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Summary
Isaac Lammre, Alex Zoltan, and Waleed Tamtam join us to talk about the tragic death of three truck drivers in a crash on the side of the road in Florida, and the growing problem of distracted truck drivers on Canadian highways.
Transcript
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All right. So what happened to your wrist, Isaac?
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Yeah, Alex. Well, it's kind of a workplace injury, I guess. Yeah, no. So over the last few weeks,
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when I was golfing, I just noticed like halfway through the round or so, my wrist
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essentially was in unbearable pain. So then last weekend, I'm golfing there and my mom wrapped it
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for me with like a compression tape or whatever, and it fixed it. So she's like, oh, you got carpal
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tunnel, which is diagnosed from my mother, keep in mind, who isn't a medical professional. Although
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in fairness, I would trust my family to diagnose me more so than a medical professional in many
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instances. So yeah, I guess I have carpal tunnel. So my wrist is always in pain, which sucks because
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I'm moving my mouse around too much, I guess. So yeah, you guys think it's easy working at True
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North? No, you know, we're going through the injuries. But yeah, my name is Isaac Lammre.
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I'm here joined by my colleagues, Alex Zoltan and Waleed Tamtam. And let's just hop right into it.
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Yeah, so I'm sure everyone's seen at least one of the many, many videos circulating on the social
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medias around the last week around these drivers, these semi truck drivers on the highways. I mean,
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take your pick at the video, we see these guys on their phones, and it's all kind of
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surfaced, I guess, from one driver who made an illegal U-turn, and I think killed three people,
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because I mean, you guys saw the video, it was sick, it was terrible, terrible stuff. And anyone,
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I think, who's been on a Canadian highway recently, might have noticed some issues with semi truck
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drivers. In fact, just a week or two ago, myself, I was on the highway there, and I saw a semi truck
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flipped. It seems like we're seeing that more and more often. And we see all these stories coming out
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about these temporary immigrants coming in, essentially, through these questionable driving
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schools, some of which are just completely falsified documents. And then they're driving
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on the road. Alex, you've cited before, there was this one truck driver, apparently, who hadn't even
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driven before, and he was driving a semi on the road. So I mean, what's going on with these truck
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drivers here? It just seems to get worse and worse. So there's a lot going on. Our friends over at
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Juno News did a really great interview with a friend of mine, Gordon McGill, and he's literally
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writing the book on this. He's a very experienced trucker. I think he has decades of experience.
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I think he might be the only person in the history of the world to have driven in Nunavut and Australia
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as a truck driver, which is pretty cool. He has lots of neat stories about that. So he has a lot of
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knowledge not only of trucking, but of the industry itself. He's a real kind of rabbit hole type guy.
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And this has been going on for a very long time. In fact, it even goes back to pre-pandemic. So there
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was a really great article in the Globe and Mail by a journalist named Kathy Tomlinson, who we just
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can't find anymore. I don't know what happened to her. I hope she's doing well. But she wrote about how
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there's a really strange nexus going on in Canada, specifically between immigration consultants who may or
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may not be doing things that are unscrupulous at best and criminal at worst. And what they do is
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they offer folks in primarily in the Punjab province of India, temporary working status in Canada.
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In exchange, they have to do some type of job. A lot of these folks don't even know what their job is
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going to be until they land in Canada. And then they get sent to a driving school who are, again,
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these driving schools are very unscrupulous and not very reputable, and are not necessarily giving
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people the training that they probably need. And so you have a whole bunch of folks who come to
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Canada, and some of them have never driven cars before. And now they're sliding down ice roads
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in Saskatchewan at like 100 kilometers an hour with like a 18-wheeler truck. The results are
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predictably disastrous. And I think that Canadians are rightfully outraged, and Americans do now with
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Yeah, to be fair, Saskatchewan is far from the worst roads in Canada that's mostly flat. Imagine you're
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driving in BC on ice roads and those windy, windy roads around the mountains. I mean, that is just a
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nightmare for anyone, let alone someone in a big truck. Yeah, Waleed, have you seen these videos
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circulating? And do you have any thoughts, I guess, on these truckers?
