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00:00:00.000 All right. So what happened to your wrist, Isaac?

00:00:03.160 Yeah, Alex. Well, it's kind of a workplace injury, I guess. Yeah, no. So over the last few weeks,

00:00:10.560 when I was golfing, I just noticed like halfway through the round or so, my wrist

00:00:15.520 essentially was in unbearable pain. So then last weekend, I'm golfing there and my mom wrapped it

00:00:20.240 for me with like a compression tape or whatever, and it fixed it. So she's like, oh, you got carpal

00:00:26.220 tunnel, which is diagnosed from my mother, keep in mind, who isn't a medical professional. Although

00:00:31.260 in fairness, I would trust my family to diagnose me more so than a medical professional in many

00:00:36.700 instances. So yeah, I guess I have carpal tunnel. So my wrist is always in pain, which sucks because

00:00:41.880 I'm moving my mouse around too much, I guess. So yeah, you guys think it's easy working at True

00:00:46.540 North? No, you know, we're going through the injuries. But yeah, my name is Isaac Lammre.

00:00:55.920 I'm here joined by my colleagues, Alex Zoltan and Waleed Tamtam. And let's just hop right into it.

00:01:04.880 Yeah, so I'm sure everyone's seen at least one of the many, many videos circulating on the social

00:01:12.800 medias around the last week around these drivers, these semi truck drivers on the highways. I mean,

00:01:21.200 take your pick at the video, we see these guys on their phones, and it's all kind of

00:01:25.920 surfaced, I guess, from one driver who made an illegal U-turn, and I think killed three people,

00:01:33.980 because I mean, you guys saw the video, it was sick, it was terrible, terrible stuff. And anyone,

00:01:39.880 I think, who's been on a Canadian highway recently, might have noticed some issues with semi truck

00:01:46.940 drivers. In fact, just a week or two ago, myself, I was on the highway there, and I saw a semi truck

00:01:52.580 flipped. It seems like we're seeing that more and more often. And we see all these stories coming out

00:01:57.360 about these temporary immigrants coming in, essentially, through these questionable driving 1.00

00:02:04.440 schools, some of which are just completely falsified documents. And then they're driving

00:02:08.780 on the road. Alex, you've cited before, there was this one truck driver, apparently, who hadn't even

00:02:14.360 driven before, and he was driving a semi on the road. So I mean, what's going on with these truck

00:02:18.720 drivers here? It just seems to get worse and worse. So there's a lot going on. Our friends over at

00:02:24.320 Juno News did a really great interview with a friend of mine, Gordon McGill, and he's literally

00:02:29.280 writing the book on this. He's a very experienced trucker. I think he has decades of experience.

00:02:34.100 I think he might be the only person in the history of the world to have driven in Nunavut and Australia

00:02:38.820 as a truck driver, which is pretty cool. He has lots of neat stories about that. So he has a lot of

00:02:45.180 knowledge not only of trucking, but of the industry itself. He's a real kind of rabbit hole type guy.

00:02:49.900 And this has been going on for a very long time. In fact, it even goes back to pre-pandemic. So there

00:02:55.580 was a really great article in the Globe and Mail by a journalist named Kathy Tomlinson, who we just

00:03:00.860 can't find anymore. I don't know what happened to her. I hope she's doing well. But she wrote about how

00:03:07.100 there's a really strange nexus going on in Canada, specifically between immigration consultants who may or

00:03:14.880 may not be doing things that are unscrupulous at best and criminal at worst. And what they do is

00:03:21.020 they offer folks in primarily in the Punjab province of India, temporary working status in Canada.

00:03:29.100 In exchange, they have to do some type of job. A lot of these folks don't even know what their job is

00:03:33.100 going to be until they land in Canada. And then they get sent to a driving school who are, again,

00:03:37.980 these driving schools are very unscrupulous and not very reputable, and are not necessarily giving

00:03:42.620 people the training that they probably need. And so you have a whole bunch of folks who come to

00:03:49.080 Canada, and some of them have never driven cars before. And now they're sliding down ice roads

00:03:55.880 in Saskatchewan at like 100 kilometers an hour with like a 18-wheeler truck. The results are

00:04:03.560 predictably disastrous. And I think that Canadians are rightfully outraged, and Americans do now with

00:04:11.240 this new case in Florida.

00:04:13.700 Yeah, to be fair, Saskatchewan is far from the worst roads in Canada that's mostly flat. Imagine you're

00:04:19.280 driving in BC on ice roads and those windy, windy roads around the mountains. I mean, that is just a

00:04:24.880 nightmare for anyone, let alone someone in a big truck. Yeah, Waleed, have you seen these videos

00:04:30.380 circulating? And do you have any thoughts, I guess, on these truckers?

