Juno News - Attempted Rapist Acquitted for Being Too High During His Crime

00:00:00.000 so any fun canada day plans coming up this weekend or next week or should i say dominion

00:00:08.760 day plans that's uh what i call it what my family calls it yeah i mean i'm going out to my my

00:00:15.520 family's place there on the golf course so that'll be a good time uh from friday to tuesday so i'll

00:00:21.440 be working out there monday so hopefully that's good because we've starlink out there so and how

00:00:26.640 about you alex fun canada dominion day plans i usually just sit around and wait for fireworks

00:00:33.520 to show up somewhere uh i actually haven't checked to see what calgary's doing this year sometimes it

00:00:40.900 gets funny ideas in its head like to get rid of fireworks and instead do something that nobody

00:00:46.960 wants to watch i'm hopeful though because i think fireworks are the best part of canada day and i

00:00:53.580 feel like a little kid when canada day fireworks go off so uh that's what i'm looking forward to okay

00:00:59.820 let's uh let's get into it

00:01:08.860 well hello everyone i hope you've had a great week heading into this canada day slash dominion day

00:01:13.980 long weekend uh my name is william i'm joined by isaac lamaru and alex zoltan for true north and this

00:01:22.620 is this week's show of off the record and there's a few interesting stories that we have coming up

00:01:27.900 starting isaac with an exclusive that you broke uh why don't you tell us about it i think it's about

00:01:33.820 alberta's separation vote yeah in a in a sense so essentially i submitted an access to information

00:01:42.060 request uh to the department of justice just just asking for more or less all the communications

00:01:47.580 they've had regarding alberta separatism and interestingly what they what they gave me in the

00:01:52.860 reply was like a 99.9 redacted document just in meaning essentially everything but hello was redacted

00:02:01.100 aside from the senders and recipients of that email which is where it gets interesting as you

00:02:06.540 can see in that in that email there in the in the quick shot you you could see warren newman which

00:02:10.540 is warren j newman who was a leading lawyer in the quebec secession reference case and he he's written

00:02:16.860 on that extensively among with the constitution and then there's also other people on the emails the

00:02:22.780 various emails that they sent such as indigenous leaders so that that begs the question is mark

00:02:27.980 carney and the liberal government preparing uh legally to to arm themselves for an alberta separation

00:02:33.980 vote obviously we can't see what was actually discussed on the emails so that that is unfortunate

00:02:40.060 but uh yeah no the participants were the super interesting part there i mean do you guys have

00:02:44.620 any idea of what what they might have been discussing alex what do you think well i had a really similar

00:02:53.820 experience i did an foi request from the cbc with relation to a fifth estate documentary that they did

00:02:59.580 and isaac i couldn't uh relate to you more and that it was a 262 page document and 99 of it was redacted

00:03:08.060 the only thing that you could see every once in a while was we're doing great work

00:03:14.940 magic marker black marker sales must be going through the roof at uh at the information freedom

00:03:20.700 the laughably called freedom of information divisions in these organizations i mean if i were to guess

00:03:27.340 i suspect what they're doing is gaming out what would happen if alberta ends up having a referendum

00:03:34.140 vote on independence and how the federal government would respond to that and probably we can't say

00:03:41.020 for sure probably how they could stop an alberta independence movement even if a referendum came

00:03:49.020 forward what do you think isaac yeah uh there was one interesting thing because of course they sent me

00:03:54.780 the the documents but separately they send a response letter for all a tips and in that

00:03:58.940 response letter they said something that clearly indicates these aren't just friends at the

00:04:04.140 department communicating this is a legal conversation because they said quote you will note that certain

00:04:09.820 records or portions thereof have been withheld under section 23 solicitor client privilege information

00:04:15.500 of the act so this is clearly a legal consultation from that quote we know that they are getting legal advice

00:04:21.900 from this warren j newman and uh others so so yeah i mean at least we can say that much

00:04:28.540 and why don't you give us some clue who this guy is he's just not some quebec lawyer off the street this

00:04:33.900 is someone who really does know his stuff when it comes to separation movements yeah so he acted as a

00:04:40.140 co-counsel for the attorney general of canada in 1998 when the liberal government had shut down quebec secessionist

00:04:47.500 arguments in the supreme court of canada and the court had agreed with the crown's arguments in in

00:04:52.380 this reference case and as i said he he's written on that extensively but in in short the court ruled

00:04:58.620 that quebec could not legally succeed secede from canada on its own because of the canadian constitution