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I do have thoughts, and I have seen these videos. And unfortunately, I've seen many of these videos,
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and I've seen this trend as a reaction to many of these videos with any large vehicle. It could be a
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truck, or it could even be a bus from any public transportation agency in Canada. You will see an
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accident of any sort, and you'll have the comments section full of people inquiring on where that driver is
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from, most of the time looking at if that person happens to be, as Alex said, from the Punjab region
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of India, who happens to be the trend very common these days in North America, especially here in
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Canada. So that being the concern of people in the public, so often the case, it tells it that there's
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a story, and there's a failure of public policy. On the public policy question, Monday morning, you and I
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we're talking, Isaac, on the Daily Brief on Monday, about the gun confiscation program and how it's
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failed to really render any results positive towards the public security agenda, which is how it's
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always been framed to Canadians. Well, you know, cars and vehicles are killing machines far greater than
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that of any kinds of guns, be it assault rifles or handguns, legal and illegal combined. So you're talking
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about 18 wheelers and buses and all kinds of heavy vehicles. I think you're talking about without
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properly licensed and trained and experienced drivers. I think you're talking about a security
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risk that outranks that of any weapon, frankly, it's the single most dangerous thing on the roads
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these days are untrained truck drivers. And of course, as we saw, tragically, in recent times, we can take we can
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see situations that take lives of families multiple at once given the size and strength that these
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vehicles have, especially when operated at high speeds on a highway, for example. So my thoughts are
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that of most Canadians that this has to be dealt with. Clearly, this is so common that if it's becoming
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a Twitter trend to ask what people's ethnic and national backgrounds are based on a vehicle accident
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involving a truck driver. I think it tells you that maybe there's something a bit too common
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that has to be dealt with sooner rather than later. Yeah, that's a great comparison, Malid.
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It made me think of a question. Would you rather be shot by a gun or hit by an 18 wheeler on the
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highway? Of course, the irony in that statement is that the gun ban is not targeting any legal gun owners
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because they're all smuggled in from the States. So it's not really a fair comparison in that sense.
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But can I pick neither? Not if you live in Canada.
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Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's it's a crazy situation, right? I mean, the 2024, I think, was an all time
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high for roadside fatalities in Canada. That seems really strange, especially when you consider that
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vehicles are getting safer with with technology, right? There should be less accidents, not more.
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So I think this is another case of government making things worse. That's true, Alex and new cars.
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I don't know how effective this would be on a highway, but it will literally stop you from
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hitting something like if you're parking and it'll force the brakes on you because it has that level
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of technology. So we're getting to a stage where you would expect accidents to be less and less
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through through technology and automation. It's essentially enhancing safety. But obviously,
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that's not the case if we keep seeing these numbers rise. Another friend of the show, Mocha,
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I don't know if did you guys see the interview he did with the Canadian trucker where the foul
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mouth trucker? I did not, but I know Mocha's work.
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Walid, what did you think? Well, you referred to the interview with the Punjab
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driver. I mean, at least I think he immigrated himself quite a while back, actually. No,
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he was born in Canada, but he's a brown guy. But yeah.
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Okay. But he is, he is Indian of background. So he does kind of attest to this question of
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culture and integration. I mean, I think it points to a wider question, frankly, that,
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you know, like I am willing to forgo the fact that there are very much innocent individuals involved
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in this dynamic of people that are, that don't know what they're doing and are just being led into
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stray, like, like, you know, by immigration consultants and their partners in business.
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But I also think, frankly, there's some bad decision making by some of these individuals as
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well, accepting these opportunities and taking them as their best shot. Because really, we're
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talking about deadly consequences here, their own lives and lives of other people. And once you get
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behind the wheel, you're responsible, whether you're, you know, a native born or foreign born,
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whether you think Canada is the dreamland, or if you think it's in decline. I mean, frankly,
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there's, this should not be this reality. But referring to the interview itself, I really do
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think it's something that's been more recent, because Canada has had an influx of migrants,
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pretty high levels for a long time, and India included. But we're really getting perhaps the worst
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batch. And that batch is happening to fall into the trucker industry, unlike ever before,
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I've never seen this, like how many people were importing for these kinds of jobs specifically.
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Like, I don't think we've had something like this in history before. It's a really new issue
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with a new dynamic. And of course, the social reactions as well are quite new as well.