00:04:34.840 I do have thoughts, and I have seen these videos. And unfortunately, I've seen many of these videos,

00:04:39.100 and I've seen this trend as a reaction to many of these videos with any large vehicle. It could be a

00:04:44.780 truck, or it could even be a bus from any public transportation agency in Canada. You will see an

00:04:50.840 accident of any sort, and you'll have the comments section full of people inquiring on where that driver is

00:04:55.840 from, most of the time looking at if that person happens to be, as Alex said, from the Punjab region

00:05:01.380 of India, who happens to be the trend very common these days in North America, especially here in

00:05:07.500 Canada. So that being the concern of people in the public, so often the case, it tells it that there's

00:05:13.720 a story, and there's a failure of public policy. On the public policy question, Monday morning, you and I

00:05:19.960 we're talking, Isaac, on the Daily Brief on Monday, about the gun confiscation program and how it's

00:05:25.660 failed to really render any results positive towards the public security agenda, which is how it's

00:05:31.300 always been framed to Canadians. Well, you know, cars and vehicles are killing machines far greater than

00:05:37.000 that of any kinds of guns, be it assault rifles or handguns, legal and illegal combined. So you're talking

00:05:44.800 about 18 wheelers and buses and all kinds of heavy vehicles. I think you're talking about without

00:05:50.980 properly licensed and trained and experienced drivers. I think you're talking about a security

00:05:56.420 risk that outranks that of any weapon, frankly, it's the single most dangerous thing on the roads

00:06:02.980 these days are untrained truck drivers. And of course, as we saw, tragically, in recent times, we can take we can

00:06:10.500 see situations that take lives of families multiple at once given the size and strength that these

00:06:17.460 vehicles have, especially when operated at high speeds on a highway, for example. So my thoughts are

00:06:24.420 that of most Canadians that this has to be dealt with. Clearly, this is so common that if it's becoming

00:06:30.000 a Twitter trend to ask what people's ethnic and national backgrounds are based on a vehicle accident

00:06:35.700 involving a truck driver. I think it tells you that maybe there's something a bit too common

00:06:40.980 that has to be dealt with sooner rather than later. Yeah, that's a great comparison, Malid. 1.00

00:06:45.940 It made me think of a question. Would you rather be shot by a gun or hit by an 18 wheeler on the

00:06:51.860 highway? Of course, the irony in that statement is that the gun ban is not targeting any legal gun owners

00:06:57.880 because they're all smuggled in from the States. So it's not really a fair comparison in that sense.

00:07:01.880 But can I pick neither? Not if you live in Canada.

00:07:11.720 Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's it's a crazy situation, right? I mean, the 2024, I think, was an all time

00:07:17.560 high for roadside fatalities in Canada. That seems really strange, especially when you consider that

00:07:22.840 vehicles are getting safer with with technology, right? There should be less accidents, not more.

00:07:28.040 So I think this is another case of government making things worse. That's true, Alex and new cars.

00:07:34.040 I don't know how effective this would be on a highway, but it will literally stop you from

00:07:37.480 hitting something like if you're parking and it'll force the brakes on you because it has that level

00:07:43.080 of technology. So we're getting to a stage where you would expect accidents to be less and less

00:07:47.000 through through technology and automation. It's essentially enhancing safety. But obviously,

00:07:52.600 that's not the case if we keep seeing these numbers rise. Another friend of the show, Mocha,

00:07:57.000 I don't know if did you guys see the interview he did with the Canadian trucker where the foul

00:08:02.360 mouth trucker? I did not, but I know Mocha's work. 1.00

00:08:10.280 Walid, what did you think? Well, you referred to the interview with the Punjab

00:08:15.560 driver. I mean, at least I think he immigrated himself quite a while back, actually. No,

00:08:21.240 he was born in Canada, but he's a brown guy. But yeah.

00:08:23.960 Okay. But he is, he is Indian of background. So he does kind of attest to this question of

00:08:29.400 culture and integration. I mean, I think it points to a wider question, frankly, that,

00:08:34.680 you know, like I am willing to forgo the fact that there are very much innocent individuals involved

00:08:41.240 in this dynamic of people that are, that don't know what they're doing and are just being led into

00:08:48.120 stray, like, like, you know, by immigration consultants and their partners in business.

