Juno News - Canada’s $8.6 Million Misfire

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:06.740 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:12.800 Coming up, Justin Trudeau spent millions on his failed bid for United Nations Security Council seat,

00:00:18.980 a politician takes a stand against cancel culture, and a look at Iran's upcoming sham elections.

00:00:24.360 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:32.680 Hello and welcome to the Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.

00:00:39.520 We spoke earlier on in the year when the federal budget came out about the billions and billions and billions of dollars

00:00:45.000 Canada had to spend on debt because of the deficits that are racking up more debt than Canada can really count.

00:00:52.480 As we mentioned, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's debt clock actually ran out of digits,

00:00:57.900 which is never a good sign when trying to track government spending.

00:01:01.420 But it is interesting to look at where the priorities for government spending really are.

00:01:06.580 And obviously in the last year, because of government-imposed shutdowns,

00:01:10.120 the government's had to spend a bit of money on providing aid to people that can't work,

00:01:14.260 people that can't run their businesses.

00:01:15.680 But we were hardly on a good spending track in the lead-up to the pandemic

00:01:20.480 because of a very significantly misguided set of priorities from the Liberals,

00:01:25.460 one of which involved chasing around a United Nations Security Council seat for Canada,

00:01:30.940 which was never going to happen.

00:01:33.560 But that didn't stop.

00:01:34.740 According to documents unearthed through Access to Information by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:01:40.020 the federal government spending $8.6 million.

00:01:45.460 $8.6 million.

00:01:47.480 That's what the Liberals spent on trying to get Canada on the Security Council.

00:01:51.780 Those seats, of course, went to Norway and Ireland.

00:01:55.420 And there are some foreign policy considerations that I want to get to in a couple of moments.

00:02:00.480 But let's just talk about the dollar figure first.

00:02:03.540 Joining me on the line is Canadian Taxpayers Federation Federal Director Franco Terrazano.

00:02:08.640 Franco, good to talk to you. Thanks for coming on today.

00:02:11.240 Hey, Andrew, man. Thanks so much for having me on today.

00:02:13.840 So $8.6 million.

00:02:15.800 Now, I mean, even if we had won the seat, I'm not sure how you'd quantify its value.

00:02:19.780 But certainly for a bid that a lot of people in international politics thought was a long shot in the first place

00:02:26.300 and that we know in retrospect and hindsight we didn't actually get.

00:02:30.220 $8.6 million is quite a bit.

00:02:32.180 What was actually making up that number?

00:02:34.300 Yeah. So, I mean, at the end of the day, we now know this was a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

00:02:39.500 And, you know, even if we were successful in getting that Security Council seat,

00:02:43.560 spending millions of dollars would have been a huge waste of taxpayers' money.

00:02:47.240 But now that we find out that we obviously didn't get that Security Council seat,

00:02:52.100 we'll spend an $8.6 million for this failed campaign.

00:02:55.540 It was really a huge swing and a miss for taxpayers, right?

00:02:58.660 And if we break down that $8.6 million per vote, it comes to about $80,000 that we spend on each vote, right?

00:03:06.620 That's a good salary for so many Canadians.

00:03:09.240 So I think that really just exemplifies how much of a waste of money this really was for taxpayers.

00:03:15.580 How much was that again?

00:03:17.760 $80,000 per vote was spent on Trudeau's failed campaign bid.

00:03:23.160 Wow. And that was, yeah, the 108 votes we got, short of Norway and short of Ireland,

00:03:28.860 who ended up claiming the seats that were up for grabs.

00:03:31.520 And when we look at that, one thing I note here is that salaries make up a huge part of it.

00:03:36.380 This was a bid that was going from 2016 to June of 2020.

00:03:40.720 The salaries alone, $6,218,498.

00:03:46.100 Now, in fairness to the government, were these people multitasking where they happened to be assigned to this campaign?

00:03:52.020 Or was this something they were going all in on in the course of their duties?

00:03:56.220 You know, we're still looking for the complete breakdown of costs.

00:03:59.220 But one thing that we have to point out, you mentioned the $6 million in salaries.

00:04:02.660 Well, we were also spending thousands of dollars on consultants and contractors.

00:04:07.560 And, you know, when we break down what we do have, what we do know that was spent on,

00:04:11.720 is this was a huge waste of money.

00:04:13.080 This is not value for taxpayers' money, right? 0.96

00:04:15.480 You might as well take this money and light it on fire.

00:04:18.140 Let me just run down a list of things that the government was spending.

00:04:20.640 And it's mind-boggling.

00:04:22.600 We were wasting money on wine, on chocolates, on Canada gloves, maple syrup.

00:04:28.300 You had lollipops.

00:04:29.400 You had keychains, candles, right?

00:04:31.340 So this wasn't a good use of taxpayers' money, even if we won.

00:04:34.940 This was really schmoozing up bureaucrats, schmoozing up diplomats. 0.89

00:04:39.380 And it ended up coming with a big price tag for Canadian taxpayers.

00:04:42.380 I think there's a sub-story in this, which is that this is the best we can do in Canada,

00:04:48.200 is, you know, maple syrup.

00:04:49.160 We just stick to the cliches and pay a lot of money for them, and those cliches aren't enough.

00:04:53.960 And you've had to submit multiple access to information requests, as I understand, to even get these numbers.