00:05:05.180 and then he he was just agreeing with the decision and essentially saying that

00:05:09.260 when a majority referendum is held in a province showing a clear majority wants to leave the province what

00:05:14.700 it does is they can't just leave what it does is it starts the negotiation process uh with the

00:05:19.980 federal government and of course as we've covered at true north with indigenous as well now it's possible

00:05:26.620 i'm the only one old enough to remember the 1995 quebec separation referendum uh i'm gonna guess the that

00:05:34.220 both of you guys were were still fairly young uh when that was happening and and people may forget how

00:05:39.580 just how close that vote ended up coming i believe it was uh 50.6 percent of people voted to remain

00:05:47.020 and 49.4 voted to stay and it kind of shocked canadians just how close that vote was and it

00:05:54.700 resulted in uh this this supreme court decision you're referencing resulted in the liberal government

00:05:59.420 of the day under sean correction putting forward the clarity act which actually governs uh how canada

00:06:05.500 would deal with a preventable province voting in favor of independence happening now alex my question

00:06:12.860 for you is you're isaac and i are both in alberta where this is still very much a day-to-day issue

00:06:19.260 you're in british columbia what do you think happens if alberta declares independence and british

00:06:24.540 columbia is now sort of this island of canada floating next to the pacific i would say it's already kind

00:06:32.220 of an island of canada just on account of its own weirdness i i often this is just a thought i had

00:06:38.380 earlier this morning when i was thinking about this subject uh so the british north america act

00:06:43.820 does it not require a two-thirds provinces agreement on secession is that or am i mistaken on that i i've

00:06:52.460 researched this subject just a little bit probably not as much as both of you albertans but i mean i

00:06:58.940 think it's one of those things where since it's never happened uh we don't a hundred percent know

00:07:03.900 what would be the case some would argue i suspect that a constitutional amendment would be required

00:07:09.580 in order to accept the changing of the canadian federation which would require um a majority

00:07:16.380 of the population and a majority of the provinces to vote uh to accept the change others would argue

00:07:22.460 that provinces are in a position to control their own destiny and therefore canada would be under a

00:07:27.820 duty duty to negotiate i think one of the factors that is still unknown is uh what role what influence

00:07:37.020 and what powers would first nations groups have during sexual process because they signed treaties

00:07:44.220 with canada not with provinces in fact they signed them with the crown if we're being technical so

00:07:49.660 i think there's some uh some people who believe that uh that really would make independence quite

00:07:56.620 difficult for any province others would argue that they get to vote in these referendums as well and

00:08:02.540 therefore democracy should reign supreme what do you guys think yeah well just all the constitutional

00:08:10.140 experts we we've kind of spoken with over the last few months or so especially regarding indigenous

00:08:15.980 rights have said they have no more power than any other uh albertan essentially that they just get the vote

00:08:21.820 uh we'll remember josh de haas of the canadian constitution foundation said quote there's nothing

00:08:26.860 i'm aware of that would suggest that first nations people could prevent those discussions from taking

00:08:30.700 place that being the subsequent negotiations and that they have no legal authority and we've seen other

00:08:35.980 constitutional experts like keith wilson for example weigh in on the subject essentially saying

00:08:39.980 again that the first nations have no special veto power

00:08:43.340 uh to add to my bc perspective on this subject if first nations were theoretically let's say to be a

00:08:52.460 harbinger to alberta independence could an alternative to alberta independence be an amalgamation of alberta

00:09:00.300 and bc as one province to increase our collective leverage i mean there has long been this view that

00:09:08.220 that those provinces out in the west who have very little in common uh with the east with central

00:09:15.260 canada quebec ontario the power structures there in fact if you look at uh british columbia that's a

00:09:21.660 it's not even geographically close to where the federal government is is located it's a very long flight

00:09:27.820 which i do not enjoy and so that is definitely an argument that has been made that there's little holding

00:09:33.820 uh provinces out west and and to some would even argue provinces far to the east uh with uh those

00:09:39.180 in central canada so uh i guess that's a point that will be made at various stages especially if

00:09:45.660 british columbia ends up electing a different government than the one it's had in power for

00:09:50.620 the past while now isaac this wasn't the only thing happening in alberta independence this week do you

00:09:55.100 want to talk about danielle smith's new project yeah so she launched the alberta next panel which

00:10:02.700 is essentially going to be conducting forums across the province uh that being in person and virtual