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Yeah, and we're talking here about the truckers, but I felt for forever, almost, I guess,
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that we need stronger regulations when it comes to imported drivers on the consumer side,
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that being like, if someone from China just moves here, they, in my opinion, you shouldn't just be
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able to hop on the road and drive. I see these types of people driving. And certainly, I know for
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a fact, they did not pass the same driving tests I did as a Canadian, I just know that there's no
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possible way based on the way they drive. And I know these tests aren't easy, especially before when
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we had the in Alberta, the non GDL and the GDL stuff, that's been abolished since. So it has gotten a bit
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easier. But I do think nationally, or I guess it's provincially, but I always have felt we need a bit
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more, like, I don't know the regulations to be fair. But I just feel like if someone moves here from
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anywhere, they should have to have a more strict guidelines in regard to like road tests, just from
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a for a normal person. Isaac, I mean, talking about that for a second, earlier this month, on the 7th, I
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covered a story about driver, I mean, the driver's center Ontario, they offer the written portion,
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the G1 tests with signage and regulations on the road in more than 30 languages, including Punjabi,
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and Somali, and Hindi, and Arabic, I mean, a bunch of languages. So it seems that speaking English,
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frankly, is not even a requirement at that stage. So perhaps even that has to change.
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And we're talking about drivers of trucks, or of cars, of motorcycles, just the baseline,
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frankly. So I think even that needs to change, just for the sake of future road security. There
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should definitely be a standard of greater literacy, I think. Well, in Vancouver, we're renaming every
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street in languages that nobody can speak anyway. So I'm sure they'll be just fine. But with the rest of
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the country, I tend to agree. You also have the issue as well, where these people are paying tens of
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thousands of dollars to come to Canada. And then these companies are taking full advantage of them,
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because they're hanging this PR carrot over their head. And so this is really actually kind of an
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indentured servitude program. So there's kind of two things going on at once. Canadians are all made
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less safe. And these immigrants are also being taken advantage of. So, you know, obviously, I have my
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sympathy for the victims of these crashes outweigh my sympathy for the drivers. But there is still
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a little bit of heart string that is tugged, right? Yeah, Alex, that sounds like a lose-lose
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situation. But hopping into our next story, more of a win-lose situation, lose for me and Albertans,
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but win for Eastern provinces for siphoning money out of Alberta, which Daniel Smith,
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the premier here was absolutely freaking out about at a recent town hall there in Fort McMurray on
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Tuesday. Yeah. Do we want to just watch the clip of that before we go ahead here?
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Ottawa overtaxing us. I mentioned that at the beginning of the evening, that our program costs
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are 70% of all tax dollars. We only collect 40%. Ottawa collects 60%. And then they use political
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means to transfer it. Alberta, year after year, has 20 to 25 billion dollars that is siphoned
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out of our system to go to Ottawa so that it can be spent mostly in Quebec, but also in other places
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that vote liberal. We have been watching this for years. 600 billion dollars in the last 40 or 50 years
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that have been taken out of this province. You don't think we might be able to do a little bit more
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on social spending if those 20 to 25 billion dollars stayed here? You don't think we'd be able to cut
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taxes a bit if those 20 to 25 billion dollars stayed here? It is $5,000 per Albertan that every single
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year gets transferred out of this province for political reasons so that the liberals can continue
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to spend it in places that vote liberal. That is what is happening in the province and in the country.
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Thank you. Smith is obviously super mad there saying that the feds are draining $25 billion a year through
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tax transfers from Alberta, essentially to benefit liberal strongholds, that being Ontario and Quebec,
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at Alberta's expense. There was lots of things that Smith and her panelists covered
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at this town hall because I listened to it more fully. It's like a three-hour conference, but I did
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listen to it. For example, I'll highlight a few other things that were, in my eyes, key.
