Juno News - Bus driver fired over “Lolita Line” outfit

00:00:00.000 I actually didn't watch any of the Edmonton Oilers because I was mad that the team allowed

00:00:08.220 any politician to suit up and skate with them and do all that nonsense in the middle of an 0.77

00:00:13.620 election campaign. And I would feel the same way no matter what party it was. I think that

00:00:18.440 people's cherished sports teams should be their thing. And the moment that politicians get involved,

00:00:24.420 I mean, it all turns to skunk. And then they started doing well. And I like the Oilers and

00:00:29.400 I'm so superstitious that I'm like, OK, since I haven't watched them at all, I can't watch them

00:00:34.100 now. I don't jinx them, but I guess I must have already jinxed them or something because that's

00:00:38.340 why they lost. Yeah, Chris, a lot of Canadians had similar reactions. Of course, when we saw

00:00:43.780 Mark Carney come for their practice, they were getting blasted by fans saying, what are you doing

00:00:49.340 letting this politician into the sport we love? And then, of course, famed hockey personality,

00:00:54.140 Ryan Whitney, deemed the Carney curse because, of course, Carney comes and then everyone gets

00:00:58.580 injured, which kind of rehashed after the Oilers just lost. Some people were saying, hey, Florida's

00:01:04.600 just the better team. But others were saying that the Carney curse was, in the end, insurmountable

00:01:08.720 because injury troubles did not stop for the Oilers in the playoffs. Obviously, their second

00:01:13.180 best goal scorers, Ack Hyman, didn't play a single game in the last series due to injury.

00:01:17.460 Oh, my.

00:01:17.780 So, yeah, the Carney curse seemed to be something that the Oilers couldn't get over this year.

00:01:23.320 Alex, what got me is that it's the Oilers, Edmonton Oilers, and the dude that suited up for them

00:01:31.340 and took a bunch of pictures wants 80% of our oil to stay in the ground. It was the weirdest

00:01:36.980 juxtaposition.

00:01:39.720 Yeah, I was just glad we don't have the goalie to blame for once.

00:01:44.400 All right, let's see how their golf swing is. Let's get this thing started. 0.99

00:01:54.400 Welcome to Off the Record. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian

00:01:58.800 Taxpayers Federation. I'm sitting in the host's chair today. So, everybody buckle up and please

00:02:04.140 be gentle. Some of the topics on this show are... I'm just going to throw them at you guys.

00:02:09.120 Isaac and Alex, thank you so much for joining us. I wanted to start off the top that I can

00:02:14.120 really dig my teeth into this one. Who was this guy? Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He's like

00:02:21.740 a new man. Like, there's... So, for those of us who've been in the arena for a while, people

00:02:27.880 often say, you don't really turn to small government, like lower taxes, accountability, tough on crime,

00:02:35.780 until you are a liberal who's been mugged.

00:02:38.320 And here we are. This was kind of crazy. All of a sudden, I saw the Premier talking about getting 0.93

00:02:45.320 really tough on crime. Isaac, did this surprise you?

00:02:48.940 Yeah, no, it shocked me, Chris, when I watched this press conference in its entirety, especially

00:02:53.640 with Ford's recent... He might have been... Over the recent, especially over the election recently,

00:03:00.940 conservatives across the country have been questioning Ford and his allegiances,

00:03:04.300 conferences, especially with how he behaved with the Federal Conservative Party and talking

00:03:07.180 about them. But now, all of a sudden, we're seeing these press conferences, and I'm reading

00:03:11.520 through the transcript, and quote after quote after quote, I'm like, he said this? Like,

00:03:15.400 it's just ridiculous things that he's saying. Like, really good things for conservatives. 0.95

00:03:19.380 Well, some good things. For example, the story we're talking about today, he actually said

00:03:24.120 that Canada should have a castle law, which, for those who don't know, a castle doctrine is a

00:03:29.240 legal principle that is active in many U.S. states, which essentially allows a homeowner to use

00:03:35.820 self-defense, including lethal force, against an intruder without any obligation to retreat,

00:03:42.400 essentially. So if someone comes into your home, you could kill them, essentially. That's what the

00:03:46.060 castle law is, if they threaten your life. And then some of the quotes Ford were saying, he's like,

00:03:51.420 yeah, no, if someone breaks into your house and you're protecting your kids, like, you'll do whatever

00:03:55.680 it takes. He listed a bunch of weapons you could grab, like a hammer, a knife, like,