00:10:09.180 town halls uh just trying to get public opinion on separation and also i'm i'm assuming inform them

00:10:16.780 and the the while while smith just announced this i i should say that or sorry while smith just launched

00:10:21.740 the panel i should say this was announced at the start of may and that's when i originally covered it

00:10:27.020 so but uh the interesting part about the alberta next panel is they'll be essentially gauging as i said

00:10:36.060 public opinion and then proposing a series of referenda that will occur in 2026 that could be

00:10:42.300 including a separation vote if they deem it necessary and uh so this panel will be led well i believe it's

00:10:49.980 chaired by smith but then it's led uh by leaders in the academic uh uh judiciary and economic spheres

00:10:56.940 so yeah this is just really in my opinion a great democratic process for albertans uh who wouldn't

00:11:03.340 want their government to be conducting panels across the province gauging public opinion and then

00:11:08.380 kind of taking in that data and saying here's what we got from our engagement sessions here's what the

00:11:13.420 people think and here's what we're going to propose as a referenda we'll put it to a vote

00:11:17.100 you again another democratic process if it's a majority vote we can move forward with it so i

00:11:22.620 think it's really a great thing for albertans any provincial resident in my mind would want

00:11:26.940 their province to be doing things like this i mean do you feel the same way william obviously

00:11:31.100 you're in alberta as well i got to admit i felt a little deja vu when i heard there was going to be

00:11:38.300 a panel on getting a better deal for alberta i thought didn't we already do one of those about five

00:11:45.020 years ago was under a different premier i think it was called the fair deal panel i remember going

00:11:50.860 to one of them and i feel a lot of the same rhetoric a lot of the same issues had been discussed and you

00:11:57.820 know from obviously mr kenny ended up having to leave his role as premier once his party decided they

00:12:04.940 uh they weren't so much interested in in maintaining him so maybe he didn't have a chance to implement

00:12:11.580 anything coming out of it but i think for some people out here they're wondering is this an actual

00:12:18.540 process that's going to lead to concrete policies and concrete actions or is this something so that

00:12:26.540 the government can say look we know albertans are are upset we know they're concerned and see we're

00:12:33.340 doing something about it but not actually doing something about it because you know what they say talk

00:12:39.900 is cheap and uh alex again i wonder how this looks from from afar from your perch in bc does alberta

00:12:48.300 come across as as uh you know sort of perpetually outraged or do you think we have legitimate

00:12:55.180 concerns about how we're treated in the canadian federation how does it look from someone who

00:13:00.220 isn't an albertan well i think that both of those things can be true simultaneously so i think that alberta

00:13:06.140 from an outsider's perspective does appear to be perpetually outraged but i also believe that the

00:13:11.100 spirit of that outrage is completely legitimate i mean albertans are getting hosed for lack of a

00:13:16.940 better term by the federal government all the time so i completely sympathize with the spirit of alberta

00:13:22.620 separatists but from an outsider perspective where i where i tend to drift a little bit away from the

00:13:28.460 separatist um movement is i i often kind of laugh at my laugh to myself about how alberta seems to be

00:13:37.100 the most internally divisive province in the country so i'm not fully convinced that if it were to become

00:13:43.660 its own separate state that people would be satisfied with its own independent government i mean most of

00:13:49.500 the most outspoken alberta separatists are quite dissatisfied with the existing provincial government that

00:13:55.340 they already have so they i as an outsider in order for me to believe in the legitimacy and the

00:14:01.260 likelihood of alberta separatism i think that they would have to maybe prove that there's there's some

00:14:06.460 level of unity right in order to uh proceed forward as an independent country because what's the point of

00:14:12.620 being an independent country if everybody doesn't like each other i mean i would just say that in 60

00:14:19.740 years alberta has elected essentially the same conservative government all but once it elected

00:14:26.300 one term of new democrat government and something like 15 or 20 terms of conservative government over

00:14:34.220 that period so but i take your point that um you know uh the question is will this actually address

00:14:41.980 major concerns or even if progress is made will it still be insufficient for those people who are

00:14:48.380 truly set on having uh either an independent alberta or an alberta that is the 51st u.s state or

00:14:55.260 something along those lines i whatever i can say is you know it's not going to be dull we're about to

00:14:59.980 hit stampede season here in calgary i'm sure all of these political leaders will be on display and out

00:15:05.420 shaking hands and eating pancakes and uh this conversation topic will likely come up now shifting to our