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Economist Trevor Toome, he said that if Quebec just upped their hydro rates by two cents per kilowatt,
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two cents, that an equalization payments would fall by $4.2 billion a year. And from what I understand,
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from what I've heard in other town halls and Toome speak about it before, they're already charging
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under market values. And they're mad at Quebec too because essentially Quebec's keeping its gas
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in the ground with former premiers there citing they don't want to take it out because their
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equalization payments would go down. So it's all about essentially Canada through its equalization
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system as it exists right now has created a welfare system where if Quebec actually improved its own
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economy, it would lose out more than it gains just because of how equalization is. So it's a pretty bad
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situation to be in. Smith said that over the last 40 or 50 years, Alberta has had 600 billion dollars
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taken out of the province. So I mean, this is an insane amount of money. She said that Albertans lose
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$5,000 per year due to these political transfers. Although one more thing I'll highlight is this was
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something super interesting that might have been missed there in the conference. But Smith said that
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before, essentially all the premiers around the premiers tables, she said has done a complete 180
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over the last year because before she said about a year ago, they were talking about how do we stop
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the federal government from beating us down? Terrible law after terrible law, she said. And now she's saying,
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how do we stop the federal government from picking on Alberta? So I don't know if more premiers are kind of
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rallying around Alberta because they felt a bit more of the pain themselves from the feds. So now they're like,
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wow, if we're only getting beat down this little and it hurts this bad, I can't imagine what Alberta's
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going through. Yeah. Did you guys pay attention to any of this town hall or see Smith's comments
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circulating there? I have actually. I actually like the fact that she kind of continued on this
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whole regional bias differences. I mean, she was asked, I think it was on the same town hall. She was
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asked because, you know, she's done many of these, of course. I mean, this isn't the first and
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probably won't be the last of these town halls, but she spoke about her aspirations of being
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prime minister. She said she wasn't interested in looking at the job at the moment. And one of
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the reasons why is because she's just really happy with her current job as premier of Alberta,
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because as, as premier of Alberta, she doesn't have to fight for votes in Toronto and Montreal.
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And looking at Toronto, Montreal, more progressive liberal leaning areas,
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you know, you have the agendas to do with, you know, drug decriminalization, you have social
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wokeness, you have, you know, kind of an anti economic development or anti resource development
00:17:20.840
agenda from the environmentalist edge. So, you know, for someone like Danielle Smith, being an Albertan
00:17:27.480
and being the premier of Alberta is a liberating sense that allows her to really articulate herself and,
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you know, go forward with the view that she actually does have and maintain. It goes to question,
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you know, if there is really this much difference between the west and east in the country, then
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how much integrity can a prime minister of any kind really have if they have to bring that much
00:17:46.600
difference together under one shared union? I mean, at some point, there really have to be some
00:17:50.600
capitulation one side or the other, because you cannot win an election purely off the west,
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but you can win an election off the big cities. So, it does bring a question of regional unity and
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exactly what kind of conservative government we could even see given the demographic and seed count
00:18:07.800
distribution of the day. So, we'll see. But I think it's definitely very much her right to be
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leading these town halls with the tone of voice that she has of continued frustration towards Ottawa,
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because I really do think that perhaps there could be a rallying cry from the neighboring provinces as
00:18:24.120
well. And perhaps you could see some change to that formula. But I don't see there any way possible
00:18:30.840
that Quebec would want to drop that deal. I mean, like you said, Isaac, billions of dollars in
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economic potential they have under the ground. As long as they unlock it, or as long as they don't
00:18:39.560
unlock it, they continue to get free money from Ottawa. If they do unlock it, they lose money overall.
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So, it just tells you the formula is broken against the best interests of not only Alberta,
00:18:49.640
but maybe even Quebec and other provinces for the long-term future, if there is a crack in the union one day.
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Yeah, Waleed, you said you can't win an election federally just from the West, but you certainly
00:19:00.920
can from the East. My memory of every single federal election I've ever watched is that they call the
00:19:07.640
winner of the election before Alberta's even counted. So, it really doesn't matter what we say. And
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Smith here kind of highlighting the discrepancy between the importance, I guess, among politicians
00:19:20.760
of the residents of the West versus the East. What do you think, Alex? You're obviously a
00:19:25.240
neighboring province resident. Yeah, by the time the election results reach BC, it's like the next day.
00:19:35.320
The new prime minister is usually doing his victory speech at that point.
