Juno News - Another controversy, more claims of “racist attacks”

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to you all. It is Friday, November 25th, 2022, which means it is another

00:00:17.500 instance of fake news Friday. The fakest news of it all would be if we did it on like

00:00:23.060 Tuesday or something, but it is the way we cap off your week, swim through the blizzard of lies

00:00:27.920 that comes at your way from politicians and the media alike. And I am very delighted to have a

00:00:34.260 return performance or appearance. Maybe it's not about a performance, but a return appearance by

00:00:39.160 my colleague, Sue Ann Levy. Sue Ann, good to talk to you. How was the last week for you?

00:00:44.560 It was great. Now, you have to know as well, Andrew, that it's Black Friday. Are we still

00:00:49.360 allowed to say that? No, no, that's gone. That's too offensive. It's a color neutral Friday.

00:00:55.700 Yeah, we have to come up with, there are many sales today on Friday or something.

00:01:02.900 It's commercial capitalist imperial complex Friday, I believe.

00:01:07.180 Friday, yes.

00:01:08.500 Yeah, even Friday might be gone. You know, it's the, what's the Friday? It's the Roman God Friday.

00:01:13.760 So he probably did something that we've got to cancel him for.

00:01:15.860 Yes, well, I, you know, as soon as I said it's Black Friday earlier, I thought, oh my God, can I still say that?

00:01:25.760 You are the uncancellable one in my view, Sue Ann. Let's get right to it. This actually segues into this

00:01:32.140 very bizarre story about something we actually reported on at True North. Our colleague, Rachel

00:01:38.360 Emanuel, reported on Edmonton's move of its Christmas tree, or removal of its Christmas tree

00:01:44.600 from this big square, Churchill Square downtown. I mean, there's something else they probably need to name,

00:01:49.580 Churchill Square, but nevertheless, they, they did this. True North reported on it. A lot of people

00:01:54.980 were very frustrated. They said, listen, it's, it's tradition. This is what Christmas season is.

00:02:00.320 It's not about imposing Christianity on people. Lots of non-Christians are absolutely fine with it.

00:02:06.500 And then there was a follow-up story to this that the Canadian press did. Racist response is what

00:02:13.780 they said it elicited. Changes to holiday festival prompts racist response, Edmonton officials say.

00:02:20.020 And they say that the reaction to this, the backlash to this has turned racist. They say the Edmonton

00:02:25.700 Downtown Business Association had announced the plans, but the public reaction has been focused on

00:02:30.520 the fact that there won't be a giant Christmas tree. And then they say that there has been racism

00:02:35.120 directed at Amarjit Sohi, the former liberal cabinet minister, now the mayor of Edmonton. And if you

00:02:41.020 read the story, as I did three times, there is not a single instance of racism mentioned there.

00:02:48.340 Nothing's quoted. Nothing's alluded to. I am not saying that no one said something offensive to

00:02:54.360 Mayor Sohi. It's certainly possible, but this is a story constructed around a response that they're not

00:03:00.300 even telling you about. Like, imagine if I had said, like, there was a big car accident on Bloor

00:03:06.160 Street and didn't tell you anything about the car accident. I'm like, well, why did I read this then?

00:03:11.580 It is unbelievable because I think the R word, as I'm going to call it, has become the excuse for

00:03:19.360 everything, for every action. And, you know, the issue is that people were upset that they got rid of a

00:03:28.140 Christmas tree. Like, they're trying to cancel everything. Now, I'm Jewish. I happen to like

00:03:33.100 Christmas trees. I like giant Christmas trees. The sparklier, the better. So, I would never, ever take

00:03:41.040 a Christmas tree away from anybody. I don't know in what world these people think they're living in,

00:03:47.920 but, you know, the criticism was probably justified. But, of course, if you dare criticize now,

00:03:54.780 you are an R, an R for racist. And it's just unbelievable. And the fact that they didn't

00:04:02.000 mention what was racist means there's no substance to it. But, you know, I don't know about you, but I

00:04:08.980 get called racist all the time. I'm like, why do you call me racist? Because I dare speak out about

00:04:15.240 ridiculous policies and decisions?

