Juno News - June 14, 2023


Andrew responds to Bernier attacking True North


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

175.93152

Word count

1,747

Sentence count

122

Harmful content

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Maxime Bernier has been accused of not attending the World Economic Forum, but in fact he was. And a conspiracy theory has emerged that he was actually at the WEF, but it's just not enough evidence to prove it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 I want to begin by talking about something that I didn't anticipate revisiting, because to be honest, I find this to be a very absurd story, but it's an absurd story that has started to become a little bit more reflective of one of the more unfortunate political developments of our time.
00:00:18.660 And to go back in time a week on this, the trigger was what I thought was, frankly, a petty and dumb tweet from the conservative candidate in Portage Lisker, Brandon Leslie, who we had on the show.
00:00:33.080 We showed the graphic on a previous episode on Thursday.
00:00:36.520 He basically was just sticking a little thumb into Maxime Bernier.
00:00:40.700 That's a very weird visual.
00:00:42.200 He was poking Maxime Bernier.
00:00:44.200 That's a little bit less weird and saying, you know, unlike Maxime Bernier, I'm never going to go to the World Economic Forum. 0.59
00:00:51.380 And then Maxime Bernier responded and said that he is a liar.
00:00:55.560 Brandon Leslie, he's never attended the WEF. 0.93
00:00:58.260 And for me, despite finding this to be a pretty inconsequential and stupid fight, I weighed in not because I thought that either one of them was beholden to the World Economic Forum, 0.54
00:01:09.720 but because I took umbrage with Maxime Bernier's attempt at revisionism here and saying he had never attended when clearly he had. 0.92
00:01:18.240 And I went through the entire argument on my show.
00:01:20.860 I said, here's proof he was there.
00:01:22.860 And ultimately, this came down to Maxime Bernier having a very different understanding of what the word attended means than I do.
00:01:29.580 Now, my claim to Maxime and about that whole thing was never that he was a WEF shill or he was a closet globalist.
00:01:37.800 I take Maxime Bernier at his word as I take Pierre Polyev at his word that both of them are very critical, and I'm glad they are, of the WEF and its agenda.
00:01:46.740 What I didn't like is Bernier claiming that he had never gone when clearly he had.
00:01:51.600 And notwithstanding, his answer to that was that it was because he was meeting with Canada's allies and other foreign ministers for the whole Afghanistan war,
00:02:00.760 which, again, is an entirely legitimate reason to be there if that's your goal, but you're still there.
00:02:08.160 And that was the issue.
00:02:09.260 Now, the reason I bring this up again, and I am completely convinced that this is a distraction from real issues,
00:02:16.320 but it's become a very consuming distraction, is because Maxime Bernier has decided to take aim at me and at True North's coverage.
00:02:24.740 He tweeted out just yesterday evening that True North and I are like CBC for daring to have this conversation about his record.
00:02:33.900 And again, he was there as a conservative.
00:02:36.320 He was there at Stephen Harper's behest.
00:02:37.980 No one is disputing that.
00:02:39.820 He was still there, and all of his issues and objections to the World Economic Forum didn't come about until much later on.
00:02:46.320 Just as the Conservative Party of Canada was all too willing to be a player in the WEF until it no longer became politically advantageous to do so.
00:02:55.160 And the argument I've put forward about this is that the WEF of 2023 is not the same as the WEF of 2008.
00:03:03.340 I think it's entirely legitimate for someone to say, listen, we thought it was one thing.
00:03:07.340 We thought we were doing this.
00:03:08.740 We weren't, or the organization has changed.
00:03:11.380 Whatever the case is, that's not the discussion that we've had.
00:03:15.040 And that's not been the argument from the PPC.
00:03:18.220 But in the last several days, this segment that I did on my show that I thought was done after Maxime Bernier and I spoke about it,
00:03:25.700 and I said to the audience, listen, you've heard my side.
00:03:28.460 You've heard his side.
00:03:29.620 Make up your own mind.
00:03:31.000 This has continued for almost, basically for four days since then.
00:03:36.020 My tweets have been nonstop in my mentions.
00:03:40.120 My Twitter mentions have been nonstop about this issue.
00:03:42.600 And it's gotten very nasty.
00:03:44.080 It's gotten very personal.
00:03:45.880 And I don't really care about that.
00:03:47.360 If people are that insecure about their own party and their own leader,
00:03:51.480 which is what this comes from, that they believe they are incapable of answering a tough question,
00:03:57.360 that says a lot more about your chosen party and your chosen leader than it does about anyone else.
00:04:04.020 The accusations that I have gotten along this vein or that True North has sold out,
00:04:08.720 that I've secretly been on the take and I've been getting money from Pierre Polyev or Klaus Schwab or a combination of the two,
00:04:15.380 I don't even know what the conspiracy theory is suggesting right now.
00:04:18.840 But it's an odd thing.
00:04:20.180 And I've always made a joke on this show that I often get criticized by conservative loyalists and PPC loyalists
00:04:27.200 for being too sympathetic to the other.
00:04:29.780 And sometimes it'll be over the same interview and the same discussion.
00:04:33.240 Indeed, after I spoke to Maxime Bernier on Thursday, I had conservative loyalists saying,
00:04:38.960 oh, you know, you're a PPC sellout because you're giving him more airtime.
00:04:42.380 And then I had the PPC loyalists that didn't like my line of questioning
00:04:45.740 and wanted to string me up as being some, again, conservative shill.
00:04:49.880 It's very difficult to keep track of this.