00:19:39.800
Yeah, I think that Waleed makes a really great point in terms of what's left in the ground,
00:19:43.240
because I think that these equalization payments pale in comparison to the opportunity cost
00:19:49.400
of Alberta not being able to export its natural resources to Tidewater, whether that's BC blocking
00:19:55.320
it or Quebec or whoever that happens to be. I think it's interesting. I think it was one of
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you gentlemen who wrote an article that 70% of Canadians, I think just prior to the election,
00:20:04.120
were actually in favor of building a transnational pipeline in Canada. And I think a lot of that was
00:20:10.680
really underpinned by people's distaste, I guess you could say, for Donald Trump.
00:20:15.320
So I think that Danielle Smith, if I was kind of in the war room, I think that one of the strategies
00:20:20.520
she could consider employing is uniting the country around their, whether it's rational or not,
00:20:26.920
their dislike of Donald Trump, because nothing brings people together quite like a common enemy.
00:20:31.720
Of course, the issue there is that she risks alienating her base, many of whom like Trump more
00:20:38.040
than they like her for various reasons. But I think that's kind of an interesting strategy that she might
00:20:43.800
consider employing over the next three years and what's left of Donald Trump's second term.
00:20:49.400
Yeah, I mean, the talk about pipelines has been heating up forever, but nothing really gets
00:20:53.800
done. A lot of things are said. I mean, for example, when I was at the APP event recently,
00:20:59.160
the legal counsel for the Alberta Prosperity Project, Jeffrey Rath, he was bashing Ontario Premier
00:21:03.960
Doug Ford for not even knowing where his oil comes from. He said, look, this guy doesn't even know
00:21:08.520
that our oil has to go through the United States to get to Ontario. You don't even understand that.
00:21:14.920
So how can you be advocating for a pipeline when you don't even understand that there isn't one that
00:21:20.120
goes across Canada? I think Stephen Guibault made the same error. So really, when these Eastern
00:21:26.120
politicians talk a big game, they don't even know where gas comes from. It's all talk, right?
00:21:31.000
Yeah. Okay. Well, for our next story, trying to think of how to transition it here, but we might
00:21:38.600
not be knowing where these guys are coming from. Yeah. So we're seeing, again, videos pop up on X,
00:21:46.120
online of these thieves just walking around, taking things willy nilly, absolutely no accountability,
00:21:52.920
no fear, broad daylight, just going into stores and racking up tens, dozens, hundreds,
00:21:59.160
even of alcohol bottles and just like nothing's going to happen to them, which I guess is not that
00:22:06.440
surprising because you can kind of just do whatever you want these days. No one's going to hold you
00:22:10.760
accountable. Even if you break into someone's house, they can't hurt you. So just, yeah. I mean,
00:22:16.680
when you feel like there's going to be no consequences, I mean, are these guys just walking
00:22:21.320
around with no fear? What's going on here? Well, you know, when COVID first started, I was working at the
00:22:26.920
bank and my biggest concern was that like, we were just going to get robbed every day because it was
00:22:31.480
suddenly socially acceptable for people to wear masks. And a couple of years went by and I realized
00:22:36.680
at that point that the criminals were not as smart as maybe I thought they were. It's like, you know,
00:22:41.800
that you could wear a mask. They don't even bother wearing a mask. Like at a time, like if you were a
00:22:47.400
criminal, this would be the greatest thing that ever happened to you. You're allowed to walk into a bank
00:22:53.320
or do a liquor store and rummage through things and, and, and completely obscure your face, but they
00:22:58.040
don't even bother doing that. And I think that that just shows up brazen and, uh, unafraid of
00:23:03.160
consequences. These criminals really are. Yeah. And the police were saying this is part of some
00:23:10.600
bigger theft ring. I mean, is there some sort of big conspiracy going on here? Are people just,
00:23:15.480
they can just walk anywhere they want, take what they want and, and they feel like they could literally
00:23:19.560
do whatever they want with no, with no consequences. Well, it's just like, you only need two people to
00:23:24.120
have a conspiracy. Right. And so in this case, you know, on most of these videos that I've seen,
00:23:29.080
you typically see more than two people. So I would say that probably qualifies as a theft ring.
00:23:33.480
How large the criminal network happens to be is, you know, I'm not entirely sure. I'm also curious,
00:23:39.480
like, are they drinking this alcohol or are they reselling it on a black market? You know,
00:23:45.480
that might be, um, an investigative path for the police if they're looking to find these people.
