:01.500 How could it be 120% that's more land than exists?

00:10:05.120 And Theresa Watt, a conservative MLA, explained to me very kindly, she says, that's because there's so many overlapping claims between differing indigenous tribes.

00:10:14.880 So, if you were to extrapolate this decision from the BC Supreme Court across the entire province, the whole province is, you can't touch it.

00:10:23.600 It's suddenly uninvestable because we don't have private property rights.

00:10:28.960 And this all comes downstream from a 2019 decision, if my memory serves me correctly, from the BC government to ratify UNDRIP as an actual policy under BC law.

00:10:40.500 UNDRIP is the UN Declaration of Rights for Indigenous People.

00:10:43.220 And what they say is that indigenous people who have a claim to the land also have a right to self-determination.

00:10:52.840 What does that mean?

00:10:54.400 Well, it means, I'm not entirely sure, to be perfectly honest with you.

00:10:59.880 Like, nobody really knows what the consequences of this ruling is.

00:11:05.720 This stay, if enforceable and if it works, again, doesn't really do much because this would still have to go to the BC Court of Appeal.

00:11:15.560 And they expect that case to take another five to ten years.

00:11:18.200 So, this is just a disaster.

00:11:22.960 So, should private properties in BC be immediately concerned or at least somewhat relieved that the can's being kicked down the road?

00:11:31.220 No, they should be super concerned.

00:11:32.720 This is an absolute something burger.

00:11:35.060 This is an absolute something burger.

00:11:37.000 And I went into this town hall on Tuesday really curious if this is a nothing burger or a something burger.

00:11:44.020 Because it can only be one or the other, in my opinion.

00:11:45.800 I thought maybe this is just kind of a symbolic land acknowledgement for the title of your home.

00:11:52.840 In which case, like, really, who cares?

00:11:55.140 Like, we do land acknowledgements all the time in BC. 1.00

00:11:57.320 They're bullshit. 0.99

00:11:57.820 We don't like them. 1.00

00:11:58.760 But who cares?

00:11:59.960 But in this case, this is not a nothing burger.

00:12:03.400 This is a something burger because the banks cannot repossess the property, which means it's no longer lendable.

00:12:09.460 The mortgages are no longer enforceable.

00:12:11.460 And, yeah.

00:12:14.760 So, I don't know what these homeowners are going to do.

00:12:19.180 Yeah.

00:12:20.620 Well, my thoughts are with any homeowners in BC and in Richmond specifically.

00:12:26.060 I really hope this works out in their favor.

00:12:29.240 I guess it seems like we don't have a clear vision of what this is going to look like.

00:12:36.500 But just hope for the best, I guess.

00:12:39.500 One more question, I guess, Alex.

00:12:41.060 Do you think that, and I don't know how much this has to do with provincial government, but could this have any backlash on the BC and NDP going forward?

00:12:50.920 Like, say, in the next provincial election, could this be something that would potentially bring them down?

00:12:56.280 So, an Angus Reid poll actually came out prior.

00:12:59.540 Well, it came out yesterday, but the poll was conducted prior to this town hall meeting when we weren't really sure if it was a nothing burger or a something burger.

00:13:06.260 And even amongst those 1,000 people who were surveyed before this meeting, 60% of them, so more than half, thought that this would harm rather than help reconciliation, the concept of reconciliation.

00:13:20.700 And two out of five people in British Columbia thought that the province was spending too much time on reconciliation.

00:13:33.020 So, of course, the Conservative Party of BC is also in shambles on their own accord.

00:13:39.720 So, there's also a change of government.

00:13:43.660 I'm not entirely sure.

00:13:45.500 But most British Columbians are pretty pissed off.

00:13:48.880 Yeah, BC politics is a nightmare right now.

00:13:50.700 No one really knows what's going on.

00:13:51.960 But who knows?

00:13:52.820 If the Conservatives get their ducks in a row, then maybe they can make something of this.

00:13:58.540 Anyways, we'll move on to something.

00:14:01.400 Sticking with the West sort of, but also now including the East, this was a very interesting development, let's say, over the week where Ontario has launched a feasibility study for a potential new pipeline project that could connect Western oil with the East.

00:14:20.620 Because, as we know, there is no cross-Canada pipeline.

00:14:24.420 It's funny.

00:14:24.860 I always go to the Alberta separatist events, and a common hit that they have is Jeff Rath's always smack-talking Doug Ford because, of course, he didn't know that his oil has to go through the United States to get to him.

00:14:41.380 Because he was saying, oh, we'll just cut off the U.S. oil.

00:14:44.160 It's like, dude, you can't do that.

00:14:45.700 You can't do that.

00:14:46.680 The oil you get in eastern Canada goes through line 45 through the U.S.

00:14:51.080 Like, there is no cross-Canada pipeline.

00:14:54.080 And, of course, we've been talking about this for what seems like generations because it really is a never-ending topic, this cross-Canada pipeline.

00:15:03.600 But this could be good because Ontario is getting involved now, and, of course, the premiers have been talking about this for months.

00:15:10.880 Alberta, Saskatchewan, they've all been kind of united on getting this to the forefront.

00:15:18.100 They, for example, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July, I think.

00:15:21.260 That's Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario to strengthen energy in Canada.

00:15:28.800 But, yeah, no, this was really good.

00:15:30.360 And, I mean, again, you have to get all premiers on board, so it feels very complicated because Manitoba Premier Wob Canu didn't sign that Memorandum of Understanding.

00:15:42.260 So I don't really know how they could get this done without everyone being on board, which is tough, especially because we know the federal government isn't necessarily on board yet either because Mark Carney's first list of major projects, of course, did not include a pipeline.

00:15:56.540 And Smith's been pushing for one for the next major projects list, which will be at the Grey Cup announced.

00:16:03.880 And that's just for a West Coast pipeline, though.

00:16:06.240 So that's between Alberta and B.C., and we've seen so much back and forth in that, too, because David Eby really doesn't want to get on board with Smith there.

00:16:14.140 But as for this, interestingly enough, Juno News did some exclusive polling, which found that 98.5% of Canadians support building more pipelines.

00:16:22.260 So pretty much everyone wants to build more pipelines.

00:16:25.520 Unsurprisingly, of course, building pipelines in Canada would do nothing but strengthen our economy, make the country richer, make every single person in the country richer, make us less reliant on the United States.