00:03:59.860 like, oh, he's saying this stuff. It's crazy. And there is no, no small coincidence that Ford was

00:04:07.380 carjacked, literally, I think the night before this happened. So he was absolutely heated. I mean,

00:04:13.020 this was a motion that I've never seen from Ford. And obviously, he also said, hey, look,

00:04:19.000 I'm a premier, I have two police cars were on my property, just watching me because he has special

00:04:24.720 RCMP detail or whatever. But most Canadians don't have that luxury. And when you're getting

00:04:30.180 carjacked, you're, you don't have police there on the ready to help you. And then he even took it a

00:04:35.460 step further, because of course, some of you guys may remember, there was that recent story

00:04:39.680 where the homeowner shot his gun at home invaders recently in Toronto. And he was among those who got

00:04:48.040 charged. So that's another thing that that influenced Ford's speech here. Ford said that that

00:04:53.700 homeowner only shot the gun in the air. I don't know whether that was confirmed based on the other

00:04:57.060 stories I read. But he went as far as saying Ford did that he was going to start a fundraiser for

00:05:02.560 this person and cover his legal costs. And he even said he should get a medal for standing up for

00:05:07.000 himself. He just kept talking, like, yeah, staffer perspective. I was just like, he just kept on

00:05:13.380 saying this stuff. And then he kept going. He attacked the judges. He attacked the liberal

00:05:18.120 government. He's saying he said he called the judges weak need for just basically letting people out on

00:05:23.060 bail. But I will say and Alex knows better about this. But in the judges defense, they can't do

00:05:28.860 much with the with the catch and release policies from the federal government. And I mean, I could go

00:05:33.980 on for minutes and minutes and talking about all the things Ford said. But I feel like I'm hijacking

00:05:40.220 the conversation here. No, no, no. Alex, if you want to maybe just talk about the judge aspect or

00:05:47.100 something, I don't know. Yeah, a few things on this. I totally agree with Chris. People's opinions

00:05:52.900 on crime change a lot. Of course, when you become a victim of crime, kind of reminds me of that Mike

00:05:58.140 Tyson quote, where it's like, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

00:06:02.400 Yeah, that's kind of what happened here with Ford. But on the matter of the law, it's interesting

00:06:08.180 because a lot of people don't understand this very well. In Canada, you don't even have the right

00:06:12.800 to preemptive self defense in terms of thought. So this came up during the Coutts trial, which is

00:06:19.800 really interesting, because those fellows had gone somewhere near in the vicinity of the big protests

00:06:24.560 that happened, you know, in solidarity with the protests in Ottawa. And they had those guns, they said

00:06:29.540 in court for the purpose of defending themselves in the unlikely event that the government started

00:06:34.280 shooting at women and children. They were deemed to be in possession of weapons for a dangerous

00:06:39.240 purpose. And what the judge basically explained in court transcripts, which we now have access to,

00:06:46.280 and I'll be writing about it later, is in Canada, if you picked up, for instance, a hammer in your

00:06:52.740 house and said, this would make a great weapon to defend myself with against a home intruder, you are

00:06:57.100 in possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. You are not even allowed to have the thought of

00:07:02.240 defending yourself. So for Doug Ford to make these comments, which are so contrary to the actual laws in

00:07:08.180 Canada, I found very fascinating and interesting.

00:07:10.220 I found it interesting too. So taking off my CTF hat, although we do spend a shocking amount of

00:07:18.020 money on the criminal justice system, so there is a huge cost to taxpayers. So that should just be

00:07:24.440 understood. Second, I was a court reporter like you, Alex, for years and years for TV and radio and

00:07:30.940 print. And I lost track of the number of times I just watched people walk through, they might as well put

00:07:37.280 literally a revolving door on the rooms because, you know, it would save on their air conditioning

00:07:41.280 bills because they're just in and out, in and out, in and out. To your point exactly, I think a lot of

00:07:48.100 folks who are law abiding, they don't come into contact with courts. So the most they'll ever get

00:07:54.700 is maybe a speeding ticket from a police officer or something, maybe once or twice in their lives.

00:07:59.120 And so we watch all of this news and drama and media come from the United States, which has a very

00:08:07.700 different approach to exactly what you're talking about. So you're right, we do not have any form of

00:08:14.960 castle law in Canada. In fact, I would describe it more as the reverse. The intent that you have with

00:08:20.420 whatever objects you have around you, super important. So just as a note, I would recommend

00:08:26.560 that people who have this sort of stuff in mind, and who talk about things like this,

00:08:31.240 read up on it before you start talking about it. So for example, if you are a legal law abiding

00:08:36.960 firearms owner, of course, the only reasons you have such things are for hunting and target shooting.