00:23:50.120
Yeah. Is black market alcohol, like a thing? I mean, you could just walk into a liquor store
00:23:53.400
and buy it. So I don't know what the reasoning for that would be.
00:24:03.080
Yeah. Largely because of how much tax we pay on it. Right.
00:24:07.400
And that's another interesting thing. It's, it's, it's got a different prices everywhere,
00:24:11.000
every province because of true tax differences. But yeah, well, Lee, did you, have you seen these
00:24:15.400
videos circulating around? I mean, what, what's going on here? Are our business owners concerned?
00:24:20.600
They're just going to get robbed blind and the police won't do nothing. Well, I mean,
00:24:23.960
I've seen quite a few videos of robbery, armed robbery and stage robberies with multiple people
00:24:28.680
coming out of vehicles in and out. But, uh, I think the ones that have been most absurd to me
00:24:32.600
have been the LCBO ones happening in Ontario. And it's been multiple of course, because like Alex said,
00:24:37.960
I mean, no masks, broad daylight. Uh, I mean, I would say in my opinion that it may not be a smart
00:24:45.880
move long-term because your faces are out there and there definitely will be social consequences
00:24:50.600
at the very least. Uh, especially if we do have a reform to our criminal justice system and, you know,
00:24:56.440
let's just say some future government lays the hammer down from top to bottom, uh, which I definitely
00:25:01.560
think there was a public appetite for it. I really do think that, uh, if we're asking ourselves, you know,
00:25:06.360
what will it take to see a true reform to our justice system and bring back real consequences
00:25:13.400
for crime? I think that these videos are going to be part of that formula because what that will do
00:25:19.080
is that will increase the public appetite. And the more people see this, not just concern this,
00:25:23.400
but all kinds of people, business owners, uh, store clerks, uh, people that go and purchase items
00:25:29.960
from these stores, many people across the spectrum. And of course, those that have families that are
00:25:34.680
involved in retail as well. I mean, we all know someone who's worked in retail, if not ourselves
00:25:39.080
in the past. So I think that, uh, their environment of scrutiny will definitely become more and more
00:25:44.520
hostile in the future and therefore more supportive of whatever measures it takes to really deter criminals.
00:25:50.600
Because what this really symbolizes to me, this scene that I've saw in that video is the fact that
00:25:57.160
they're very audacious and, you know, maybe they're looking at our articles and maybe they're watching
00:26:02.280
the news, maybe they're still seeing how easy it is to get away with, with all kinds of crimes.
00:26:07.800
Um, so I think that the Canada's insecurity is clear, uh, but it's becoming more clear to those
00:26:15.960
public observers and voters that will hopefully in the future turn towards a policy or at least
00:26:22.680
towards supporting a policy that could perhaps seek correction to this trend. Because really, I mean,
00:26:28.040
this, this is, uh, as easy as it gets, you're walking into the store, reusable handbags, three, four
00:26:35.560
at a time, coming in, returning, coming in again. I mean, it really doesn't get sophisticated at all.
00:26:42.280
This is simple, straight up theft. And, uh, unless there's a deterrence, I can't see this trend
00:26:48.920
Yeah. I wanted to highlight a few things, uh, from Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He said, quote,
00:26:55.720
I love the one, I think it was a year ago when the guy in the LCBO, just a customer stood up and held
00:26:59.880
the thieves accountable. I'd love to meet that guy one day. He gave him a couple of slugs in the head.
00:27:04.360
They deserve a slug in the head every once in a while. And I just found this so ironic with that
00:27:08.040
recent news we saw of that homeowner defending himself. You can't give a guy a couple slugs in
00:27:12.520
the head. If he breaks into your home, tries to kill you, rob you. But, but, oh, if you see a guy
00:27:16.520
robbing a liquor store, you can, I mean, you, you can't, these things can't be true at the same time.
00:27:20.360
If, if that were the case and you might be held accountable publicly by someone who sees you
00:27:26.920
robbing a store without them being afraid of being charged, then yeah, we'd have a much different
00:27:31.320
rule. We were kind of talking about that, uh, beforehand, like, uh, especially regarding drivers,
00:27:36.200
you know, some drivers in Canada are so brazen, but I, I feel like it's different in the States
00:27:40.680
because if you try and run someone off the road, they might pull a gun on you and shoot you literally.