00:16:35.720 I mean, I could probably talk for five minutes just listing the pros from this project.

00:16:41.400 But, yeah, I wanted to ask you guys, especially because we talk so much about Ford, do you think this is just him kind of saying something that will make his approval rise or make him liked, but not actually going to commit to anything real?

00:16:58.360 Like, is it just words and all talk?

00:17:01.180 I think it has to do with what I call the early Carney days, where Carney hosted a number of first ministers' meetings, and then, of course, for Ford, that was his opportunity to expand his national coverage, frankly.

00:17:13.860 I mean, if you don't know him very well from Ontario, you started to get to know Doug Ford once he attended those first ministers' meetings and went off on speeches, praising Carney, rolling the red carpet, and, you know, that fireside chat they had for hours overnight.

00:17:30.400 I mean, it was just kind of a high school kind of crush situation between Carney and Ford.

00:17:36.760 But I would go back to a very interesting point about the lack of the, you know, Canada-wide pipeline or east-west pipeline in this case.

00:17:46.440 You know, one of the greatest infrastructure symbols of nationalism or Canadian patriotism was, you know, the railway, right?

00:17:56.200 And, of course, VRL, having effectively this cross-country monopoly, you know, they received some funding to improve, expand, lower prices for a cross-Canada pass.

00:18:09.360 This is one of the things that Carney announced over the summer in July.

00:18:13.040 Speaking of July, not only did he have the July 21st deadline of getting a deal with the U.S. that he didn't meet,

00:18:17.620 but he also, if you guys remember, he had a July 1st deadline of removing, effectively, most trade barriers between provinces,

00:18:23.680 which is still something that has not been realized.

00:18:25.600 And, of course, I spoke to trade experts and lawyers who have covered cases like the Freedom Beer case

00:18:29.780 when that man from Atlantic Canada was, you know, fined by the RSMP and got into some legal issues

00:18:35.520 for simply taking a couple of cases of beer across the borders of two provinces,

00:18:40.720 I think in the case of Wysnobu, Scotia and Quebec, if I remember correctly.

00:18:43.320 But the barriers are still up.

00:18:46.360 The lack of east-to-west connection vis-a-vis pipelines are not there.

00:18:51.040 No projects have been approved as of yet.

00:18:53.080 No shuffles are digging anywhere.

00:18:55.260 And we remain on the U.S. not only for our energy resources out here in the east in Ontario,

00:19:00.800 where I'm located right now, but also for a lot of trade.

00:19:04.260 You know, commercially speaking, it's coming from Michigan, a lot of commerce.

00:19:08.660 It's not coming from Manitoba or vis-a-vis Saskatchewan and Alberta nearly as much, of course.

00:19:14.440 So there was a part of Carney's agenda that was really popular and widely accepted across the population.

00:19:19.060 I mean, removing inter-provincial trade barriers, encouraging some sort of centralization of

00:19:24.340 or at least national standard across certain trades,

00:19:27.540 so that if you're certified for certain professions in Ontario,

00:19:32.760 you could be qualified easily in Alberta and across other provinces as well.

00:19:36.740 So that agenda has slowed down a lot.

00:19:38.980 I would also point to David Eby.

00:19:40.780 So, you know, Doug Ford, to his credit, has spoken up.

00:19:44.120 He's been in those rooms.

00:19:45.300 He's engaged in the conversation.

00:19:46.820 Say what you want to say about Doug Ford being a liberal, conservative disguise.

00:19:50.940 I would say David Eby is probably the most, the wrecking ball of national unity, believe it or not.

00:19:57.760 The NDP guy from out west because, I mean, this guy,

00:20:01.200 and one of those first ministers meetings, this guy was picking up bags of chips in Tokyo,

00:20:07.240 in a Tokyo supermarket where no one had any idea who the hell he was and what he was doing,

00:20:11.880 recording TikTok videos with British Columbia made chips.

00:20:16.400 And his answer, nuts, or whatever the hell it was in that little plastic bag,

00:20:19.800 talking about how, you know, BC is reaching out to the Asian markets.

00:20:22.940 It's like, you know, realize that they can reach out to the market next door and open up a corridor

00:20:26.900 for a pipeline that Daniel Smith has been pushing for with indigenous support.

00:20:31.780 So I think Ford is definitely speaking a better tone, better language.

00:20:36.360 But at the end of the day, this is an agenda that we've kind of forgotten

00:20:39.500 because now we're thinking about this international framework of getting more deals done.

00:20:44.180 Of course, Carney wants to double, more than double, our international exports.

00:20:47.600 And he's, to his credit, he's going to run the world with very little in return.

00:20:51.560 But at least he's doing the traveling.

00:20:53.180 He's showing up where he has to be.

00:20:55.800 But domestic here, the US haven't really done that much to fulfill that campaign promise

00:21:02.400 of keeping Canada united or having a one-Canada model for many of our economic changes.

00:21:10.180 Can I jump in here very quickly?

00:21:11.760 Nothing pisses me off more than this story in Canadian politics

00:21:15.760 because it exposes all of the anti-Trump politicians 0.99

00:21:20.080 for the complete liars that they totally are. 0.53

00:21:23.720 If Carney is accurate in saying that this is the greatest crisis since World War II,

00:21:30.040 then he would be invoking the notwithstanding clause

00:21:32.320 to move all of our crude oil to tidewater.

00:21:35.760 The inconvenient truth for Trump is that the United States gets more than half of its crude oil from Canada.

00:21:42.300 The inconvenient truth for Canada is that 98% of our crude oil goes to the United States.

00:21:48.280 So if we really wanted to fight back against the United States and Donald Trump,

00:21:52.240 the only thing that we can do, our only leverage, is to export our oil elsewhere,

00:21:58.920 diversify our customer base.

00:22:00.700 Canada can't close off its walls to foreign trading partners.

00:22:04.720 It needs to expand them.

00:22:05.700 And so this is just complete nonsense, the fact that we can't build pipelines to tidewater

00:22:12.180 and export our most precious resource to other countries.

00:22:15.000 That would be the best thing we can do to fight back against the United States.

00:22:18.000 And nobody seems to want to do it.

00:22:19.260 There's no political will.