00:08:43.720 Those are the only two reasons you can legally own a firearm in Canada, period. Now, most folks

00:08:49.620 understand that that's the case, like ranchers use it as a tool, right, to put down pests and things

00:08:55.200 like that. And so it's just an understood thing. So this is again, why, as a comms person, my jaw was

00:09:01.880 kind of hanging open at the premier saying this stuff. What kind of surprises me most is that I

00:09:08.020 don't think he knew this. Like he seems to be unaware of what you just pointed out, Alex, of the

00:09:14.420 difference between intention and what we are allowed to do within our homes.

00:09:18.480 Yeah, I would agree. I mean, either he doesn't understand the law, or he hates it.

00:09:25.860 Well, if it's the latter, you know, he is a premier and he might want to, you know, pick up the horn

00:09:33.900 and maybe talk to his friend, Prime Minister Mark Carney. What got me from a taxpayers federation

00:09:39.960 perspective is that in the middle of the election, okay, it was a trade union. I still can't believe

00:09:46.780 this. I'll be surprised about this for the rest of my life. A trade union, the pipe and steel workers

00:09:51.140 union out of Hamilton were so worried about Carney's looming industrial carbon tax, which is going to

00:09:57.860 happen. They were so worried about this. They said it was going to decimate their industry. They were

00:10:02.860 ringing all the fire bells. They endorsed Pierre Polyev instead. And, and Ford, who is the premier of

00:10:10.740 Ontario, where most of our steel industry is located right there. Those are, you know, his voters,

00:10:16.620 nothing, crickets, absolute crickets, said nothing about the industrial carbon tax, never challenged

00:10:23.400 Carney on at one bit. Whereas we've got Scott Mo out here, who was, you know, saying we're not doing

00:10:28.040 any of this. Daniel Smith froze it, she needs to get rid of it completely. But other premiers were standing

00:10:32.900 up to him over this. So I guess that's why I'm just kind of surprised to see this brand new premier

00:10:37.340 forward, Isaac. Yeah, a few things I'll say about Ford. Firstly, in his defense, he did say in this press

00:10:42.840 conference that he was going to bring it up with Carney. And he's basically also criticized them for

00:10:46.720 saying they do something about it over the last decade, and obviously not doing anything. And in

00:10:51.900 fact, he, he made a joke. I mean, not much of a joke in a way, but he basically said, look, the four

00:10:57.400 suspects who were trying to carjack him are probably already out on bail. And then a few quotes I'll highlight

00:11:03.560 from him. He said, this, this, this next one is a joke, by the way, he said, they're going to be back

00:11:08.820 out. Why don't you guys come over for a barbecue tonight? You know, I'll take care of you better than

00:11:12.760 the police. And thank God the police got you. And I never did. And then he said, I'm sick and tired

00:11:18.580 of the weak justice system that we have. We need to start throwing these people in jail. This is

00:11:22.720 turning into a lawless society. So these are super strong words from Ford. And taking it to another

00:11:29.140 kind of funny aspect, obviously, we saw the Toronto police, I think it was previously tell homeowners to

00:11:35.700 leave their keys at the doors so they don't get home invaded, because then the robbers will just see

00:11:41.380 the keys and take your car so they won't invade your home and harm you. That's the best thing you

00:11:45.420 can do, guys, leave your keys at the door. So that's not premeditative self-defense, but whatever

00:11:50.460 the opposite of self-defense is. Yeah, the leave the keys at the door thing that made international

00:11:55.540 news that was on New York Post that made Fox probably made a couple of a couple of papers over

00:12:01.580 in the UK. We actually have a clip here of Premier Ford, because I think it's important for you guys to

00:12:07.300 listen to it in your own words. Let's take a listen. Did you hear about the guy that these thugs

00:12:12.660 came up, you know, ready to steal his car? They're all in their masks and everything. So I guess he

00:12:18.420 was a hunter or something. He shot up in the air. I don't recommend that, by the way. But he gets

00:12:24.760 charged. I got to find out this guy's name and number. And I'm going to hold a fundraiser for lawyer

00:12:30.380 fees for him. He should get a medal for standing up. It's like down in the US, we should have the

00:12:35.300 castle law. Someone breaks into your house. And I know any of these people here, someone breaks in

00:12:40.360 your house and they're coming after your kids and you're coming after your spouse. You're going to 0.82

00:12:45.140 fight like you've never fought before. You're going to use anything that you have, be it weapons,

00:12:50.400 baseball bats, knives. You're protecting your family. These thugs shouldn't be coming in there.