00:15:12.540 good friend mr carney who is not a good friend uh a facetious comment he has gone to europe and when

00:15:19.660 he was in europe along with his nato colleagues he made a bold announcement that canada would meet

00:15:26.460 its new nato target of defense spending of five percent of gdp alex do you want to tell us when mr

00:15:33.340 carney went to europe what exactly he talked about yeah so he went to europe and he has agreed to

00:15:39.980 um for canada to reach nato's target of five percent of gdp spending on defense targets by 2035

00:15:47.660 hopefully we have a budget by then

00:15:53.260 um yeah i guess that's kind of where i stand to be a little bit skeptical again i hate to be a

00:15:58.460 negative nelly but he has pledged to increase funding to a lot of different things in canada

00:16:04.860 in the absence of any budget or plan so i'm not entirely sure how he intends to do this or where

00:16:11.820 the spending is necessarily going to be going i mean we can only buy so many men's tampons

00:16:18.780 that's true isaac what did you think of the prime minister's announcement yeah well first thing that

00:16:23.900 comes to mind is for we've never even hit the two percent gdp requirement now we're going to hit the

00:16:28.220 five percent okay uh again just empty promises in my mind we saw the same thing with trudeau and

00:16:33.180 his housing pledges which carney has replicated by the way just oh i'll magically build four times

00:16:37.500 more houses trust me i'll get two million built in the next year and then oh the housing starts

00:16:41.420 are actually plummeting trudeau uh to be fair to carney he he may actually hit them through modular

00:16:46.380 housing which people don't know can't even begin to fathom uh but yeah no so we can all be living in uh

00:16:51.820 trailer parks uh so i mean it's an empty promise at the end of the day until it's actually done

00:16:57.740 so like saying something is one thing but talk is cheap as you said earlier william like it really

00:17:03.580 doesn't mean much at the end of the day unless you actually accomplish it but uh just looking over the

00:17:08.220 past years canada is not even close to the two percent gdp requirement so jumping to the five percent

00:17:13.340 within a few years seems like quite the stretch and that doesn't even get us started on

00:17:17.340 uh the military recruitment issues we've seen let's go build all these planes build all these

00:17:22.700 ships but oh no one to fly them they're just sitting there uh so they they do have other concerns uh

00:17:28.540 with our armed forces that need to be addressed especially from a recruitment standpoint yeah i'm

00:17:34.220 inclined to agree that this five percent commitment is bold but given canada's track record on defense

00:17:43.020 spending i honestly don't see how it's going to be achievable let alone by 2035 by uh you know ever

00:17:51.500 in canadian the future of our country i think people you know if they don't really follow national

00:17:57.500 defense closely they may not be aware of just how much of a disaster the department of national defense

00:18:03.660 has become under uh certainly under uh mr mr trudeau he did not do do a lot of positive things for the

00:18:12.860 armed forces isaac makes a joke about uh there being tampons in men's washrooms uh we know that

00:18:19.740 they've had uh drag queen story times and and other performances and and the question is do you think

00:18:27.180 some of these woke initiatives that the armed forces are focusing on is one of the reasons why

00:18:33.020 recruitment into the into canada's army navy and air force has been so woeful over the past decade

00:18:40.780 well i think the men's tampons makes us scarier personally

00:18:47.100 yeah i do william and i remember i've done so much reporting on this over the years but i i do

00:18:51.660 remember a report either a year or two come up uh ago come out that said something along those lines

00:18:56.460 like look you're you're focusing on these woke initiatives this is not what what people want and

00:19:00.940 just from a a man in canada's perspective like this is not something that would make you proud to join

00:19:06.940 the military you think of a a strong military like that of the us the the you'd be much more proud to

00:19:14.300 join that because you know this is this is what makes men men like you're you're you're going out

00:19:19.660 there you're putting your life on the line you're you're risking your life i mean it's just you're not

00:19:25.420 having tampons in the bathroom i mean this is ridiculous yeah woke initiatives are not going to

00:19:30.380 increase pride in the military which is i think a main drawing aspect to people joining so i don't

00:19:38.940 know how if they're trying to uh say oh we're going to put all these dei initiatives to increase

00:19:44.380 recruitment it's pretty much doing the exact opposite alex what do you think is at the heart

00:19:50.460 of our recruitment problems for the armed forces

00:19:52.940 maybe a lack of patriotism as well more generally um canada considers itself under justin trudeau and

00:20:03.420 i think it considers to continue itself a pioneer in the post nation state experiment so i mean i think