00:22:21.040 So when they say this is the greatest crisis since World War II, 1.00

00:22:23.680 they're either lying and being disingenuous, or they are being genuine, and they're dumb. 0.98

00:22:28.920 I'll just add one more thing on this story, because for those who don't know, 0.99

00:22:34.340 I've been working at the Alberta legislature Monday to Thursday.

00:22:38.520 And as I was just about to start writing this story,

00:22:42.000 a spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy stopped by my office, so we got to chat a bit.

00:22:45.880 And I was asking them what they thought about this kind of plan for Ontario.

00:22:51.160 Of course, they were very excited.

00:22:53.060 They said that the Ministry did, that this could create hundreds of thousands of jobs,

00:22:57.300 bringing tens of billions of dollars in private investment.

00:23:00.480 I mean, I already spoke about the economy, but they also told me, interestingly,

00:23:04.880 that Alberta is obviously not funding the study,

00:23:07.580 but they will be providing technical expertise and support,

00:23:10.320 because, of course, Alberta Ministry of Energy has plenty of expertise to offer on pipelines.

00:23:16.880 So, yeah.

00:23:18.240 But, I mean, maybe we'll never see a cross-country pipeline.

00:23:21.720 Like you said, Alex, this is such a talking point for these, especially these leftist politicians.

00:23:27.000 But they don't actually seem to want to get anything done.

00:23:29.600 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, of course, called for the nine bad laws to be cancelled from Kearney,

00:23:34.540 many of which impede or completely stop pipeline development,

00:23:38.380 especially from a private investment angle.

00:23:40.060 And we've seen no movement on those.

00:23:42.200 So it's really just a waiting process for something to actually get done.

00:23:47.140 But, Waleed, yeah, I wanted to turn to you for the next story, 0.91

00:23:50.180 because, speaking of wasting money, this is ridiculous.

00:23:55.720 Yeah, so there were some federal research grants that are burning over $1 billion a year.

00:24:00.780 What are some of these things that they're spending taxpayer money on here?

00:24:05.500 Well, it makes you scratch your hand as a taxpayer,

00:24:07.660 because what the hell is going on with some of these grants and some of these project ideas?

00:24:11.660 I mean, first of all, let's take the dollar section off.

00:24:14.720 Let's just look at this intellectually from an academic perspective.

00:24:18.220 What is the value of some of these studies in terms of furthering our understanding of society?

00:24:22.620 I mean, as a professor, as a researcher, as an academic,

00:24:25.880 how are you building credibility beyond perhaps your own institution?

00:24:29.400 I know a lot of academics, their big goal is to find their ideal dream institution,

00:24:34.140 you know, get some tenure, become a professor,

00:24:37.060 perhaps even publish a book, publish reports and think tanks.

00:24:40.480 I mean, you're going to have to take this beyond the walls or what I call the ivory tower of academia, 0.80

00:24:45.240 which can sometimes be a little bit silly.

00:24:46.780 And I would even go as far in being generous to these academics and saying

00:24:50.580 there are things that are valuable inside the social sciences and humanities

00:24:55.360 and perhaps from the outside we won't value as much at certain phases,

00:24:59.120 you know, the development of thinking, understanding, you know, diverse identities of people,

00:25:03.480 demographic studies, things like that, that perhaps, you know, face value.

00:25:06.800 We don't really value very much as taxpayers and there's a, you know,

00:25:10.100 a very reasonable argument to suggest that taxpayer funds shouldn't be going to it. 0.93

00:25:14.180 But in these cases, you have just plain old ridiculous nonsense

00:25:17.800 with high bills of tens of thousands of Canadian taxpayer dollars.

00:25:22.760 I'll give you a few examples I've had in the article.

00:25:24.900 There was a study about the gender politics of Peruvian rock music.

00:25:30.280 Now, I don't actually listen to rock very much,

00:25:32.820 but for those who do, I wonder if Peru is even a top destination of rock music.

00:25:37.720 Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

00:25:39.120 I know it's a small Spanish-speaking country in this region

00:25:41.840 where their culture isn't as high volume as perhaps in Argentina,

00:25:47.320 where I think rock music is well known outside of their own borders.

00:25:51.560 Why are we studying that in Canada?

00:25:52.960 And that's, by the way, that's $20,000 for a study on that.

00:25:56.060 We have the study that was a bit more expensive actually called

00:25:59.920 The Rhetoric of the Selfie, $94,000.

00:26:03.280 Sounds to me like a study to do more with the social understanding of selfie culture.

00:26:09.480 I'm not personally interested.

00:26:10.780 But here's an interesting one for, because we're all sitting down right now on chairs.

00:26:14.840 There was, and this is actually done here in Ottawa at Carleton University

00:26:17.580 by a young researcher.

00:26:19.880 It's called the Fat Chair, Thickening Design Standards Through Fat Studies.

00:26:25.180 Essentially, the guy wants to look into how we can be more accessible

00:26:28.880 in producing chairs by making them thicker for those that are fatter.

00:26:33.260 I don't know if you guys have ever experienced breaking a chair for your weight,

00:26:36.660 but it is something that some people have experienced.

00:26:39.300 I'm not going to lie, grade six, linebacker, football player,

00:26:43.440 soon to become that is now playing in the NFL, who broke a chair before.

00:26:47.760 So I understand there's a certain demographic interested,

00:26:51.460 but that's $58,000 charged to the taxpayers for that.

00:26:55.760 And Alex, you might like this one because this one brings kind of the vibe of just pure absurdity.

00:27:02.720 I think you might be able to bring this down to earth perhaps if you're skilled enough to do so.

00:27:07.700 But the title of the study is called,

00:27:10.860 Are Kinksters Doing It Better? 1.00

00:27:14.740 Gaining Insights on Sexual Being from Kink Community Members. 1.00

00:27:19.920 That is $73,786 of our money. 0.92

00:27:25.020 Alex, what the heck is the kink community? 1.00

00:27:27.420 Can you tell me more about that?

00:27:29.100 I have no clue.

00:27:30.920 I know I'm the crime reporter, but I'm actually pretty vanilla.

00:27:34.200 Like, I don't...

00:27:35.560 Isaac, any thoughts?

00:27:36.820 Like, what are we talking about here?

00:27:38.620 What does the 70-day... 0.96

00:27:39.260 Yeah, no, it's like people who like to do crazy sexual things.

00:27:43.980 Would that be like the S&M people or whatever?