00:12:55.560 Yeah, that was something else. Again, that was a very different sort of Premier Ford. In fact,

00:13:02.380 that was the Doug Ford that I remembered from, he was even on our show once. He had his own show with

00:13:07.240 his late brother one time at Sun News Network. And I remember Doug and Rob Ford talking like this.

00:13:13.980 So that's what I kind of remembered. Be interesting to see for, and like, I'll get into this quickly with

00:13:19.820 you, Alex, before we move on to our next story. But can you describe a little bit about C5?

00:13:25.060 So a lot of people were talking about this. It's basically where the federal government,

00:13:29.860 correct me if I'm wrong, has instructed judges to give the most lenient possible punishment for the

00:13:36.640 briefest amount of time possible. Is that kind of the wording of this?

00:13:41.260 Yeah. So Bill C5 and Bill C75 are kind of two wings of the same bird, so to speak.

00:13:47.100 They both intend to make the justice system more equitable and more fair is generally the idea.

00:13:55.280 The concept is that racialized people, as the legislation spells it out, were overrepresented

00:14:02.120 in the legal system. And so in order to make things more fair and equitable, they would just

00:14:08.300 provide bail on the least onerous conditions possible.

00:14:10.900 Interestingly enough, I attend a lot of bail hearings. And I would say that it's still like

00:14:18.060 overrepresented by racialized people, however you want to define that. So I'm not really sure

00:14:26.420 how this legislation is supposed to work, right? Like maybe it's just possible at the risk of

00:14:31.860 sounding a bit discriminatory that like certain people are just committing more crimes.

00:14:35.820 And specifically with regards to indigenous people, what has happened is you are now seeing

00:14:41.600 people who are not indigenous going to reserves and using those places to produce and manufacture 1.00

00:14:47.620 drugs. And they're using them as hubs for trafficking drugs and people and all sorts of things because

00:14:52.120 they're now essentially legal safe zones. If you have somebody who's going to be treated in the legal

00:14:56.640 justice system more leniently on account of their race, then that makes that person an actual very

00:15:01.820 attractive runner for drugs, for crime. And so people are now being recruited into crime on account

00:15:09.260 of the fact that they're more likely to be sent back out onto the streets in this revolving door

00:15:14.780 justice system. So the legislation just doesn't achieve what it intended to, in my opinion.

00:15:19.340 And I actually think that as is often the case, the path to hell is paved by good intentions.

00:15:23.900 I think it ultimately gets back to accountability. I think it's been pointed out many times that a few dozen

00:15:30.540 criminals, uh, in Vancouver commit thousands and thousands of the same crimes. Like these police

00:15:36.780 officers, uh, must be getting tired of seeing the same faces. And this is the issue that the crime

00:15:42.060 just keeps getting committed by a very tiny group of people. And that incurs costs and it constantly

00:15:48.380 causes problems for people who are on the outside because their property is getting ripped off. People

00:15:53.020 are getting assaulted on buses, et cetera. And so I do think it does get down to accountability and folks,

00:15:58.700 if you don't like it, make sure you are on your local politicians, including your municipal

00:16:04.220 politicians. So if you're in Vancouver and you're sick of the crime, you should be at city council

00:16:09.980 meetings. You should be contacting your city councilor all the time and then writing to your

00:16:14.940 provincial and federal levels and saying, this is an issue for me. It's a voting issue for me.

00:16:20.380 If you don't fix it, I'm going to door knock against you. I would give this advice on any topic

00:16:25.180 that people feel really passionately about. Um, I want to stick with justice really quick here.

00:16:29.980 There was something that came up at the justice committee and I think, uh, former true north host,

00:16:34.780 Andrew Lawton was playing a role here who wants to take this one away.

00:16:39.180 Yeah, I wrote the article. I would love to. So on the subject of bail reform, um, Andrew Lawton is a

00:16:46.860 member of the house of common standing committee on justice and human rights, which typically their

00:16:52.060 mandate is to deal with issues related to the department of justice and laws in the criminal

00:16:57.580 code. And so these would be the people that would be the caretakers for dealing with,

00:17:02.220 in my opinion, dysfunctional pieces of legislation like bill C five and bill C 75. Instead, what they

00:17:07.740 did is, uh, they appointed Mark Miller as the chair of the justice committee. And he mostly spoke about

00:17:16.380 being respectful about decorum. He talked about the importance of lunch breaks to avoid hangriness

00:17:22.460 and to promote solidarity. And then they just adjourned the meeting and said, let's go for summer

00:17:28.940 break, which Andrew Lawton was quite rightly in my opinion, outraged by. Did he actually bring up lunch?