00:04:52.180 I have always been very clear on where I stand, which is not having a particular party.
00:04:57.660 I have voted PPC and I have voted conservative.
00:05:00.880 And I share that with you just so you understand that I'm not one of these people
00:05:04.580 that believes that truth lies exclusively with one party.
00:05:08.060 I ran as a progressive conservative candidate in 2018,
00:05:11.740 and I have been probably more critical of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party
00:05:17.500 than most other progressive conservatives in Ontario,
00:05:21.060 because I thought it was vehemently wrong.
00:05:23.960 I vehemently disagreed and thought it was incredibly wrong
00:05:26.800 how Doug Ford took his majority government in 2018
00:05:29.360 and chose to use it and has continued to.
00:05:32.480 So anyone who thinks it's a gotcha to point out that I was a candidate
00:05:35.900 when it's not been a secret, I have like 10,000 signs with my name on it.
00:05:39.300 Like you're not really unearthing anything there.
00:05:41.940 So all of this is to say that I have absolutely no regrets
00:05:46.060 about the discussions and coverage that we did on this last week.
00:05:50.500 I have no regrets at all about giving the PPC attention
00:05:54.440 when no one in Canadian media was.
00:05:56.620 And I said last election, I went on the road with Aaron O'Toole and the Conservatives.
00:06:00.540 I went on the road with Maxime Bernier and the PPC.
00:06:03.360 Both were figures who had a story to tell and had issues to talk about
00:06:07.740 and contributed to the Canadian political discourse.
00:06:11.400 And ultimately, the reason I'm talking about this now
00:06:15.080 is to say that I do not care about your fragility
00:06:20.240 if you are so insecure that you think Maxime Bernier looked bad on my show
00:06:25.240 that you're done with True North.
00:06:26.500 I do not care because you are someone that doesn't actually want to be challenged.
00:06:32.080 You are someone that doesn't want to have a real discussion
00:06:34.420 or a real dialogue or a real debate.
00:06:37.160 You are so insecure that if I'm agreeing with you, you think I'm good.
00:06:41.500 But if I disagree with you, you think I'm bad.
00:06:43.420 Rather than saying, oh, I didn't like his position on that and here's why.
00:06:46.880 Or, oh, I did like his position on that and here's why.
00:06:50.280 And this is part of an increasingly,
00:06:52.380 an increasing frustration I have with the direction of politics right now.
00:06:56.340 It used to be that you may like or dislike a broadcaster or columnist
00:07:00.020 and sometimes they'd be on point and other times they're not.
00:07:02.580 But the amount of times right now that people will share a piece,
00:07:06.360 not because they agree with the methodology of it,
00:07:09.180 but only because they agree with the outcome.
00:07:11.900 And then they will turn on the author of that piece
00:07:14.960 the next time they write something that perhaps the reader disagrees with.
00:07:20.060 And the battle between the conservatives and the PPC is a vicious, nasty one.
00:07:26.340 Both sides think the other are dangerous to democracy.
00:07:29.520 They both think they're sellouts. 0.95
00:07:30.640 They both think each other are grifters.
00:07:33.240 And I've been absolutely fine to cover both
00:07:35.700 and declare neutrality between the two.
00:07:37.980 And I'll continue to.
00:07:39.460 But when Maxime Bernier,
00:07:41.240 who has never, never had anything unkind to say to me to my face,
00:07:46.760 nor have I ever said anything unkind to him in his face.
00:07:49.340 And after that interview on Thursday,
00:07:51.520 we had a lovely chat off air talking about it.
00:07:54.280 And he said, oh yeah, you're doing great work.
00:07:56.220 And thanks for letting me come on.
00:07:57.420 And then he turns around and says, we're like CBC for having it.
00:08:01.780 CBC for having that interview.
00:08:03.380 Like CBC for having that discussion and asking him these questions
00:08:06.580 when his own public statements are in contradiction with the record,
00:08:11.680 which was very easy for me and for anyone else to find.
00:08:14.900 I have to say, give me a break.
00:08:17.340 Give me a break.
00:08:18.780 And I don't actually think my integrity is imperiled there
00:08:22.320 because people can see for themselves
00:08:23.920 that he is trying to rewrite history
00:08:26.020 when he claims that he was never at this conference
00:08:28.060 despite being an invited guest
00:08:29.980 of the World Economic Forum at that conference.
00:08:32.640 And again, I do not have an issue with him being there in 2008.
00:08:36.980 I have an issue with him going there and claiming he wasn't.
00:08:40.900 That was what this whole thing was.
00:08:43.400 And had he not made that claim, this would not be an issue.
00:08:47.220 But you can tell how insecure his own supporters are about their standing.
00:08:53.860 And if you look at poll numbers, not particularly surprising,
00:08:57.120 given that the PPC is unlikely to achieve the electoral results it had in 2021.
00:09:03.640 But they are so uneasy about their own position
00:09:09.340 in the Canadian political landscape
00:09:11.460 that even the most inconsequential of critiques and criticisms to them
00:09:17.520 is like going nuclear.
00:09:19.740 It is scorched earth to them.
00:09:21.220 Unbelievable.
00:09:27.120 Lovely.
00:09:28.260 Good morning.
00:09:29.820 Good morning.
00:09:31.320 Good morning.
00:09:32.680 Goodbye.
00:09:33.900 triumph.
00:09:37.980 Beautiful.
00:09:38.700 Good morning.
00:09:39.740 Good morning.
00:09:40.920 Good morning.
00:09:41.140 Good morning.
00:09:42.620 Good morning.
00:09:42.800 Good morning.
00:09:44.680 Good morning.
00:09:45.240 Good morning.
00:09:45.260 Good morning.
00:09:45.920 Good morning.
00:09:46.280 Good morning.
00:09:46.360 Good morning.
00:09:47.760 Good morning.
00:09:48.960 Good morning.
00:09:50.040 Good morning.
00:09:51.860 Good morning.
00:09:52.680 Good morning.
00:09:54.600 Good morning.
00:09:54.860 Good morning.