00:27:48.100 I mean, I try my best when we're doing these articles for our viewership

00:27:53.460 who read my articles and read the great work of Alex in Crime

00:27:57.320 and the great work of Isaac from Alberta.

00:27:59.260 You know, we are thinking critically about what exactly is going on.

00:28:01.840 We're not trying to, you know, just paint everything that's going on

00:28:04.420 in a bad light or conservative or critical light.

00:28:06.900 It's like painting what is of interest to the demographic

00:28:09.800 and being fair and objective.

00:28:11.940 Here, I have over two dozen different projects

00:28:16.340 that thanks to the Canadian Taxpayer Federation

00:28:18.320 was highlighted as being some of the most absurd examples.

00:28:21.880 And of course, the total bill of at least the last 20

00:28:25.700 that I've marked down in my notes were well over a million dollars.

00:28:30.040 So, it's a lot of money going to a lot of, I would say,

00:28:34.340 unjustifiable causes for sure.

00:28:36.740 Yeah, Waleed, you didn't highlight the one that I found 1.00

00:28:39.440 the most interesting, which was $105,000

00:28:42.020 for a study examining the life cycle of a grocery cart.

00:28:45.860 I mean, this is taxpayer money here.

00:28:47.380 But at the same time, you know, I go to the grocery stores sometimes

00:28:51.340 and I'll tell you, you pick the cart and then you're pushing the cart

00:28:54.820 and it's just the worst cart ever.

00:28:56.200 The wheels don't work.

00:28:57.160 It's freaking a loudest cart.

00:28:58.500 You're like, please don't look at me.

00:28:59.880 It's so loud.

00:29:01.620 Yeah.

00:29:02.180 So, I mean, hey, if they could fix that with $105,000,

00:29:05.760 I mean, hey, maybe that's actually worth a while.

00:29:08.580 This is my argument.

00:29:10.820 I mean, this is like the kind of thing you'd expect

00:29:12.980 from a private innovative sector.

00:29:15.080 Like, this is like, you know, your casual issues.

00:29:17.360 This is where entrepreneurship and the value of it comes from.

00:29:19.980 It's okay.

00:29:20.340 There's a problem that hasn't been addressed in this marketplace.

00:29:23.580 Let's bring a solution or a new solution.

00:29:25.920 Let's bring cost-effective ways to make things a bit better.

00:29:28.640 In the case of carts, I know we have this issue of carts aging

00:29:31.360 and breaking down.

00:29:32.580 Maybe we can make ones that are just lighter,

00:29:35.140 ones that are easier to control in some cases with heavy loads.

00:29:38.620 Whatever it is, I feel like there's a lot of room

00:29:40.460 for innovation in that marketplace.

00:29:42.160 I'm not arguing against the studies in some cases being done at all.

00:29:46.880 I'm just arguing for the fact that our dollars should be put in there.

00:29:49.420 I know academia is really, really, really heavily publicly funded.

00:29:52.860 We have very few private institutions compared to public in Canada,

00:29:55.780 unlike the U.S. and their elite academia,

00:29:57.920 which receives a lot more private funding and a lot less public.

00:30:01.200 But in this case, I really do think that we're getting the wrong things

00:30:04.980 for the wrong dollars.

00:30:06.600 And, I mean, I'm just wondering, like,

00:30:08.260 how do you spend $105,000 on that study in particular, on the carts?

00:30:12.060 Yeah, I mean, if the life cycle or the estimated, you know,

00:30:17.420 remaining economic life of a grocery cart is an issue for the grocery stores,

00:30:22.220 then they should be doing that study.

00:30:24.280 Yeah, I think Safeway could afford to spend $105,000 on a cart study.

00:30:30.260 But why would they bother?

00:30:31.660 But, Alan, this reminds me of the culture we're in

00:30:34.940 under this liberal government of the last 10 years.

00:30:37.140 We're in the culture of corporate subsidy.

00:30:38.960 This is how it's been when Loblaws wanted refrigerators

00:30:41.900 that were, you know, more environmentally friendly

00:30:43.860 because they would, I guess, use less electricity.

00:30:46.160 I guess that was the case.

00:30:47.600 That's hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government

00:30:50.080 to buy fridges.

00:30:51.860 And the NDP, to the credit, called it out.

00:30:53.720 The conservatives called it out.

00:30:55.580 People, taxpayers, weren't happy about it.

00:30:57.540 But that's the culture we're in.

00:30:58.580 So if it's $600 million or whatever to Loblaws

00:31:01.120 is a functional policy of the government,

00:31:04.080 then I guess you can't be that mad about this in retrospect.

00:31:07.660 Yeah, I actually wish Chris Sims of the CTF was here

00:31:11.880 because I often bring up the project.

00:31:15.240 This was municipally funded, I believe,

00:31:17.520 where they, remember, they set up that phone line

00:31:20.440 where you could call the river.

00:31:21.860 I don't know how, that was a couple hundred grand too, I think. 0.97

00:31:24.960 But, I mean, these are the ridiculous things 0.91

00:31:26.780 they're wasting taxpayer money on 0.96

00:31:27.940 because, simply put, we can see these governments

00:31:31.360 don't value taxpayer money because it's not their money.

00:31:34.320 So it really is that simple.

00:31:36.560 And like you said, Alex, if this were a concern

00:31:38.940 for any of these private industries,

00:31:40.380 they would do it themselves.

00:31:42.200 But, honestly, they don't care.

00:31:43.940 So even if you presented Safeway with this research,

00:31:47.300 you think they're going to go replace all their carts?

00:31:48.820 I'd say, not likely.

00:31:50.300 Fat chance.

00:31:52.120 Yeah.

00:31:52.520 So, I mean, it's crazy.

00:31:55.380 But we could probably move on to our next story here

00:31:58.300 because here we're talking about

00:31:59.880 taxpayer-funded investments, let's say.

00:32:05.380 But now we're going to get into the Canadian Army

00:32:07.940 because, well, we can't seem to go very long

00:32:12.260 without some woke controversy from the Canadian Army.

00:32:18.240 So, yeah, this was Jenny Kerrigan, I think,

00:32:21.800 and Bob McCann.

00:32:23.260 They were talking about racial discrimination

00:32:27.140 and harassment within the Canadian Army.

00:32:29.860 And, I mean, I just, I've been talking about this

00:32:32.060 for so long since I've been at True North, honestly,

00:32:34.080 and I don't know how the Canadian Armed Forces

00:32:37.180 haven't learned.