00:08:54.520 But I also think, frankly, there's some bad decision making by some of these individuals as

00:08:59.960 well, accepting these opportunities and taking them as their best shot. Because really, we're

00:09:04.600 talking about deadly consequences here, their own lives and lives of other people. And once you get

00:09:09.720 behind the wheel, you're responsible, whether you're, you know, a native born or foreign born, 0.62

00:09:15.640 whether you think Canada is the dreamland, or if you think it's in decline. I mean, frankly,

00:09:20.680 there's, this should not be this reality. But referring to the interview itself, I really do

00:09:26.440 think it's something that's been more recent, because Canada has had an influx of migrants,

00:09:33.480 pretty high levels for a long time, and India included. But we're really getting perhaps the worst 1.00

00:09:39.560 batch. And that batch is happening to fall into the trucker industry, unlike ever before,

00:09:44.840 I've never seen this, like how many people were importing for these kinds of jobs specifically.

00:09:49.880 Like, I don't think we've had something like this in history before. It's a really new issue

00:09:54.360 with a new dynamic. And of course, the social reactions as well are quite new as well.

00:09:59.720 Yeah, and we're talking here about the truckers, but I felt for forever, almost, I guess,

00:10:05.160 that we need stronger regulations when it comes to imported drivers on the consumer side,

00:10:11.080 that being like, if someone from China just moves here, they, in my opinion, you shouldn't just be 0.99

00:10:16.280 able to hop on the road and drive. I see these types of people driving. And certainly, I know for

00:10:22.200 a fact, they did not pass the same driving tests I did as a Canadian, I just know that there's no

00:10:27.160 possible way based on the way they drive. And I know these tests aren't easy, especially before when

00:10:31.080 we had the in Alberta, the non GDL and the GDL stuff, that's been abolished since. So it has gotten a bit

00:10:36.200 easier. But I do think nationally, or I guess it's provincially, but I always have felt we need a bit

00:10:42.680 more, like, I don't know the regulations to be fair. But I just feel like if someone moves here from

00:10:47.560 anywhere, they should have to have a more strict guidelines in regard to like road tests, just from

00:10:54.840 a for a normal person. Isaac, I mean, talking about that for a second, earlier this month, on the 7th, I

00:11:01.160 covered a story about driver, I mean, the driver's center Ontario, they offer the written portion,

00:11:09.960 the G1 tests with signage and regulations on the road in more than 30 languages, including Punjabi,

00:11:18.360 and Somali, and Hindi, and Arabic, I mean, a bunch of languages. So it seems that speaking English,

00:11:26.520 frankly, is not even a requirement at that stage. So perhaps even that has to change.

00:11:30.920 And we're talking about drivers of trucks, or of cars, of motorcycles, just the baseline,

00:11:37.400 frankly. So I think even that needs to change, just for the sake of future road security. There

00:11:42.840 should definitely be a standard of greater literacy, I think. Well, in Vancouver, we're renaming every

00:11:47.800 street in languages that nobody can speak anyway. So I'm sure they'll be just fine. But with the rest of

00:11:54.280 the country, I tend to agree. You also have the issue as well, where these people are paying tens of

00:11:59.880 thousands of dollars to come to Canada. And then these companies are taking full advantage of them,

00:12:05.240 because they're hanging this PR carrot over their head. And so this is really actually kind of an

00:12:09.800 indentured servitude program. So there's kind of two things going on at once. Canadians are all made 1.00

00:12:14.840 less safe. And these immigrants are also being taken advantage of. So, you know, obviously, I have my

00:12:20.920 sympathy for the victims of these crashes outweigh my sympathy for the drivers. But there is still

00:12:26.040 a little bit of heart string that is tugged, right? Yeah, Alex, that sounds like a lose-lose

00:12:34.680 situation. But hopping into our next story, more of a win-lose situation, lose for me and Albertans,

00:12:40.200 but win for Eastern provinces for siphoning money out of Alberta, which Daniel Smith,

00:12:45.880 the premier here was absolutely freaking out about at a recent town hall there in Fort McMurray on

00:12:51.960 Tuesday. Yeah. Do we want to just watch the clip of that before we go ahead here?

00:12:56.520 Ottawa overtaxing us. I mentioned that at the beginning of the evening, that our program costs

00:13:04.600 are 70% of all tax dollars. We only collect 40%. Ottawa collects 60%. And then they use political

00:13:11.720 means to transfer it. Alberta, year after year, has 20 to 25 billion dollars that is siphoned

00:13:18.680 out of our system to go to Ottawa so that it can be spent mostly in Quebec, but also in other places

00:13:25.000 that vote liberal. We have been watching this for years. 600 billion dollars in the last 40 or 50 years

00:13:32.120 that have been taken out of this province. You don't think we might be able to do a little bit more

00:13:36.040 on social spending if those 20 to 25 billion dollars stayed here? You don't think we'd be able to cut

00:13:40.840 taxes a bit if those 20 to 25 billion dollars stayed here? It is $5,000 per Albertan that every single

00:13:51.160 year gets transferred out of this province for political reasons so that the liberals can continue

00:13:57.240 to spend it in places that vote liberal. That is what is happening in the province and in the country.