00:20:10.540 what draws most people to the military is either financial opportunity or the ideological or the

00:20:17.820 spiritual opportunity to defend your country which you're very proud of and so in the absence of

00:20:22.220 both of those things i don't think it's any mystery why people aren't joining the military yeah i think

00:20:28.140 that's a great point that uh you know you look at what's going to motivate someone to agree to skip up

00:20:33.900 put themselves in danger definitely live a difficult life as a member of the armed forces and it's i would

00:20:40.540 say wanting to defend canada wanting to defend our way of life our values is a big part of that and when you

00:20:46.700 constantly have governments that uh you know over the past 10 years who were so negative towards canada

00:20:54.300 as a whole uh that you know they said we were a genocidal colonial state that had you know no

00:21:02.380 redeeming qualities it's not i think you're right not a mystery why people may not have felt the need

00:21:07.500 to step up and serve in our armed forces now one other point that i think uh again people who maybe

00:21:14.140 aren't aren't watching national defense issues day in day out uh may understand just how difficult it

00:21:20.060 is to buy uh some of these things that we have been trying to buy for not just years but coming on on

00:21:27.340 decades i'm thinking about uh you know canada first committed to buying f-35s i think circa 2006 to 2008

00:21:37.980 somewhere in there the beginning of the harper government and here we are two prime ministers

00:21:42.700 later and we still don't have a plane and i think about we're still trying to buy new frigates ice

00:21:48.460 breakers you know even just having the money available doesn't seem to be enough in order to

00:21:56.140 actually get material purchase so what do you guys think i mean do we need a whole top to bottom um

00:22:04.700 review and and and tearing it up and starting again on how we purchase assets especially in

00:22:09.740 national defense or can we actually buy some of these things within the current system if we just

00:22:15.660 had enough political leadership to get it done uh yeah i think both of those things can be true like

00:22:24.380 because well for to have a strong political leadership change might be required starting at the top right

00:22:29.660 and then i i don't know the intricate details of why why we haven't been able to purchase these

00:22:34.540 things but i'm just thinking of uh again a strong military if donald trump wanted to buy an f-35 i'm

00:22:39.980 sure he could get that accomplished within quicker than two decades as we've clearly failed to do in

00:22:45.740 canada so really it comes down to who's at the negotiating table and i mean yeah and alex any thoughts on

00:22:54.300 on this defense spending issue from uh can we even do it if we have the money well again i'll bring

00:23:00.780 in my weirdo bc perspective on this i don't know if it's necessary and i'm not an expert on military

00:23:06.460 spending or anything like that but i don't know if it's necessary for canada to necessarily be a hard

00:23:11.100 military power uh we we rarely have wars and we rarely go overseas and we rarely need planes or or

00:23:20.220 maybe we need icebreakers in some hypothetical theoretical future but i think maybe one of

00:23:25.100 the ways that we could improve the canadian military and circumvent those issues would

00:23:29.260 be to become a soft power increase our intelligence service one of the great advantages that canada has

00:23:35.580 right now as you know the post nation state is that we have a lot of people who speak foreign languages

00:23:43.500 right we we actually could be a world leader in terms of translation services and

00:23:48.140 global intelligence and so i think that maybe that would be a way that we could improve our military

00:23:53.980 without necessarily having to purchase expensive equipment from other countries that we might not

00:23:59.580 like well certainly i think we're going to have to see something change because what has been the

00:24:05.260 case up until now is just unsustainable and the fact that prime minister cardi has now signed on

00:24:11.580 to the new nato commitment also say now there will be no cuts to any other spending and we're

00:24:17.180 going to build millions of homes and we're going to spend money across a whole range of other areas

00:24:23.900 something here there there might not be a surprise as to why he hasn't brought forward a budget yet

00:24:29.260 it's because frankly to do all of that might be impossible so i guess we'll keep an eye and see if

00:24:35.180 we're going to see meaningful changes to defense or if it is more hot air which is what canada produces an

00:24:41.260 awful lot of when it comes to uh military issues so uh next up speaking of being proud canadians the

00:24:48.620 good people of montreal once again will not get a canada day parade and you might think this is an

00:24:57.100 ideological exercise that you know despite this renewed patriotism in the face of donald trump's

00:25:05.340 tariffs against canada that you know there's this surge in canadian pride but in the case of

00:25:11.660 montreal it appears that civil servants at the city just can't get their act together enough in order