00:32:38.720 Every single year, they're facing recruitment shortages.

00:32:41.340 They're complaining about that.

00:32:42.360 They can't fill the vacant spots in the Army

00:32:44.660 because of the woke policies they're implementing.

00:32:47.720 No one wants to go work for the Army.

00:32:49.440 And they keep doubling down on it

00:32:51.700 instead of giving people, like,

00:32:54.800 something to be proud of in the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:32:58.140 Yeah, I mean, what did you guys think of this story?

00:33:01.480 It just, it's so crazy to me that they keep doubling down

00:33:04.280 on this woke, woke, woke initiative

00:33:06.760 in the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:33:08.240 I believe you want to take this one.

00:33:16.240 How could I let you start?

00:33:18.080 I think I talked enough on the last segment, but...

00:33:20.540 Yeah, so there's racism everywhere. 0.89

00:33:24.000 Sorry, like, it's just, that's just the way the world is.

00:33:26.700 Like, people have, you're going to find racists

00:33:29.280 in every country, in every industry,

00:33:32.420 and you will find, I think, in terms of large companies,

00:33:37.520 some racism there as well.

00:33:39.920 You can't rid the world of racism.

00:33:43.320 You just can't.

00:33:45.280 I mean, people make generalizations

00:33:47.000 because some things are generally true, right?

00:33:50.020 Some people will come up with, you know,

00:33:53.120 people are just, you can't get rid of racism.

00:33:57.340 It's never going to happen.

00:33:58.720 You can, really, I can see the wheels are turning there.

00:34:03.440 I appreciate the way you sparked the conversation, Alex,

00:34:06.620 because I really think that this is a topic on its own

00:34:09.100 that reflects the situation

00:34:11.100 wherever we're applying racism in any institution,

00:34:13.300 be it the RCMP or CAF or other government institutions

00:34:16.200 or even the private institutions,

00:34:17.600 and, of course, our police services as well.

00:34:19.360 I often think about this when I'm thinking about the issue

00:34:21.280 about defunding the police

00:34:22.300 and looking at the police with such a critical view.

00:34:25.320 I just think the longer we create different emphases

00:34:30.600 on the importance of race,

00:34:32.680 the more racism will indeed be prevalent

00:34:34.940 and will become a hybrid model

00:34:37.180 of reconstructing into something different.

00:34:39.800 Racism 50 years ago in some context could look one way,

00:34:42.760 and now today, present day,

00:34:44.080 it looks a little bit different,

00:34:45.520 and it can be mixed between different demographics

00:34:47.240 and different ratios.

00:34:49.020 But essentially, when we're offering such importance

00:34:51.460 to this identity, it can go kind of in what you call

00:34:55.140 a positive or negative orientation.

00:34:56.580 It can be used to criticize someone.

00:34:58.160 It can be used to promote someone.

00:34:59.560 I think it's all negative

00:35:00.440 because it doesn't provide the merits

00:35:01.700 of the person and their value.

00:35:02.920 I think it's immoral

00:35:03.540 because it doesn't objectively promote the good of people

00:35:06.520 being involved in the society like ours

00:35:08.360 where we're supposedly looking after merit,

00:35:11.960 trying to treat everyone equally and being fair.

00:35:14.200 So I think in the Canadian forces, for example,

00:35:18.500 you will have part of that demographic

00:35:20.380 that comes in the military

00:35:21.700 that have views that can be considered racist.

00:35:24.540 It can even be views that you wouldn't actually know much about

00:35:28.300 or aren't very common at all in our society.

00:35:30.560 You know, I'm thinking about, like,

00:35:32.880 we talked about this on different shows,

00:35:34.260 but the whole sectarianism happening

00:35:35.820 between Sikhs and Hindus, right? 0.93

00:35:38.360 And of course, the whole Kalistan battleground

00:35:40.700 happening in Canada,

00:35:41.800 especially in cities like, you know,

00:35:43.060 Surrey and Brampton

00:35:44.040 where there are large Indian diasporas.

00:35:46.340 Well, one of the interesting things I observed

00:35:48.080 is when you had police present

00:35:49.840 at some of those events that got violent,

00:35:51.800 but very mixed responses and engagements

00:35:53.840 by the police officers themselves,

00:35:55.580 depending on what community they were engaging with

00:35:56.860 because of their own background.

00:35:58.540 Some officers were Sikh, some were Hindu,

00:36:00.900 and the way they interacted or weren't interacting

00:36:02.480 was very important

00:36:03.300 because, you know,

00:36:04.500 they have some skin in the game, you could say.

00:36:06.800 So essentially, Canada being a diverse society

00:36:09.600 with such a...

00:36:10.380 Can I jump in on that for just one moment, please?

00:36:12.220 Please, go ahead.

00:36:12.700 So this is what I find really fascinating

00:36:15.480 about this story

00:36:16.380 because if racism is still persistent

00:36:19.700 in the Canadian military,

00:36:21.180 despite all of our DEI initiatives,

00:36:23.280 wouldn't that be a reflection point

00:36:25.160 for us to say,

00:36:27.520 maybe these DEI initiatives aren't working?

00:36:30.320 Because just because you hire more brown 1.00

00:36:32.360 and black people

00:36:33.100 doesn't mean that you're going to have less racism 0.59

00:36:35.020 because the idea that hiring more brown

00:36:37.500 and black people will lead to less racism

00:36:39.060 is predicated on the false assumption 0.98

00:36:41.520 that brown and black people 0.61

00:36:42.540 are not capable of being racist. 0.98

00:36:44.860 And they certainly are.

00:36:46.700 I mean, everybody is capable of being racist.

00:36:49.620 So that should be the takeaway,

00:36:51.880 in my opinion, from the government

00:36:53.100 is let's get rid of these DEI policies.

00:36:54.900 They're clearly not working.

00:36:56.780 Yeah, Alex, I'll take that a step further

00:36:58.540 because I've been wanting to talk about this

00:36:59.880 since you guys have been going.

00:37:00.820 But just to even take it wider than just the army,

00:37:04.580 but let's say the liberal government.

00:37:05.960 I mean, there are so many examples.

00:37:07.580 What you're doing or trying to accomplish,

00:37:09.820 you're doing the complete opposite.