00:17:36.300 Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I wrote about it in the article. He said, we need to combat hangriness.

00:17:41.180 He also talked about the importance of people not slamming down their headphones,

00:17:45.020 uh, in outrage feigned or otherwise, he said. So I think I was just thinking about this a few

00:17:50.060 moments ago, what the liberal strategy is with regards to the issue of crime is first,

00:17:54.700 they're going to gaslight you. It's just like housing. They're going to say, it's not an issue.

00:17:59.660 And then when it ceases to, when that ceases to be effective, what they're going to do is they're

00:18:04.700 going to say, well, this is not our responsibility. It's the province's responsibility,

00:18:08.780 right? So they're going to gaslight and then they're going to obfuscate it. You can see it from the

00:18:13.020 very beginning. And yeah, that's essentially, I think what the strategy is. And I don't know if

00:18:20.300 this is going to fly because I think normal working people who don't make $300,000 per year,

00:18:26.620 plus like that cabinet minister who was actually talking out loud about hangriness makes, and they

00:18:33.100 live in normal working neighborhoods are tired of crime. And they're tired of them not seeing good

00:18:40.540 value for their taxes. Again, close to half of what you make goes into taxes. So imagine what

00:18:48.220 lands in your bank account if you're on salary every two weeks, picture it, double it. That's

00:18:54.300 how much governments, plural, are taking from you, including to pay for a so-called justice system.

00:19:00.860 So you should ask yourself if you're getting good value for money here. Isaac, did any of this take

00:19:05.660 you by surprise? I, for one, am very happy that Andrew Lawton is on this committee because the guy

00:19:11.660 sharpens his pencil and does his homework. So I'm looking forward to this.

00:19:15.260 Yeah. A few quick words I wanted to make about Lawton on this committee because obviously I've

00:19:21.180 written a few articles about this, but a theme is emerging with Lawton exposing his counterparts for

00:19:25.980 not knowing anything about the files they're on. Chris, here you are talking about the salaries and the

00:19:31.260 lifestyle they live and yet they can't answer basic questions about their file. What are you doing

00:19:35.900 at your job? What do you do with your time? You don't know the most fundamental question of your

00:19:39.980 file. For example, Andrew Lawton recently exposed the minister responsible for Canada's public service

00:19:45.900 because he was unable to explain why bureaucracy was increasing faster than the country's population.

00:19:51.340 He has some very simple questions. How have nearly 100,000 bureaucrats been added since 2016? No idea.

00:19:57.900 But this mirrored a similar exchange, which I'm sure many people saw,

00:20:02.220 between Lawton and Public Safety Minister Gary Ananda Sangri, which revealed he too could not

00:20:07.740 answer the most basic fundamental questions about Canada's gun laws. Andrew's asking him

00:20:12.620 basic questions that you might even think a normal Canadian would know the answer to, just having

00:20:17.420 ever looked at Canada's gun laws. Nothing. So yeah, Lawton is obviously

00:20:23.500 doing the great job as an opposition member, exposing these ministers who know nothing about

00:20:30.540 their files. I mean, it's crazy and it leaves you scratching your head with how do these liberal

00:20:36.140 ministers get appointed to these files and what are they doing with their time where they can't answer

00:20:40.380 the most fundamental basic questions about them. And for folks who are like, oh, well, is it fair to,

00:20:46.460 you know, I don't know, quiz people about the populations of certain countries that they're getting

00:20:51.580 engaged with, um, and saying that isn't fair? Uh, no, this case, it was the public safety minister.

00:20:57.820 Okay. Who didn't, who the best part of his answer he did with Lawton, in my opinion,

00:21:03.020 as a law abiding legal firearms owner was that the, at the end of it, the minister said,

00:21:08.860 this isn't about law abiding firearms owners.

00:21:11.500 No, no, this is exactly what, what this gun is entirely about law abiding gun owners.

00:21:22.220 This actually has nothing to do with the criminals and gang bangers who no reasonable person would be

00:21:28.380 upset about if you're taking their guns away. No, this is, that's the entire point. And that's what

00:21:33.820 kind of mystifies me. It's like, does he really think that there's this huge vocal organized

00:21:39.180 opposition against his law because we want thugs and criminals to not have illegal guns?