00:25:18.300 to hold a parade so uh that's what at least what the organizer of the parade has said he's encountered

00:25:24.060 bureaucratic resistance bureaucratic unhelpfulness which i think everyone has experienced at one time

00:25:30.780 or another uh when dealing with government and that as a result there will not be another canada day

00:25:36.780 parade um alex in terms of being patriotic and a parade do you think this is a real loss for

00:25:44.540 michaelers that they won't get for a second year uh canada day parade well i think it's particularly

00:25:50.300 strange that it's occurring in montreal where you seem to have anti-canada parades almost every weekend

00:25:56.220 so there's there's definitely an irony there um isaac what are your thoughts yeah no i mean this

00:26:04.940 is obviously related to the last story which you might not necessarily expect but when you're talking

00:26:08.380 about patriotism alex and you i mean i'm just thinking about when when you think about canada day

00:26:13.340 the the first thing that comes to mind might be a parade for me or as william mentioned the fireworks

00:26:17.420 which uh oftentimes can accompany a parade as well i mean this is something i'm certainly looking forward

00:26:23.260 to over canada weekend are the parade and the fireworks out of where i'm going the fact that

00:26:28.300 montreal can't put together a parade is an embarrassment i mean what what are we talking

00:26:32.620 about here how can you not throw together a parade worst case just you have public funds to do this just

00:26:38.620 hire a private company to do it if you can't get it done because i guarantee you a private company can

00:26:43.100 i mean what are we talking about here this is i i the first word that comes to mind is embarrassing and

00:26:48.300 and from a page patriotism perspective uh montrealers would probably be embarrassed at their city that

00:26:55.020 they can't even throw together a canada day parade i mean i can think of the tiniest jurisdictions in

00:27:01.420 canada and they are hosting parades it's among the biggest two so there's really no excuses here

00:27:06.780 in my mind i don't know what montreal is doing i mean i think this is a good warning for any opposition

00:27:16.540 party looking to form a government and make promises of transformational change there's an

00:27:23.340 old saying that the real opposition isn't isn't the other party it's the civil service who are opposed

00:27:30.060 to everything and you know you've got a mayor of montreal saying that that you know that they're

00:27:35.820 committed to having a parade and that a parade should go ahead and then you've got the bureaucracy

00:27:40.300 dragging its heels throwing up bureaucratic hurdles and basically saying they're not going to let

00:27:45.820 this happen and i think it's very worrying that a bureaucracy can stop a project like this because

00:27:53.580 we've got a huge bureaucracy in the federal government we've got pierre promising care

00:27:57.820 promising if he gets elected he's going to make a huge fundamental change what happens if he inherits

00:28:03.180 this bloated bureaucracy that's going to fight tooth and nail against his entire agenda from day one

00:28:10.460 alex what do you what do you think will happen there do you think pierre is going to be able to

00:28:14.540 force through these changes regardless or do you think it's time we discuss the uh the the the

00:28:19.740 politically unpopular uh scaling down the civil service and even firing people from it

00:28:27.500 well it's a really good question it's it's i mean i'm not i'm not super familiar with the

00:28:33.580 internal politics of montreal municipally however it was very it just seems very strange to me that

00:28:40.780 montreal is canceling the canada parade on the heels of an election that was really based on pride in

00:28:47.100 canada and specifically canada being differentiated from our neighbor to the south when i was in

00:28:52.780 montreal people i i observed a lot of pride in canada mostly in opposition to us simply not being

00:29:00.860 american which is pretty common so i was i was actually quite shocked to see that montreal would be

00:29:05.980 canceling the parade um in such a unique time in history i guess you could say

00:29:12.220 and isaac you think this uh this is a harbinger of what's to come if there's ever a change in

00:29:17.900 government federally yeah i just wanted to talk about that point a bit william that you brought up

00:29:22.380 with pierre and the bloated bureaucracy because it's not just that like look like if pierre were to

00:29:27.740 win and get in there are so many things working against him the bureaucracy i mean the senators that

00:29:33.260 are all liberal appointees like the courts don't just change overnight the laws don't just change

00:29:37.820 overnight i mean there's so many hurdles that he healed he would have to jump over and bringing that

00:29:43.260 back to montreal i mean like i said i don't know i i just i i can't get wrap my head around them not

00:29:48.940 putting on a canada day parade especially as you said alex with the the canadian pride at its foremost

00:29:55.020 probably because of the recent election i mean this is insane to me i i'm sure i'm keeping my eye out just