00:04:17.980 Yeah. And I mean, it's bizarre. And I don't deny that racism exists. And I don't deny that people

00:04:24.160 do send racial epithets in the direction of politicians who are ethnic minorities, as Mayor

00:04:29.740 Sohi is. And I think that's inexcusable. I think it should be condemned. But I oftentimes think that

00:04:34.660 people use that term racist to completely avoid dealing with any legitimate criticism. So right here,

00:04:42.240 you have something that has clearly unnerved a lot of Edmontonians and people around the country,

00:04:46.700 which is the feeling that they're taking the Christmas out of what's supposed to be a Christmas

00:04:50.880 event. That's the frustration. That is not racial. If one or two people said something racist as they

00:04:57.060 were lashing out about that, that's wrong. But you don't get to sidestep accountability over that

00:05:02.560 by only focusing on the nutjobs.

00:05:04.860 And that's exactly what they do. They try to cancel any sort of conversation,

00:05:09.040 or debate, or intelligent, you know, discussion by just trying to cancel you. And, you know,

00:05:18.640 that's their favorite tactic now. And I think people are waking up. I certainly don't take it,

00:05:25.460 you know, that I'm uncancellable, cancelable, cancelable.

00:05:27.860 That's a hard word to say, is it not?

00:05:30.360 No, I can't be canceled. But, you know, I just say like, you know, it's so yesterday. I mean,

00:05:38.360 this is being used and it's so tiresome to hear now.

00:05:41.540 Yeah. And the thing too, I mean, there's always been this push and pull, especially like my

00:05:45.820 backgrounds in talk radio. And like every year in talk radio, there was always the war on Christmas

00:05:50.560 story. And it got so tiresome after a while because people would say, oh, come on, there is no war on

00:05:55.440 Christmas. Everyone's allowed to say Merry Christmas. And, you know, I'd say for most of the

00:05:59.640 time, that's generally been true. I mean, any war on Christmas has not been waged by Sikhs or Jews or

00:06:06.020 Muslims. It's been waged by white liberals.

00:06:08.860 Yeah. Who feel very guilty about what? I'm not sure. But I mean, they're the ones who are leading

00:06:14.200 the charge on so many things. But as I said, I happen to like big, shiny Christmas trees. You can't

00:06:21.120 help it get into Christmas spirit. And I mean, frankly, these people are scrooges for even

00:06:28.040 thinking that they should refashion Christmas. People like the old traditions. And one other

00:06:34.000 thing I was thinking of as we were talking, we've been through three years of, you know, mask

00:06:39.860 mandates, vaccine mandates, border closures. I mean, let people have a little fun. Stop taking

00:06:46.780 the fun out of a traditional holiday. Yeah. I mean, that's a more constructive solution. My idea

00:06:54.220 was you would need to be the champion of this because I have Gentile privilege here. But we

00:07:00.440 could just rename it the Edmonton Hanukkah bush. And then if anyone tries to take it away, you could

00:07:04.460 call them an anti-Semite. Exactly. Yes, I like Hanukkah bushes. And I've often thought of getting one

00:07:12.040 myself. But all right, problem solved. So it's no longer a Christmas tree. It's a Hanukkah bush,

00:07:17.480 which means Edmonton, you can put it back and be sufficiently diverse and woke. The only thing,

00:07:23.480 Andrew, is I will warn you that we have to light candles. So you don't want to be lighting those

00:07:27.360 candles near the Hanukkah bush. Yeah, well, diversity sometimes needs a fire marshal. That's

00:07:33.620 oftentimes the sad reality of it. So we are lit aflame with the holiday spirit in more ways than one.

00:07:40.700 And this is a weird story. And I feel bad because, you know, I never like beating up on individual

00:07:46.660 people. And certainly on this show, we try not to. But I will say that Rachel Gilmore's content

00:07:51.760 oftentimes does make it a fake news Friday, just because the beat that she covers is one that I

00:07:57.200 think is oftentimes very prone to this. Shopify, a Canadian company, says a store selling products

00:08:04.780 alleging grooming of kids doesn't violate rules. Now, the the background on this is that there is

00:08:12.120 this online account called Libs of TikTok, which oftentimes focuses a lot on just exposing teachers

00:08:18.900 and stuff like that that they feel are overly woke. They sell merchandise on Shopify, which is a