00:21:44.860 You know, on that point, Chris, it strikes me as ironic because the liberals are constantly

00:21:51.020 accusing the conservatives of importing American politics into Canada. Now in the United States,

00:21:56.060 you do actually have an issue of legal gun owners committing mass shootings. We don't really have

00:22:02.060 that in Canada. I mean, when was the last time a legal gun owner in Canada went on a mass shooting?

00:22:07.100 It's like 99% of the guns and crimes are illegally obtained. So I, it just doesn't happen.

00:22:13.900 The police themselves. Okay. So the cops on the front lines, the guys and gals, the police unions

00:22:19.020 say repeatedly, uh, this is not the place to go. Like, could you please give us more resources,

00:22:25.020 more time, more focus to catch the gun runners and the gang bangers and the bad guys and gals 0.86

00:22:30.780 who are illegally using guns? Typically speaking, there are rare outliers, but typically speaking,

00:22:37.660 it is not the ranchers and the hunters and the folks who have gone through all of the safety courses

00:22:43.900 with the government that are the ones who are committing the crimes here. The cops themselves say

00:22:49.020 this. In that justice committee meeting as well, Larry Brock made a really good point. I mean, the

00:22:53.180 liberals, this is another one of those things where it's, there's some cognitive dissonance going on here.

00:22:57.020 They love to talk about, um, adhering to the expert advice and Larry Brock says, well, on this point,

00:23:03.660 we have expert advice, right? The, the, the heads of police associations, you know, these are the

00:23:09.980 experts, Nikki Sharma, who is the attorney general of BC, the most liberal province is asking for the

00:23:15.820 liberals to reconfigure the laws that are allowing this revolving justice system to continue. 0.97

00:23:21.900 Oh, I didn't know that. That's interesting. Even the attorney general of BC is saying this is too

00:23:27.500 much. Wow. So they're just not listening to the experts. They're not listening to the experts.

00:23:32.940 They're importing American politics. They're doing everything that they accuse the conservatives of

00:23:37.020 doing. People just want results and they want good government and they want them to quit wasting.

00:23:42.300 Speaking of wasting, do we want to chat about the river? Okay. Yeah. So shout out to Jake. Okay. He is our

00:23:51.580 amazing research, uh, guru with the Canadian taxpayers Federation and Jake, like any good tax fighter

00:23:58.860 doesn't like government waste. And he lives in Alberta and he did a freedom of information request

00:24:05.260 to find out that Calgary taxpayers paid more than $65,000 to set up a telephone line so that people can phone

00:24:17.660 the river, like not, that isn't the name of a business. These arty people set up a telephone line

00:24:26.220 so that human beings can telephone like, like the bow river, like, hello. I, okay. Number one, I know art is

00:24:37.180 subjective. Okay. Whatever you're into, you're into. I understand if phoning a river floats your boat,

00:24:44.940 that's great. Pay for it yourself. Don't make your neighbors pay for this. This is a reflection of

00:24:51.500 a quote that I heard that I turn over in my mind all the time. It's the age of communication, but

00:24:55.980 people have never communicated less. That is so well done. Um, so I looked into this a little bit more

00:25:05.820 and Jake looked into this a little bit more and the amount of money. Okay. The millions of dollars

00:25:12.060 that Calgary city hall spends on this art slush fund. Okay. Would cover the entire property tax bill

00:25:21.020 for seven thousand Calgary households. So again, this is the same Calgary city hall that cries broke

00:25:31.740 every five minutes and blames the premier for it. Okay. And it doesn't know how to fix a water main. 0.54

00:25:38.860 All right. But they will turn around and blow $65,000 on a telephone art project to call the river.

00:25:46.860 I will point out two things. One, the phone number doesn't work.

00:25:50.620 Good job guys. If you phone it, you actually get put through to this, you know, Calgary art slush fund

00:25:57.500 voicemail. Two, um, they have spent so much money on this the last little while. This is actually a

00:26:06.540 repeat of a project they did back in 2014. And get this, they wanted to switch it to a local 403

00:26:15.260 number instead of a 1855 number so that they give power and ownership back to the river.

00:26:27.740 I'm sorry. And there was communication. So these are all based on documents obtained by the Canadian

00:26:34.140 Taxpayers Federation. And we got ahold of some emails and one city hall, uh, employee bless his or her heart

00:26:42.540 said, a downside could be that this will be seen as a foolish waste of money.