00:30:00.940 to see if any other cities are doing something ludicrous like this because as as you said with

00:30:07.100 the with the canadian pride this can't be what residents want either so i don't know what they

00:30:11.820 have to gain that being a city for for doing this i i just don't i don't see the upside at all

00:30:17.740 well hopefully montreal figures out how to celebrate canada day some other way um you know unless they

00:30:24.380 choose to ban red and white or displaying maple leaves or something else uh by the civil service there

00:30:30.860 uh i i'm sure that um canada loving montrealers will find ways to celebrate regardless of uh

00:30:38.540 what their what their municipal government chooses to do uh just heading in our final story now i have

00:30:43.820 to laugh how many times have we read something crazy that's happened in the news and our first

00:30:49.340 reaction has been what were they smoking and in this case i would say uh that's literally the question

00:30:56.460 when a judge made his decision yeah so uh i covered this story this is um and i and i i am remiss to

00:31:07.820 laugh because it is a serious story and i feel terrible for the victim but this was a judge's decision

00:31:14.060 out of wacky bc where a gentleman had attempted to rape a woman stabbed himself in the chest and then was

00:31:21.500 acquitted of all charges six years later on account of being too high on magic mushrooms

00:31:29.260 yeah no and you're absolutely right the the details of this are are very serious i think

00:31:34.860 it's not funny but it does border on ludicrous when you think about what had to go through the judge's

00:31:41.100 mind when he saw someone in this case uh attempt very serious crimes against someone else and and hurt

00:31:48.780 hurt himself in the process and then he said no there's nothing there's nothing i can do this

00:31:53.980 person did nothing wrong in the eyes of the law we're going to put him just because he happened to

00:31:58.940 be high as a kite on magic mushrooms isaac what did you take of this yeah just regarding the laughing

00:32:06.220 quick i mean while this is a terrible story of course just how ludicrous it is there's almost nothing

00:32:10.940 you can do but laugh we've seen similar things with bail reform and murderers it's like at this point

00:32:14.860 what do you do it's just so insane but i mean just reading a header like man too high on mushrooms

00:32:19.980 to be charged if if like for an example it's like you'd have to assume that sire because there's just

00:32:25.580 no possible way this can be the reality we're living in i mean it's ridiculous it's not like for

00:32:31.500 example if you had some sort of disability or whatever that you did not have control of that's

00:32:36.540 the key there you did not have control over this it was just a genetic deformity that you were born

00:32:41.740 with or whatever then i could see you getting off a charge you took the mushrooms you chose to get

00:32:46.860 high you are responsible that it's that simple if you drink and drive you decided to drink you know

00:32:53.740 it's like the the the onus falls on you because you got drunk so you're not just um not liable for

00:33:01.900 any crimes you commit oh i was too drunk i was too drunk to see the stop sign officer like it's insane

00:33:06.780 it's the same exact argument it makes no sense whatsoever alex what do you think i mean does

00:33:11.740 this set a ludicrous precedent when it comes to being under the influence of any substance and

00:33:17.340 then committing a horrible crime afterwards yeah i tend to agree completely with isaac i think at a

00:33:22.380 certain point here you sort of throw the baby out with the bath water on account of the fact that i

00:33:27.020 assume most criminals are inebriated when they commit crimes i mean let's be honest here one of the biggest

00:33:33.340 catalyst for criminal activity is people being high or drunk and so if you apply this logic to its

00:33:41.420 conclusion if you take it to its complete logical conclusion you get to the point where basically

00:33:45.740 nobody is accountable for anything if they're high or drunk and um i i don't know how you square that

00:33:53.580 circle personally but yeah before robbery these guys are chatting they're like hey man let's go rob

00:33:59.260 so all right just make sure we get higher drunk first so we can't get charged like literally though it's

00:34:02.940 crazy so it is it is it is kind of insane when you think about it the idea that you can absolve

00:34:09.180 yourself of of any criminal act simply by getting drunk or high enough before you engage in it does

00:34:15.340 seem to be a pretty um strange idea now the judge in this case i think some people might have thought

00:34:22.620 given the details that this was a judge who's been on the bench for decades their views may be outdated

00:34:28.780 with what we now know to be some of the things related to uh why criminals behave the way they

00:34:34.140 do and that this person could have been appointed by you know a conservative government from decades ago

00:34:39.980 but the fact is this judge was appointed in 2022 by the bc ndp arguably the most quote-unquote progressive