00:08:26.060 platform that basically any online retailer can use. And some of these are shirts that have lines like

00:08:32.920 stop grooming our kids on them, which now some LGBTQ activists have said is offensive, is anti trans is,

00:08:40.180 you know, trying to stoke this idea that people in the gay community are pedophiles. And I mean,

00:08:46.480 my position on this has nothing to do with the substance of what's on the shirt, what's on the hat,

00:08:51.900 what's on the coffee mug or anything like that. It's that Shopify is at the very minimum, I mean,

00:08:57.340 I would say it's a software, it's a service that people use to facilitate online transactions,

00:09:03.760 you're not buying it from the Shopify emporium, you're not walking into a Shopify, like you would

00:09:08.840 walk into a Walmart, it is an online platform. And it's this idea that activists believe companies

00:09:15.740 have to be as woke as they are, or take the political positions that they do. And I'm just I'm so tired of it.

00:09:23.140 I mean, whatever happened to the ideas that corporations could exist without having a

00:09:27.300 political identity? Well, I think activists won't be happy until they wokeify, you should pardon the

00:09:33.800 pun, every corporation, and I respect corporations, whether it's Shopify or whatever, who stand up to

00:09:41.260 the woke mob. You know, we've seen, I think we discussed it, of the TD Bank giving money for trans,

00:09:50.000 you know, gender, transgender, yeah, for like child gender affirmation surgeries. Yeah,

00:09:57.020 whatever they're called. I mean, you know what, you're a bank, stop, you're in, you're in the

00:10:01.600 business of giving money, taking money, you know, hiding money between or canceling you, as I had

00:10:11.600 the experience with the TD Bank, because the check went through was not supposed to. But I mean,

00:10:18.340 the point is that you're in the financial business, you're not in the business of funding gender

00:10:25.060 surgeries. So I think I really respect a corporation that can stand up to the activists. And some of the

00:10:33.380 activists speaking out, frankly, are ones who did a very good job of ensuring that gays had rights,

00:10:43.620 allowed me to have the right to marry my wife. But now they're seeking a cause, because gays and

00:10:50.980 lesbians have rights. We're like normal people. Now they are in search of a cause. So trans,

00:10:57.140 transgendered ideology has become their focus. And that, you know, as would everything, they've gone

00:11:03.620 grossly overboard. So they're in search of a mission. And you know what, it's, it's,

00:11:11.000 you know, the pendulum has swung so far, it's, it's making me crazy.

00:11:16.120 Yeah, and it's the idea of deplatforming that is really irking me here. There's a line that's given

00:11:22.620 by one of the activists here, Helen Kennedy, who's the head of a gal. And what Helen Kennedy says is,

00:11:29.600 can you imagine what it feels like to pass somebody on the street in your neighborhood that you like to

00:11:33.940 think you're safe in with a t shirt that says or a hat that says stop grooming our kids. So I look,

00:11:40.400 that has nothing to do with Shopify, in my view. And for I mean, for starters, someone wearing that

00:11:46.140 shirt or not wearing that shirt has nothing to do with whether they are safe or unsafe to be around.

00:11:51.140 And if they believe the things on the shirt, I mean, whether they're wearing it or not shouldn't

00:11:55.520 really matter. But I think more crucially to that is that Ms. Kennedy is saying that it is Shopify's

00:12:03.200 responsibility to deal with what people wear, instead of the responsibility of people in education

00:12:10.980 that may want to, you know, teach a certain perspective or individuals in the activist

00:12:16.080 community that may want to have some sort of a campaign. And I guess I'm just I'm so fed up with

00:12:21.560 this idea that people want to export their biases to every institution that they interact with.