00:26:52.620 I think you're stunned. Are you all right?

00:26:54.460 Yeah, no, just so many things going through my head. Let's just operate for a second in the

00:26:59.740 fantasy world where phoning the river is a, is a, is a grave concern that needs to be addressed. Um,

00:27:06.140 this just brings up the public versus private sector investment. I mean, it's insane.

00:27:09.740 $65,000 to set up a phone line. What are you doing? I probably could have called Jimmy in the

00:27:15.500 yellow pages to do it for like a hundred blocks. I mean, what are we talking about? 65,000? What,

00:27:19.420 what was the money spent on? And then it doesn't even work. It doesn't even work. You spent $65,000.

00:27:24.940 It doesn't even work. I mean, it's ridiculous. Plus, you know, now that you mentioned, it's kind of 0.93

00:27:30.220 funny. I would love to just listen in on those phone calls of people calling the river. And it's like,

00:27:34.460 I wonder what they're saying to the river. Like, let me get in on that line and just listen to the

00:27:39.900 calls and just be like, what's going on with the river talk here? I wonder if that was recorded.

00:27:45.500 Oh, I'm going to, we're going to FOI that. That's a great idea. You're welcome, Chris.

00:27:52.380 Okay. And for folks who are upset or like, why are you guys laughing? Okay. Number one,

00:27:56.940 you have to laugh or you cry. Okay. Like when it comes to government,

00:28:00.780 like, you cannot let these guys get you down. Do not let them black pill you. Okay. Cause then 1.00

00:28:05.100 they win. Number two, they hate it when we laugh at them. Like, I guarantee you, if any of those like

00:28:12.380 nerds at this arts council gets ahold of this and watches this, they're going to be so upset,

00:28:18.060 like pearl clutching, like all of the pearls will be right here. They'll be so upset.

00:28:23.100 I don't hate the idea if it makes them feel any better. I mean, if it was, if it was $600,

00:28:29.180 I think could be a fair, not even. Okay. Again, you know, people, people's opinion of art is

00:28:37.740 different. That's fine. Never make your neighbor pay for it. Not one bit. If your idea to phone the

00:28:43.980 river, Alex is like awesome and spiritual and stuff. I do respect that hit up a donor. Seriously,

00:28:50.380 find a donor. Okay. Even a nonprofit group or something, go find a river keeper group or something

00:28:55.900 and say, can we raise money to do this? Because I think it'll raise awareness about the heart of

00:29:00.380 the river and the health of the river. Now important it is that's totally cool. Don't like

00:29:05.100 government art should be a contradiction in terms. Alex, if you really want to call the river and you

00:29:10.300 happen to have 65 grand laying around, I'll fly out tomorrow and I'll get it set up for you.

00:29:14.620 Guaranteed. I don't want to call the river. I'm just, I'm trying to play. I'm a contrary. I don't know.

00:29:20.220 I mean, I like art generally, but I agree. I think that government art is an oxymoron for sure.

00:29:25.900 It's so gross. All right. The next one is our kicker and I am not going to make eye contact with 0.88

00:29:33.100 this story. Sorry, fellas. This is, this is going to be your thing. Speaking of strange wastes of money,

00:29:40.780 I wanted to just throw this at you guys, Isaac and Alex. This was a story that strangely surfaced

00:29:47.500 earlier this week. I will say that it does end well. So for folks who are listening or getting

00:29:55.260 upset, I would say, thankfully, that accountability won the day. It was a rare victory. A rare victory.

00:30:03.820 And that it is super important to always be in contact with your levels of government,

00:30:10.940 including your school boards. So here in Alberta, we can recall school board administrators if they

00:30:16.460 screw up in Ontario, you can't do that, but this is still a good finish to this story.

00:30:22.060 Um, I pull it up here. Let's take a look. Okay. Yeah. I could take it away, Chris, if you don't

00:30:28.860 want to, because I know people, please Isaac. Yeah. Yeah. So basically this video, uh, surfaced online

00:30:37.340 that showed a male bus driver, uh, stepping out of this bus, wearing, as you can see, a pink pleated

00:30:42.780 skirt, thigh high stockings and a sailor style top. And then there was a sign in the front window,

00:30:48.300 which you can barely see, which reads Lolita line, which is the most concerning aspect.

00:30:55.260 If you can believe that to me, because of what Lolita line might signify. And I'll let you guys.