00:34:49.580 government in the country and so uh does it strike you all as strange that a party that would otherwise

00:34:56.940 have been uh you know who says things like believe all women and supports the me too movement and um uh

00:35:05.020 you know would always stand up in the case of women who have been assaulted is now saying well yeah okay

00:35:10.940 fine um she was you know there was an attempt to rape the woman but we're we don't think the guy

00:35:16.220 should do any time because he was high does that really seem like what a progressive judge would say

00:35:21.500 or do what do you think happened here well you're right it's not logically consistent and and what also

00:35:27.900 bothers me about some of these decisions is if you're going to make a decision that absurd at least make

00:35:32.460 it quick i mean like why did this take six years and it started the the initial charge related to an event in

00:35:39.340 2019 so this judge was appointed in 2022 so at some point somebody passed the baton to this new judge

00:35:46.220 right so i i just don't know why it took them six years to land on not criminally responsible due to

00:35:53.180 mushrooms i mean how long did it take the judge to write that decision you have to wonder if the judge

00:36:00.860 himself was on uh was on some sort of hallucinating substance if it took him that long to do the job

00:36:07.020 uh ultimately i i do think that it is yet another tick in the box of wow canada's judges are are have

00:36:16.620 gone rogue and insane on some of these criminal issues and i think a lot of ordinary canadians

00:36:23.580 are simply looking at these and going we don't understand why our judges seem so out of touch with

00:36:29.820 the concerns and values of ordinary canadians from coast to coast so uh certainly not the last time

00:36:35.900 we're going to hear about a crazy judge making uh an insane ruling uh at least in this case uh you

00:36:43.020 know no one was killed which is a huge step forward uh usually there's much more gory outcome here and

00:36:50.700 guys any final thoughts before we head off for the weekend on this or the other stories we talked about

00:36:55.340 yeah i'll just give a a quick sports analogy that came to mind so it's like when you're watching a

00:36:59.420 hockey game and there's a review of a penalty or whatever and then say they take 10 minutes on it a

00:37:04.940 ridiculous amount of time and then they get the call wrong essentially what you're saying here

00:37:08.700 with this decision alex you took six years to make it and in my opinion i'm not a legal expert but in

00:37:13.420 my opinion you made the wrong decision after six years i mean it it's just inexcusable in my eyes

00:37:20.220 i mean i think that's that could sum up our governments at almost every level they move slow

00:37:25.500 and when they finally move they get it wrong well that's uh that's it for another week here at true

00:37:31.420 north and i want to thank uh isaac and alex for joining us today to talk about some of what happened

00:37:36.380 in the news this past week always great to get their perspectives and uh to have a chat about what

00:37:42.380 was making news in canada and of course as everyone knows everything we've said has been off the record

00:37:48.140 yeah you just have to wonder if there's a training course somewhere online for judges teaching them

00:37:58.620 how to be truly insane on key issues well i'll just say this after writing and covering that story i'm

00:38:05.660 definitely scratching magic mushrooms off my canada day plans

00:38:12.540 why would you scratch it off alex it'll absolve you from any crime you're going to commit

00:38:15.820 i've never thought magic mushrooms were a good idea but now i'm really scared

00:38:21.180 i mean i think most patriotic canadians will be drinking cold here on hopefully somewhere by a lake

00:38:27.020 on the canada day long weekend to me that's the epitome of how you celebrate our nation's birthday

00:38:33.980 absolutely but you know it makes me wonder that you can actually buy magic mushrooms at corner

00:38:38.540 stores in vancouver if a judge thinks that magic mushrooms put you into a state of i think he called it

00:38:44.940 mental non-anautonomy or something like that then maybe we shouldn't be selling them at corner

00:38:50.620 stores like if they're causing people to rape people and not be or attempt to rape people and

00:38:55.420 not be criminally responsible maybe we shouldn't be handing them out like candy yeah i did not know

00:39:01.580 you could buy them at corner stores in bc there alex that's uh that's crazy on its own to me i feel

00:39:07.100 this is one of those things that makes the rest of the country look at vancouver and british columbia and

00:39:11.580 think that's kind of an odd place sometimes we're not really sure what makes them tick i feel like

00:39:17.500 you guys are going to do a referendum to just kick us out at some point

00:39:21.020 all right thanks very much you guys have a great one my pleasure

00:39:26.620 yeah

Juno News - June 28, 2025

Attempted Rapist Acquitted for Being Too High During His Crime

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