00:12:28.900 Exactly. And, you know, I was referring to Ms. Kennedy and a gal because they're the ones who have been

00:12:36.440 involved with transgender workshops, Transphobia 101, Transgender 101 that I've written about in the past

00:12:44.740 that are coming into elementary school. So here they are in search of a cause. And, you know,

00:12:50.800 this doesn't surprise me, the comments, because they want to, I guess, reposition the world. They want

00:13:03.560 to have the final say on everything. And, you know, just leave us alone. Let us wear what we want to

00:13:11.200 wear. Let us wear mega hats if we want to wear them. Not that I would. But, you know, everybody,

00:13:17.860 this is part of a democracy, right? And the people who are wearing them are the ones who are responsible

00:13:24.780 for wearing them. Like, I mean, my wife and I have seen people go down the street, a woman saying,

00:13:30.800 I'm with, he's just got an arrow, a shirt and says, I'm with the idiot. And then the husband says,

00:13:36.240 I'm the idiot. And we often say, okay, that's funny. But like, who would walk down the street

00:13:41.460 wearing shirts like that? People, you know, it speaks to the people who buy the shirts,

00:13:46.780 not the people who are selling the shirts or the platform that's selling the shirts.

00:13:51.540 Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, Shopify is not even selling it. You're right. And

00:13:54.420 here, I guess here's my perspective too, is that, you know, you may look at, not you personally,

00:13:59.500 but someone may look at the stop grooming our kids shirt and say, wow, that that's really offensive.

00:14:03.800 And, you know, there's an argument for that. Absolutely. But the problem is that a lot of these

00:14:07.920 activists would draw the line at a much, much, much lower level. Like I would suspect without

00:14:14.480 knowing that if Shopify were to sell a shirt that said biological sex is immutable, they would say

00:14:21.560 that's offensive and should be taken down too. If they were to sell a Trump hat, they would say that

00:14:26.260 was offensive and should be taken down too. So it's knowing that the activists are never actually as

00:14:31.000 restrained as it sounds like here. And they would, if they had their way, censor a lot more.

00:14:34.900 Yes. That's what I meant by they want to rule the world. You know, they want to rule speech,

00:14:39.580 which is not necessarily free anymore. And, you know, I, I take great exception to comments like

00:14:46.080 that. Like I said, it's the responsibility of people who, who are wearing the shirts. Now I

00:14:51.020 happen to order a hoodie that I haven't worn yet. Cause it's, it's it's, it's, it's still sitting in

00:14:58.760 the drawer, but I ordered a hoodie that says, uh, I tested positive for critical thinking, support

00:15:05.900 independent media. Okay. So, and so when I walk around, are people going to take offense to that?

00:15:14.120 You should walk, walk just back and forth in front of the CBC headquarters on front street.

00:15:19.520 Exactly. Oh, that's too fun. That's, that should be your, your uniform for a fake news Friday moving

00:15:24.040 forward. Yes, I should. I'll wear it next time. Sounds good. Uh, this is a fun one. So Wyatt

00:15:31.140 Sharp is a name that some of you may or may not know. He's, I believe he's 13 years old now. He's

00:15:37.060 been doing like online interviews and stuff for the last, I mean, certainly the last year, or maybe

00:15:42.700 even a couple of years. Cause I think he interviewed Doug Ford relatively early on in the pandemic

00:15:47.520 and he's gotten remarkable access. He's gotten an interview with Doug Ford. He's interviewed

00:15:53.320 Justin Trudeau. He's interviewed most party leaders. He had a former U S ambassador to the UN,

00:15:58.700 John Bolton on last week. Like the kid, the kid does well because it's kind of a cute novelty thing

00:16:03.460 to do. He's a 13 year old. He asked generally fairly friendly questions. It's, it's a fun opportunity

00:16:09.160 for someone to go on and he gets, you know, a decent enough following, but there's, there's been a

00:16:14.200 pivot in the last little while where some journalists aren't treating it as just this

00:16:17.800 sort of cute little thing, but are treating him as a, as a journalist, as a, as a bona fide

00:16:23.400 journalist, which I say, okay, fine. Let's play by the rules that journalists play by. He's been

00:16:28.780 trying to get an interview with education minister, Steven Lecce and, uh, apparently has been unable to

00:16:34.860 get an interview with minister Steven Lecce for the last year. Now, okay, that's unfortunate. I have

00:16:39.620 been trying to get an interview with Justin Trudeau for six years and have had no luck. And there's

00:16:43.580 never been a news story about that. CTV ran this 13 year old Ontario journalist says Lecce is

00:16:50.900 ignoring his interview requests. And that is exactly the story. It's that he's interviewed

00:16:55.440 all these people, but he has not gotten an interview with Steven Lecce in a year. And then, uh, he tweeted

00:17:01.980 about it and somehow the news picked this up, like setting aside the fact that he's 13. Sue Ann, you've

00:17:09.060 been a journalist for many, many years. I'm sure there are politicians who have dodged you for

00:17:13.400 more than a year. Has there ever been a news story in CTV about it?