00:37:11.060 For example, immigration.

00:37:12.060 They have single-handedly made Canada anti-immigrant

00:37:15.500 because they took it way too far.

00:37:17.500 You're bringing in like 10%,

00:37:18.900 5% to 10% of the population per year in immigration.

00:37:21.620 You're going to destroy society and they have.

00:37:24.040 I mean, same with DEI initiatives.

00:37:25.540 You're trying to combat racism with DEI initiatives,

00:37:30.920 which in themselves are racist.

00:37:33.000 Of course, DEI initiatives are racist, obviously.

00:37:36.320 You're hiring people based on racial attributes over others.

00:37:39.700 That is racism, literally.

00:37:41.540 I mean, it's insane to me.

00:37:43.380 The only way, if you want to,

00:37:45.680 what they're doing to combat racism is counterproductive.

00:37:48.880 If you want to combat racism in the army,

00:37:51.060 what you should do is emphasize meritocracy,

00:37:53.900 where all that matters is how good of a soldier you are,

00:37:57.080 how good of a person you are,

00:37:58.140 because then race doesn't become a variable.

00:38:00.540 It's not even an attribute that people are considering.

00:38:02.740 So racism will go down.

00:38:04.700 What they're doing is a complete, 0.98

00:38:06.520 I mean, hypocritical, counterproductive. 0.99

00:38:09.640 It's just insane. 0.99

00:38:11.040 Anyone surely looking at it with plain sight can see.

00:38:17.360 Yeah, I think, Isaac, you're on the spot.

00:38:21.100 I mean, DEI, and this is what MP,

00:38:23.680 Conservative MP, Jamil Giovanni,

00:38:25.220 has launched a campaign called End Liberal Racism,

00:38:28.100 and is actually having some meetings,

00:38:30.360 I think, in Ottawa later this next month about this.

00:38:33.660 And I think, you know,

00:38:34.700 DEI actually can be a function that can create racism.

00:38:37.700 But back to Alex's point,

00:38:38.840 which I think is a very interesting one

00:38:39.940 for the audience to consider,

00:38:41.660 is, you know, we're all capable of racism,

00:38:44.420 regardless of what our ethnic or religious

00:38:45.780 or personal backgrounds are.

00:38:47.360 The fact of the matter is,

00:38:48.720 some of the most intense versions of racism

00:38:50.920 and sectarianism that exists in the world today

00:38:52.800 are very often happening between people

00:38:54.700 that don't share Anglo-Saxon heritage

00:38:56.960 and that don't have anything in common

00:38:58.520 with the majority ethnic makeup of Canada.

00:39:01.500 So that being said, you know,

00:39:03.180 when we're looking at DEI,

00:39:04.520 well, you know, you've changed the demographics

00:39:06.360 of the armed forces to some extent,

00:39:08.120 maybe not all the way,

00:39:09.060 but today you have, let's say,

00:39:10.640 a browner, darker, a more colorful,

00:39:13.060 and this is a very local language they'd be using,

00:39:15.020 but you have a more colorful population base

00:39:17.320 in terms of race under the armed forces better.

00:39:20.500 Yet you have this epidemic of some extremism,

00:39:22.980 some racism,

00:39:23.660 some just complete disgusting misconduct

00:39:25.720 from a few members that we've talked about before,

00:39:28.060 which absolutely are condemnable.

00:39:30.100 But I think the evidence

00:39:31.940 and the examples of racism and discrimination

00:39:35.160 that can be seen in the coming years

00:39:37.720 can be very different in principle.

00:39:39.600 I mean, same in principle,

00:39:40.620 but very different in how it looks.

00:39:42.260 It doesn't necessarily have to be a kind of an anti-black

00:39:45.580 from a white angle.

00:39:47.340 It doesn't have to be like anti-immigrant.

00:39:49.580 It can be like just playing on religious extremism

00:39:53.220 or sectarianism from, you know,

00:39:55.140 Hindu, Sikh, Jew, Muslim, whatever,

00:39:57.480 on these frontiers that are taking over

00:39:59.860 our conversations in media

00:40:01.620 because of ongoing geopolitical conflicts

00:40:03.500 in Middle East and in India

00:40:04.640 and elsewhere that reflected in our diaspora.

00:40:06.960 Those divisions that have not been healed in Canada

00:40:11.180 and have not been caused in Canada

00:40:12.740 because we're lizards.

00:40:13.560 Let's remember, the conflicts exist.

00:40:16.120 There's reasons why people are emotional and upset.

00:40:18.340 I understand them completely.

00:40:19.280 And I'm completely in sympathy with all people

00:40:21.220 that have, you know, heritage from abroad.

00:40:23.920 And there's a struggle out there somewhere in the world

00:40:26.360 where they're dealing with a number of issues.

00:40:29.000 But, you know, when you're packing your bags,

00:40:31.440 moving across the world,

00:40:32.980 you know, if you really are seeking a better life,

00:40:34.600 you're going to seek a life that will dispose of those sentiments

00:40:38.680 as best as you can.

00:40:40.020 You know, it doesn't mean you forget who you are.

00:40:41.600 It just means, you know, you realize you're in Canada now

00:40:43.940 and the rules of the society and the events of history

00:40:46.400 are much different.

00:40:47.240 So if you're importing that history

00:40:48.740 or that sentiment based off that history

00:40:51.700 without the history being globally present,

00:40:54.000 such that you're doing is you're involving

00:40:56.160 an unsolvable conflict into the society.

00:40:58.940 Like if Canada...

00:40:59.740 I agree.

00:41:00.420 Because let's say we have like this West-East cultural divide,

00:41:03.060 you know, between Albertans and Quebecers,

00:41:05.580 there's different ideas that are

00:41:06.780 in the political mainstream of both provinces.

00:41:09.040 Pro-oil versus anti-oil.

00:41:10.800 That's a frontier of division.

00:41:12.260 And that can be articulated vis-a-vis language differences

00:41:15.300 and political differences.

00:41:16.360 And you can have a situation where Albertans

00:41:18.260 look very critically towards Quebecers and vice versa. 0.93

00:41:21.200 And there you go.

00:41:22.140 You have some actual Canadian sectarianism.

00:41:23.900 But guess what?

00:41:24.640 You know, we're in Canada.