00:31:01.660 Yeah. I didn't know what this meant. So, yeah. So basically Lolita was popularized by Vladimir Nabokov's

00:31:08.300 1955 novel of the same name in which an adult male narrator sexually exploits a 12 year old girl.

00:31:15.660 And in modern usage is often associated with a subculture involving the sexualization of young

00:31:21.420 girls. So that's what this bus driver is doing. You guys could take away from that, whatever you want. 1.00

00:31:25.980 Although just getting on the, on the good news aspect of the York Catholic district school board

00:31:32.060 did confirm that this driver was removed pretty quickly right after this all surfaced. But, but the

00:31:37.820 fact that the parents had to confront him, I mean, that this was even allowed to happen for a second

00:31:43.420 is certainly concerning. Although at least that the parents can rest easy tonight, knowing that this

00:31:49.420 person has been fired and I don't know what this bus driver was thinking and that they maybe get away

00:31:55.020 with it, but could it be related to the, the drag queen story hour we've been, we've been seeing take

00:32:01.100 place across all the schools and the glorification of this kind of behavior. I mean, it certainly is not

00:32:07.900 an easy story to read. I'll say that much. What do you think, Alex?

00:32:12.140 So I I'll be honest with you. I did not interact with this story at all because it reminded me a lot

00:32:17.260 of the prosthetics breast guy in Ontario. Remember the shop teacher who had the giant fake

00:32:21.740 hooters or whatever you want to call them. I don't know. Um, so I, I saw this, I was like,

00:32:27.260 there's just no way this is real was my first reaction. I just could not believe it was a real

00:32:34.220 story. Now we were talking off air about how the prosthetic breast fella. We think that maybe he was

00:32:41.260 engaging in some type of satire. I will open it up to the group. Is it possible the bus driver is

00:32:46.140 doing the same thing? It's pride month. He saw a bunch of crazy stuff that he just can't abide by 1.00

00:32:51.180 and decided that he was also going to go on a, um, one man mission to, to reveal the absurdity

00:32:58.940 of all this. Is that possible? I don't know. I'm curious. I'll, I'll say anything's possible,

00:33:04.220 but just based on the context and the information I read in the story and what I kind of saw online,

00:33:08.060 I don't see that as likely at all. Whereas with the, with the prosthetic breast thing, I think people

00:33:13.580 kind of knew from the jump that it was satire. And I don't even know, he might've even gone as far

00:33:18.220 as like, he was protesting against them. I think he might've even publicly stated that. Whereas this

00:33:22.540 doesn't seem to be the same. I think we don't have enough information. However, uh, I was surprised,

00:33:31.420 I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It made international news. It was in the New York post

00:33:35.660 and, uh, as a parent and somebody who likes accountability in government, the good news is,

00:33:41.340 uh, this was dealt with instantly from the looks of it. So like the same day that I saw this floating

00:33:46.860 around on X, I saw the same sort of thing saying, yeah, this is no longer happening period. So that

00:33:53.580 individual, I'm happy to see that too. You know, it's not some long drawn out thing where people

00:33:57.980 have to deal with it. And again, I will bring this back to the good ending and the good message of this

00:34:02.620 story is it's really important to stay engaged. So parents, it doesn't matter who you are. If you've

00:34:08.860 got kids or not. Okay. No matter what area of government it is, stay engaged. Okay. Stay connected with this

00:34:14.780 kind of stuff. If you see something, say something. Okay. Make sure you take it to the higher

00:34:19.420 authorities. Make sure you are the squeaky wheel, because that is the only way that you can make sure

00:34:25.260 that you are getting action on things and making change that you want to see happen. Uh, folks,

00:34:29.820 I'm going to leave you with that very strange story, but the good news is, is that it was resolved

00:34:35.340 quickly from the sounds of it. Thank you guys so much for joining us. And remember,

00:34:39.820 everything that we have said is off the record.

00:34:46.060 Do you think it is possible that this guy is like the prosthetic breast guy? I mean,

00:34:49.820 it's an interesting question. Like I said, anything just doesn't seem likely. Whereas with

00:34:54.140 the prosthetics breast guy, as I said, from the jump, I think that was kind of a known thing. Whereas

00:34:57.900 this guy, I, I don't know. And also how long had he been doing this for? Has it been months? Like,

00:35:03.580 I don't know. I always, from my experience, I know I sound like Gandalf, because I'm older than you

00:35:08.780 both. But, um, what you first see is almost never the case. There's always in my experience, something

00:35:14.540 extra. So I don't know.

Juno News - June 20, 2025

Bus driver fired over “Lolita Line” outfit

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