00:17:17.780 No. In fact, uh, they never covered the fact that, uh, I got taken out of a indigenous meeting

00:17:24.260 by four armed cops. They didn't cover the fact that I had to chase many school board directors

00:17:29.660 out of buildings to get a comment from them, uh, or that doors were slammed in my face.

00:17:35.460 But, you know, it's, it speaks to their agenda. When I saw that, I thought, of course, any chance

00:17:43.020 to dump on the conservative government of Ontario and they have, let's be honest here. There are many

00:17:49.440 reasons we could criticize them, but not granting an interview to a 13 year old is not one, but it's

00:17:55.340 all part of their agenda. Their bias. Steven Lecce is the devil. He's, you know, put teachers in this

00:18:02.540 uncomfortable position. Uh, he's not negotiating nicely with the QP workers. My goodness. So,

00:18:09.720 you know, it was, it was all, you know, it was just so in, in a way kind of sleazy that,

00:18:19.080 that they would cover this just as a backhanded way of, you know, criticizing him.

00:18:25.500 Yeah. Like it was a weird, it was just a weird thing all around. And, and so now I will say

00:18:32.120 Lecce's office didn't do itself any favors. So Wyatt tweeted about this initially and said,

00:18:36.780 you know, haven't been able to get it. And apparently an email, he got an email from,

00:18:40.580 uh, one of his spokespeople for Steven Lecce who said, I don't appreciate you tweeting that we

00:18:45.780 aren't responding to you other than a broad media availability. The minister was not doing

00:18:49.980 any one on one interview. So, so then that further inflames it because now the ministry has responded

00:18:54.800 to say, we don't like that you're tweeting about this. Like, again, you know, I think that ministers

00:18:59.020 are oftentimes far too protected from talking to real people, but my goodness, if we wrote a story,

00:19:05.680 anytime a politician dodged the media, we would not be writing anything else.

00:19:09.700 Exactly. And you know what? They gave it, they gave it far more, uh, clarity or they gave it far more,

00:19:18.660 um, than it needed to, to have by responding. I mean, they, they, they actually treated him like

00:19:27.880 he was a journalist. So in many ways, they are the authors of their own misery. Uh, Steven Lecce's

00:19:33.120 office I'm talking about, they should have just ignored it. I mean, he's 13 years old and he's,

00:19:39.800 I admire his moxie, but come on.

00:19:42.280 Yeah. I mean, he has a vested interest in education more than any other ministry. I mean,

00:19:48.220 he he's of school age, but, uh, and again, it's, it's tremendous what he's done. I'm a big supporter

00:19:52.700 of independent media, but, uh, part of the experience, if you want to be a journalist

00:19:57.000 is having to deal with that rejection. And I think the media was a little too much in enabling mode

00:20:02.820 on that story. And you're right. I think it was all really just to, uh, pursue that agenda

00:20:07.520 towards the, uh, towards or against the conservative government. Uh, we we've got to

00:20:12.900 wrap things up here in just a moment, but, uh, we're colleagues who, and so we'll end on a bit

00:20:16.480 of a lighter note, uh, because we work remotely, we don't have the benefit of getting together for

00:20:21.900 after work drinks. I mean, I guess we do, but we're just all drinking alone in our respective

00:20:25.860 homes generally. Um, but there was a Globe and Mail piece that after work drinks are not

00:20:31.940 inclusive enough. The act of gathering at a bar to consume alcohol is seen as a way for employees

00:20:38.140 and their bosses to bond, to chat, to get to know one, each other, but for women and other

00:20:42.460 marginalized groups, this common social practice is not always inclusive. And they quote a Calgary

00:20:48.860 based millennial in the public sector, Tala Abu Hayyana. Uh, and she is a Muslim woman. So she says

00:20:55.440 the social pressure to conform has been troublesome to her because she like other observant Muslims

00:21:01.740 do not drink. So therefore she is not included in after work drinks. Uh, I don't know about she's

00:21:08.640 not included. She's chosen not to, to participate. I would say, I mean, talk about twisting things

00:21:14.880 around. Look, I'm not a big drinker, but I often went out just to, you know, connect and to be social.