00:41:25.860 We can actually deal with some of the underlying causes

00:41:27.980 of some of these public sentiments

00:41:29.260 shared between Quebecers and Albertans

00:41:31.120 because we have...

00:41:33.120 Well, I think the term racism here is a misnomer

00:41:36.160 because if you're an Indian

00:41:38.520 or somebody of Indian heritage

00:41:40.360 and let's say you're a Sikh Indian, for instance,

00:41:44.160 and you dislike a Hindu from India, 0.96

00:41:48.140 are you racist? 0.84

00:41:49.300 Well, no, not really.

00:41:50.440 I mean, it's a whole other issue.

00:41:54.640 But the point I'm trying to make here

00:41:56.000 is that the people who are doing these DEI initiatives

00:41:58.360 clearly don't know history

00:41:59.500 because if you're hiring Indians

00:42:02.700 who are first-generation immigrants

00:42:04.220 with the amount of sectarian disagreements

00:42:06.460 that they have in India,

00:42:07.580 you are almost bound.

00:42:09.280 It's almost inevitable

00:42:10.260 that you are going to have more internal strife

00:42:13.020 because Hindus and Sikhs have far more conflicts,

00:42:15.280 for instance, than Protestants and Catholics do today.

00:42:19.000 I mean, that is ancient history now.

00:42:21.500 So if you wanted to have the least racist,

00:42:24.540 again, it's a misnomer.

00:42:25.520 I don't think that's the best term,

00:42:27.120 police force possible,

00:42:27.980 you'd almost be hiring

00:42:29.000 the most white police officers possible, right? 0.60

00:42:32.060 Because they have the least amount

00:42:33.640 of sectarian issues amongst themselves.

00:42:37.760 Now, that's a bit of a generalization, of course.

00:42:40.100 If you were hiring all Balkan white people, 0.96

00:42:43.200 then that's not the truth.

00:42:45.120 But if you're hiring mostly French or English,

00:42:48.120 do you see where I'm going with this?

00:42:49.420 I do.

00:42:51.180 Just to summarize my point here

00:42:53.460 is I'm talking about how do we have,

00:42:55.520 because here's the thing,

00:42:56.100 I'm not looking at racism uniquely.

00:42:57.580 I'm looking at any form of bigotry,

00:42:59.060 any form of sectarian hatred

00:43:00.600 between people that can cause

00:43:01.860 what would describe Balkanization.

00:43:04.360 I don't want to see Canadian society 1.00

00:43:05.960 Balkanized to this point 1.00

00:43:08.340 where we're having, you know,

00:43:10.120 ghettos of different communities, 1.00

00:43:11.600 separate apart.

00:43:12.600 We're having instances of violence,

00:43:14.820 instances of public demonstration of this hatred.

00:43:17.180 It's just frankly embarrassing.

00:43:18.220 But the point I was, you know,

00:43:20.500 talking about before was, you know,

00:43:23.040 when we have something happening domestically

00:43:24.800 that's causing frustration

00:43:25.840 and strife between people,

00:43:28.440 then we can actually deal with these things

00:43:30.160 that are happening under our,

00:43:31.540 you know, within our borders, essentially.

00:43:33.500 The solutions can be proposed.

00:43:35.540 Things can happen.

00:43:36.720 The reality could change.

00:43:38.000 Sentiment could change, you know.

00:43:39.520 People are becoming, like Alex said,

00:43:41.360 or sorry, what Isaac said earlier,

00:43:43.060 people are becoming more anti-immigrant.

00:43:44.420 Well, you know,

00:43:45.340 when the government changes its policy

00:43:46.800 towards anti- or towards immigration

00:43:48.520 or the mass immigration regime,

00:43:50.260 if that, you know, cools down for a period,

00:43:52.520 I'm sure Canadians will rise right back up 0.93

00:43:54.600 with, you know, positive sentiments

00:43:55.960 towards having a more open immigration system,

00:43:58.480 at least, you know,

00:43:59.520 further years down the road

00:44:00.420 after some significant reform

00:44:01.840 because that reform is definitely

00:44:03.340 of great appetite and need for many Canadians.

00:44:05.580 But just to the point, again,

00:44:06.780 it's when you can't control an issue

00:44:08.280 within your own borders

00:44:09.060 and that issue becomes the issue of discourse

00:44:11.260 within your own country,

00:44:12.360 you have an uncontrollable situation

00:44:13.700 that Canadians,

00:44:14.720 most Canadians have nothing to do with, 0.56

00:44:16.420 nothing to control,

00:44:17.400 and no way to influence.

00:44:18.560 And so basically,

00:44:19.140 your second time waiting for this conflict

00:44:20.800 somewhere outside of your control

00:44:23.000 to be resolved,

00:44:23.940 that's impossible,

00:44:24.820 that's improbable,

00:44:25.600 that's the perfect moral reason

00:44:26.920 as to why people have to be able to let go

00:44:28.740 because they're no longer in a situation

00:44:30.180 where they can be able

00:44:31.220 to actually fight for anything, frankly.

00:44:32.980 They've left the fight.

00:44:34.200 You know, that's the thing.

00:44:34.980 The Sikhs leaving Punjab are left. 0.99

00:44:37.300 They've left.

00:44:37.820 They've probably put their arms down

00:44:39.640 or at the very least,

00:44:41.020 they've given up on imagining

00:44:42.380 that they're going to have a state in time soon.

00:44:44.340 Same thing for people in the Middle East.

00:44:45.460 They've left seeking safety.

00:44:46.720 They've left seeking better opportunity

00:44:48.020 because there's a situation happening over there.

00:44:50.060 So you don't want to be doing yourself

00:44:52.120 the curse of what took you out

00:44:53.780 of the first society

00:44:54.600 that you were born in,

00:44:56.020 in the first place.

00:44:57.080 And that's kind of what the,

00:44:58.420 I think,

00:44:58.780 moral imperative on people coming into Canada.

00:45:00.940 And from the receiving society end,

00:45:02.820 I think we have to consider

00:45:03.780 exactly what people's ideas

00:45:05.680 and ideologies and values are

00:45:07.380 as they're coming to Canada.

00:45:08.240 The idea of a values test,

00:45:09.680 I know it sounds a little bit draconian

00:45:11.020 for some of us,

00:45:12.100 you know, libertarians,

00:45:12.960 but I think very much

00:45:13.980 it's something that I completely agree with

00:45:15.700 because-

00:45:16.080 I agree with it as well.