00:27:45.560
Uh, and, and we just don't have that level of public accountability, I think in Canada. And
00:27:50.440
this is the reason why you can literally walk out in broad daylight, do whatever you want and
00:27:58.040
Yeah. I have a lot to say about that because just as well, I think that our legal team over
00:28:01.720
at true north would appreciate me saying, if you find yourself in this situation, do not
00:28:06.600
lug them in the head. Like you should, like, I honestly, I've worked in retail for many, many years.
00:28:13.080
And the first thing you learn is if somebody is stealing something, just let it go. And the, the
00:28:17.960
logic behind that is multifold, right? First of all, you want first and foremost for your employees
00:28:23.480
to be safe. Secondly, um, most of these businesses are insured for theft. And thirdly,
00:28:29.880
it's the police's job to hold these people responsible, not the employees of the, the retail
00:28:35.160
establishment where the theft is occurring. And, and I think that's where everything breaks down
00:28:39.320
is that the police are not holding people accountable. Well, I shouldn't even say that
00:28:43.400
the police, even if they arrest them, they're typically out on bail the next day. So as the
00:28:46.840
lead said, it's the criminal justice system that's failing short or falling short, I should say,
00:28:52.120
uh, in all of this and very frustrating. Yeah. The criminal justice system on so many levels,
00:28:57.400
because, uh, these people, these criminals are released on bail. So of course the same guys are
00:29:02.360
committing the same crimes over and over because they can't be in jail. And then the police are like,
00:29:06.680
why even bother arresting them because they're demoralized because they arrest them. And then
00:29:10.040
they see the next guy, the same guy out on the street, the very next day doing the same crime.
00:29:13.960
He's like, ah, I arrested them yesterday. Should I do it again? I got better things to do. I mean,
00:29:17.720
it just, it's, it's a ridiculous thing, but speaking of police agencies, uh, for our next story, we might
00:29:24.360
have, uh, more police to rely on all of a sudden because, uh, the RCMP there is, um, yeah, they're using,
00:29:32.680
uh, anime, I guess, to, to draw people in. Uh, we, we see there a cutout anime figure, uh, in,
00:29:39.000
dressed in the RCMP's iconic red shirt uniform. Uh, this was at a recruiting booth, but the RCMP,
00:29:45.720
I guess, told True North that this had nothing to do with recruitment. Uh, they were just trying to,
00:29:51.080
uh, unite Canada and Japan, I guess. I don't know what, what was going on here.
00:29:54.840
Yeah. So this was, uh, happening earlier this summer, uh, where the scene was taken this picture.
00:30:02.760
I think it was at the Japan Canada festival Toronto a little earlier. Um, so I'm not so familiar with
00:30:09.640
anime myself personally, but I'm aware of the fact that the RCMP in their statement to me,
00:30:14.760
were very clear that, Oh, we kind of have nothing to do with this, but you know, this is the whole vibe
00:30:19.080
of the festival promoting Japan, Canadian relations, Japanese Canadian relations, definitely a very
00:30:25.240
interesting way to do so for sure. But the RCMP basically claims no responsibility of creating
00:30:30.520
that, uh, graphic or using it with the intention of recruiting. Um, it was more so, I guess,
00:30:39.720
with intention of connecting with youth at the event. Uh, so perhaps, you know, anime loving kids,
00:30:46.040
15 year old teenagers, whatever, uh, the prop was also technically used as a photo opportunity at the
00:30:52.200
booth. So, you know, when people would walk by, they could take a selfie, take a photo, whatever.
00:30:57.560
So it is, you know, more of a prop to go along with the agenda of the event itself rather than the
00:31:02.680
RCMP recruitment energy. But I mean, I've never seen any, any federal security agency. I mean, FBI,
00:31:09.480
uh, or any other major country security agency kind of do something like this with their, with their
00:31:14.600
branding, with their insignia, with their identity. So, um, I guess we're, we're special in that sense.
00:31:20.280
Yeah. Sorry. I just, I keep laughing cause I, I, I'm just picturing, I don't know if you guys know
00:31:25.160
Naruto and the, and how he kind of runs with his arms behind his back there. I just keep picturing an
00:31:29.560
RCMP officer running like that. I don't know if you could throw that gif up on the screen there.