00:14:03.080 Thank you. Smith is obviously super mad there saying that the feds are draining $25 billion a year through

00:14:12.760 tax transfers from Alberta, essentially to benefit liberal strongholds, that being Ontario and Quebec,

00:14:19.080 at Alberta's expense. There was lots of things that Smith and her panelists covered 1.00

00:14:27.400 at this town hall because I listened to it more fully. It's like a three-hour conference, but I did

00:14:32.360 listen to it. For example, I'll highlight a few other things that were, in my eyes, key.

00:14:37.720 Economist Trevor Toome, he said that if Quebec just upped their hydro rates by two cents per kilowatt,

00:14:44.920 two cents, that an equalization payments would fall by $4.2 billion a year. And from what I understand,

00:14:51.480 from what I've heard in other town halls and Toome speak about it before, they're already charging

00:14:54.920 under market values. And they're mad at Quebec too because essentially Quebec's keeping its gas

00:15:00.040 in the ground with former premiers there citing they don't want to take it out because their

00:15:04.120 equalization payments would go down. So it's all about essentially Canada through its equalization

00:15:10.280 system as it exists right now has created a welfare system where if Quebec actually improved its own

00:15:15.880 economy, it would lose out more than it gains just because of how equalization is. So it's a pretty bad

00:15:22.280 situation to be in. Smith said that over the last 40 or 50 years, Alberta has had 600 billion dollars

00:15:29.160 taken out of the province. So I mean, this is an insane amount of money. She said that Albertans lose

00:15:34.440 $5,000 per year due to these political transfers. Although one more thing I'll highlight is this was

00:15:42.360 something super interesting that might have been missed there in the conference. But Smith said that

00:15:47.800 before, essentially all the premiers around the premiers tables, she said has done a complete 180

00:15:55.080 over the last year because before she said about a year ago, they were talking about how do we stop

00:16:01.160 the federal government from beating us down? Terrible law after terrible law, she said. And now she's saying,

00:16:06.600 how do we stop the federal government from picking on Alberta? So I don't know if more premiers are kind of

00:16:13.240 rallying around Alberta because they felt a bit more of the pain themselves from the feds. So now they're like,

00:16:17.720 wow, if we're only getting beat down this little and it hurts this bad, I can't imagine what Alberta's

00:16:22.840 going through. Yeah. Did you guys pay attention to any of this town hall or see Smith's comments

00:16:28.680 circulating there? I have actually. I actually like the fact that she kind of continued on this

00:16:35.000 whole regional bias differences. I mean, she was asked, I think it was on the same town hall. She was

00:16:40.600 asked because, you know, she's done many of these, of course. I mean, this isn't the first and

00:16:44.680 probably won't be the last of these town halls, but she spoke about her aspirations of being

00:16:51.240 prime minister. She said she wasn't interested in looking at the job at the moment. And one of

00:16:56.120 the reasons why is because she's just really happy with her current job as premier of Alberta,

00:17:00.440 because as, as premier of Alberta, she doesn't have to fight for votes in Toronto and Montreal.

00:17:05.000 And looking at Toronto, Montreal, more progressive liberal leaning areas,

00:17:08.600 you know, you have the agendas to do with, you know, drug decriminalization, you have social

00:17:14.200 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,

00:17:33.240 you know, go forward with the view that she actually does have and maintain. It goes to question,

00:17:38.680 you know, if there is really this much difference between the west and east in the country, then

00:17:42.440 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,

00:17:55.880 but you can win an election off the big cities. So, it does bring a question of regional unity and

00:18:01.480 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

00:18:14.520 leading these town halls with the tone of voice that she has of continued frustration towards Ottawa,

00:18:18.760 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

00:18:35.400 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.

00:18:44.440 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.

00:18:54.680 Yeah, Waleed, you said you can't win an election federally just from the West, but you certainly 1.00

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

00:19:14.440 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 0.98

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

00:19:59.560 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, 0.81

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 0.88

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.

00:23:57.320 Yeah. I mean, liquor is expensive in Canada.

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

00:26:47.960 going anywhere soon.

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

00:27:54.040 not be held accountable.

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 1.00

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, 0.99

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, 1.00

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

00:35:23.960 trick. Oh man.

Juno News - August 30, 2025

Anime Mountie？ RCMP denies anime girl mascot was part of recruitment push

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