00:21:23.480 And that is what people do. I mean, I think some of the suggestions that she made that they should go

00:21:30.520 bowling together or have picnics together. Um, in her op-ed. I mean, that's crazy. Uh, you could go on a

00:21:40.300 retreat together, I suppose, but I mean, that's what people do to wind down after a day. It's an age old

00:21:46.800 tradition. I'm not a big drinker. We used to, you know, have these sort of events when I was at post media,

00:21:53.980 but I would sometimes go just like I said, to connect. Um, so, I mean, I think there are a lot

00:22:02.540 of people in this world right now who are in search of some sort of, we say in Yiddish and you wanted

00:22:08.420 some, it's called a Brugus. They're looking for a Brugus. They're looking for trouble. And, you know,

00:22:15.620 she's trying to create a Brugus, you know, you know, they're, they're, they're complaining about

00:22:24.460 nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yeah. And I mean, even like, like, let's go through some of the

00:22:30.220 alternatives. Well, potlucks are not good to people with dietary needs or people with food allergies or

00:22:35.160 people with religious restrictions, bowling and outdoor sports. They're not inclusive of people

00:22:40.440 with physical disabilities. Comedy shows, if they're good, might not be inclusive of anybody.

00:22:45.680 Escape rooms. They are tremendously, tremendously offensive to people with claustrophobia.

00:22:51.100 So how dare you try to marginalize your coworkers with claustrophobia? Like not everything is going to

00:22:57.960 be of interest to everyone. That's not the point of this. It's that like you can go to a bar and not

00:23:03.320 drink. And I have done that many, many times. I'm sure the servers love me, but you know, I'll go

00:23:07.780 there, uh, if I'm with people and maybe I'm driving or maybe I just have an early morning and you know,

00:23:12.060 you, you grab a coffee or you grab a soft drink or something like, or whatever. Yeah. Like who cares?

00:23:18.260 I know. Like I said, a Brugus, stop making trouble where it doesn't exist. You know, that's what my

00:23:25.400 grandmother would say. Don't make a Brugus. Yeah. I'm going to, I only know like seven

00:23:31.340 Yiddish words, but I think I can add it to eight now. So I'm going to look that up to,

00:23:35.160 to, to make sure I I'm saying it right. I, I, two of them, I know from the opening credits to

00:23:39.500 Laverne and Shirley though, Schlemiel and Schlemazel. I don't know what they mean,

00:23:42.380 but I know Schlemiel and Schlemazel. Well, the, you know, I think this would fit into that

00:23:47.680 category. Schlemiel and Schlemazel. Schlemiel, Schlemazel and Bloigel. Is that it?

00:23:52.800 Brugus. Brugus. Brugus. Brugus means making something out of nothing. Okay. Well that,

00:23:59.200 that is that we should rename. We should do a fake news Friday Yiddish edition,

00:24:02.420 because I think that's often what the, what the media is doing here. I'll leave you all with one

00:24:08.040 final thought here from Chloe C, a third generation Chinese Canadian dedicated to dismantling the kind

00:24:14.680 of unequal systems upheld by after work drinks culture. So if you invite your employees out to

00:24:20.660 after work drinks, you are contributing to unequal systems in need of dismantling. So

00:24:25.440 take from that what you will. Sue Ann Levy, you can catch her fantastic reporting at tnc.news. I am

00:24:31.920 Andrew Lawton. You can listen to my less fantastic, but still adequate show, The Andrew Lawton Show

00:24:36.820 at TNC News as well. Sue Ann, have a wonderful weekend. You too, my dear. Yeah, no, no making a

00:24:44.380 Bloigus on your weekend. Everyone have a good one. We'll see you later.

00:24:55.440 go back to TNC News for more.

00:24:56.920 you

00:24:58.860 See you later.

00:25:02.360 you

00:25:03.140 R

00:25:15.340 you

Juno News - November 25, 2022

Another controversy, more claims of “racist attacks”

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