00:31:35.000
Uh, but, uh, I mean, that would be funny that, yeah. So if you haven't seen Naruto, he runs, uh, like,
00:31:40.440
like crazily with his, with his arms behind his back. And, you know, that's kind of what I guess, uh,
00:31:47.000
bothers me a bit about this. Uh, we're, we're not really emphasizing not just in the RCMP, but in the
00:31:52.520
armed forces, although they said this isn't a recruitment strategy, but still, uh, aren't emphasizing
00:31:57.160
masculinity, which I think is, is the key to having strong soldiers. For example, the, the RCMP said it
00:32:03.880
got more applications than it had in a decade at 17,600, uh, last year. And that it also increased
00:32:11.400
again this year to, uh, just over 20,000, but which is great, great, great applications are increasing,
00:32:18.280
but it doesn't really matter if the applications are coming all from unqualified individuals.
00:32:22.920
What we need to see happen is the amount. And I don't have the data on this, but what matters is
00:32:28.280
of course, how many qualified people are applying, how many people that will pass your fitness test,
00:32:32.040
your, your, your exams, et cetera. So applications at a baseline are in my eyes irrelevant because
00:32:39.160
it's like, are the right people applying? Are the people you want to be in the RCMP,
00:32:42.680
in the armed forces applying? If, if, if, if people who aren't, aren't going to pass these tests
00:32:49.000
are applying, it really doesn't matter. It doesn't make a difference. Right. So I don't know.
00:32:53.160
Uh, I don't know if anime going forward or maybe, uh, what, what, what you need there,
00:32:57.160
if we're talking about like cartoons is GI Joe. Uh, there you go. There's a masculine, uh,
00:33:01.160
cartoon first one that came to mind. So I don't know. Yeah. You guys think the, uh,
00:33:06.920
this is helping the RCMP with their, their numbers there.
00:33:10.760
Well, I think it speaks to the type of force that they're trying to put together, right?
00:33:15.640
Like I remember I'm a little bit older than you guys. Maybe it was like 10 years ago. I was in Seattle
00:33:20.680
and the national army was doing a recruitment drive at some event. And so they had video game booths
00:33:27.160
set up and I think it was call of duty or something. And, and that makes sense, right?
00:33:31.560
Like if you're looking to hire people to shoot guns, you should find kids who are interested in
00:33:37.640
shooting guns. Now, I don't know what this anime character represents, but, uh, do they have any
00:33:43.000
relation to policing at all? I have no idea. Is there any connection? I don't know either. I don't know.
00:33:53.560
I don't know much about anime, Alex. You, you just did remind me of something like for the army and
00:33:57.640
video games. There's not really, uh, a connection I think is, you know, guys playing video games in
00:34:02.680
their basement, maybe not, uh, army soldiers, but it did remind me of a movie that came out in 2023,
00:34:08.280
Gran Turismo, which is based on a true story where, uh, this like racing organization, like
00:34:13.480
F1, not F1, but something like that, like seriously professional racing, uh, found all the top
00:34:18.920
racers on this game. So eventually, essentially just these, these nerdy kids with their wheels,
00:34:22.760
like literally playing their Xbox 12 hours a day. And they invited them to, to become real
00:34:27.800
racers. Cause they're like, these guys are crazy. And then that's what the movie's about. It's about
00:34:32.120
the story of this kid that they invited and he actually became like a professional racer. So
00:34:36.120
there definitely can be some crossover there, but, uh, as for this anime character, I'm not, I'm not so sure.
00:34:41.880
Uh, anyways, uh, yeah, no, it's been a pleasure talking with you guys today. Just remember
00:34:49.160
everything you heard today was off the record. Alex, I forgot to tell you at the start, man,
00:34:56.920
this praise, I'm such an idiot. So I get home and I'm reading the box.
00:35:03.160
It says women's race. Uh, and I said, I knew there was a reason that box was pink. So yeah,
00:35:08.920
it's a bit tight. Cause it's for women. It's a women's, it's a, it did say right on the box woman,
00:35:15.400
but I, I missed that when I was at shoppers there, I was looking at all, I was looking at
00:35:18.680
other details. I was looking at the, yeah, yeah. It's a woman's brace. So that, but Hey, it does the