00:45:17.140 You have to,

00:45:17.880 our model works voluntarily.

00:45:19.200 You have to be able to get by the vibes

00:45:21.660 of our values,

00:45:23.060 of an open, tolerant society,

00:45:24.900 because our constitution that has,

00:45:26.960 our charter rights and freedoms

00:45:28.040 that has, you know,

00:45:28.940 a notwithstanding clause

00:45:29.860 that can be canceled by governments

00:45:31.140 virtually any time,

00:45:32.580 it's a very weak document.

00:45:33.680 So if we're going to uphold our rights,

00:45:35.320 it's going to be because our society

00:45:36.280 buys in by large majorities.

00:45:40.040 I'm probably more pro-immigration

00:45:41.840 than most conservatives,

00:45:43.000 but I am absolutely 110%

00:45:46.000 in favor of a values test.

00:45:48.560 100%.

00:45:49.320 Yeah, I'll wrap this up

00:45:51.500 with one thing, guys,

00:45:52.400 on DEI,

00:45:53.220 just because for anyone who knows

00:45:55.320 watching the show,

00:45:56.080 they might be mad

00:45:56.560 if we don't mention it.

00:45:57.460 But of course,

00:45:58.160 we were talking about

00:45:59.220 Lieutenant General Jenny Carignan here,

00:46:02.000 and there is some past controversy

00:46:04.520 with her,

00:46:05.380 which kind of speaks

00:46:06.420 to the whole woke mob mentality,

00:46:08.320 the whole DEI paradigm,

00:46:10.460 because yes,

00:46:11.640 this person, Carignan,

00:46:14.160 allegedly evacuated Peruvian rugs

00:46:16.740 from a war zone

00:46:17.580 that were very expensive

00:46:18.780 instead of army soldiers,

00:46:20.940 and then was later promoted.

00:46:22.960 So that,

00:46:24.060 because,

00:46:25.020 I mean,

00:46:25.400 I can't speak to why she was promoted,

00:46:26.700 but all that matters

00:46:28.260 is that you can put on a good face,

00:46:29.720 say woke things,

00:46:30.860 say,

00:46:31.260 oh,

00:46:31.780 we support DEI.

00:46:32.940 I mean,

00:46:33.340 that's really the,

00:46:35.620 taking it outside of the army again,

00:46:37.260 that's really the liberal mindset.

00:46:38.880 As long as you say those woke things,

00:46:40.480 it doesn't really matter what you do, 0.98

00:46:42.200 which is absolutely ridiculous 0.89

00:46:44.180 when you think about it. 0.79

00:46:46.060 In any sense,

00:46:47.680 when DEI is involved,

00:46:48.800 we just have to get back

00:46:49.860 to meritocracy,

00:46:50.720 in my opinion,

00:46:51.280 because it is by far

00:46:53.320 the best approach.

00:46:55.140 My name is Isaac Lameradlick.

00:46:56.240 Thank my colleagues,

00:46:56.980 Alex Zoltan

00:46:57.560 and Waleed Tamtan.

00:46:58.480 Remember,

00:46:58.760 everything you heard today

00:46:59.640 was off the record.

00:47:01.260 We have the articles on the show,

00:47:06.200 by the way,

00:47:06.640 they're in the clip,

00:47:07.340 or is that going to be edited later?

00:47:08.640 They did.

00:47:09.360 Yeah,

00:47:09.640 we'll probably put it in post,

00:47:10.980 but this is a very interesting conversation

00:47:13.320 in terms of the first story that we did,

00:47:15.700 if we're going full circle.

00:47:16.660 Because what I find fascinating

00:47:18.660 about this Cowichan case

00:47:20.180 is where it's happening.

00:47:22.680 Richmond is probably

00:47:23.960 the most multicultural place

00:47:26.300 in the entire country,

00:47:27.560 especially in terms of first generation

00:47:29.360 or second generation immigrants.

00:47:31.280 Tons of people came

00:47:32.180 in the 70s and 80s,

00:47:33.480 largely Hong Kongers,

00:47:34.700 and then people from mainland China,

00:47:36.220 and they took over this plot of land.

00:47:38.740 So what you have here now

00:47:41.200 with this Cowichan decision 0.96

00:47:42.320 is two asinine UN policies 0.96

00:47:44.700 combating each other 0.97

00:47:46.460 in this octagon,

00:47:47.620 what I call Richmond. 0.99

00:47:48.860 You have the asinine policy 0.98

00:47:50.400 of UN mass immigration 0.94

00:47:52.260 facing off against the UN policy

00:47:54.640 of reconciliation.

00:47:56.100 It's the classic

00:47:57.680 Indian versus Indian 0.99

00:47:59.200 five-round UFC fight.

00:48:01.360 It is feather versus dot.

00:48:04.100 And this, to me,

00:48:05.020 I find just so interesting.

00:48:07.640 And one thing that I took

00:48:09.160 as like a very thin silver lining

00:48:10.700 from this town hall

00:48:12.000 was how great Canada is.

00:48:14.320 Because you had this multicultural town hall

00:48:16.800 where people's properties

00:48:18.220 are getting taken away.

00:48:19.340 In any other country,

00:48:20.420 I feel like they would have

00:48:21.100 burned that place down.

00:48:22.960 But in Canada,

00:48:23.980 everybody was very friendly.

00:48:25.320 Everybody was very polite.

00:48:26.980 Like, it is such a blessing

00:48:28.340 to live in a country

00:48:29.600 where all of these different people

00:48:30.980 can get along,

00:48:33.060 can have a sense of humor

00:48:34.220 about even the most humorless things possible,

00:48:37.600 and that it's a safe, secure place.

00:48:41.860 And I'll just leave it at that.

00:48:42.900 That's all I wanted to say.

00:48:45.120 Canada is the least racist country on earth.

00:48:47.700 And I didn't realize that

00:48:49.160 nearly as much as I did

00:48:50.140 until I attended that town hall on Tuesday.

00:48:52.040 We're very lucky to live here.

00:48:55.320 I'll see you guys

00:48:58.060 there's a schema.

00:49:03.340 Thank you so much.

00:49:04.320 Thank you very much for watching.

00:49:11.760 Thank you.

Juno News - November 01, 2025

$5B land claim in Quebec expands property assault to national crisis

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