00:04:59.500 Yeah, that's correct.

00:05:00.480 Our investigative journalist, James Wood, he deserves a lot of credit for shining a light on all this spending.

00:05:05.540 And we still have more ATIPs in with the federal government.

00:05:10.140 So, you know, on the one hand, I'm really looking forward to seeing just what other types of waste that this government spent our money on.

00:05:17.200 But on the other hand, I mean, this is very—it really gets your blood boiling, doesn't it,

00:05:21.560 when you see the federal government wasting millions of dollars on things like this,

00:05:25.900 especially when you look at the real issues that we're facing here in Canada, right,

00:05:30.020 the massive deficits, the massive debt problem that we have.

00:05:33.100 And now we see our federal government thought that it was a good time to be wasting millions of dollars

00:05:38.060 for bragging rights, essentially.

00:05:40.740 Yeah, and I think there is something to that that speaks to priorities and a lack thereof.

00:05:46.400 And just again, we're not talking about a huge dollar value here,

00:05:48.980 but I have to bring up a related story that just came across my radar.

00:05:52.980 Margaret Atwood did a book tour in Australia that taxpayers in Canada somehow had to pony up some money for. 1.00

00:05:59.460 What happened here?

00:06:00.120 Yeah, we paid, what, $10,000 so that Margaret Atwood, who is a well-known author— 0.80

00:06:09.400 Who could drop $10,000 on the street and not realize it, by the way.

00:06:13.600 Yeah, so exactly, right?

00:06:16.120 Net worth in the millions of dollars.

00:06:19.400 And we were spending money so that she could promote her own book, right?

00:06:25.360 Her own book.

00:06:26.240 So another complete waste of taxpayers' money.

00:06:29.380 And of course, we have to really put the microscope on federal spending these days when we're more than a trillion dollars in debt.

00:06:36.840 That number is going up by about $424 million every single day.

00:06:41.520 So we do have some very legitimate concerns and challenges that this federal government needs to be looking at.

00:06:47.520 But instead, they're just wasting money left, right, and center.

00:06:50.420 Although, in fairness, at $10,000, it would have been cheaper just to hire her to go and do the UN Security Council campaign.

00:06:56.800 Then at least we're out the $10,000 instead of the $8.6 million.

00:07:00.640 And Margaret Atwood probably would have done a bit of a better job than the folks they spent that money on. 1.00

00:07:05.540 Franco Terrizano, federal director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:07:09.320 Thanks for coming on.

00:07:10.560 Hey, Andrew.

00:07:11.020 My pleasure.

00:07:11.500 Thanks for having me on.

00:07:12.240 I love that.

00:07:14.080 $10,000 for Margaret Atwood to promote her own book, which she is making money on.

00:07:20.160 And then $8.6 million to promote Justin Trudeau's attempt at legacy building, a seat on the UN Security Council.

00:07:28.140 And like I said at the beginning of the show here, the dollar value is a component of this.

00:07:32.560 A lot of people were saying this was just a bad idea from the get-go.

00:07:36.820 It wasn't going to happen.

00:07:37.880 You look at the countries we lost to, North, not North Korea, but we might as well have Norway and Ireland.

00:07:44.680 These are small countries.

00:07:46.040 If it was just about spending money, we would have won.

00:07:49.920 But it's not.

00:07:50.920 It's about building relationships and it's about credibility.

00:07:53.780 And it was actually quite shameful last year.

00:07:56.440 I remember when Francois-Philippe Champagne went down to New York, he put the ballot in the box in the UN General Assembly and ended up coming up short.

00:08:03.420 And I remember distinctly that this was a situation where Canada was forced to reckon with its place in the world.

00:08:09.980 Justin Trudeau promised that Canada was back.

00:08:12.860 But the reality was he did not have the cachet he thought he did and pretended he did.

00:08:18.400 Canada, he was trying, in fairness, I mean, he was trying to get Canada to a place where it was punching above its weight.

00:08:23.960 But the country is simply not taken as seriously on these security things as Justin Trudeau wants to pretend it is.

00:08:32.360 And there's a reason for that.

00:08:33.520 I mean, we're talking about a country here when it came to renegotiating NAFTA was talking about gender equity and diversity.

00:08:40.100 We're not talking about a country that represents itself in a serious way on serious issues, which are supposed to be, not exclusively, but which are supposed to be the dominant issues for the United Nations Security Council.

00:08:54.080 So pontificating on gender equality and diversity and all of that stuff.

00:08:58.860 And as we saw with Justin Trudeau last week, not wanting to deal with the real security threats like China or, as we'll explore later on in this show, Iran, how are you to be taken seriously?

00:09:08.820 So the $8.6 million really adds insult to injury here that this is what Trudeau thought was going to be Canada's future, but it ended up being just a waste of time, a waste of four years and more debt for Canadians.

00:09:23.040 We've got to take a quick break here when we return more of The Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:09:29.680 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:09:33.400 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:09:35.860 I want to talk in this segment about a few related stories from the last week that aren't even really newsworthy at this point.

00:09:44.160 I mean, they're newer innovations in what are basically becoming the norms that we deal with on a day-to-day basis.

00:09:51.000 This historic figure being cancelled, this monument being defaced, all under the auspices of trying to make people who lived in the 1900s, the 1800s, the 1700s, the, I don't know, the 4000 BCs or whatever,

00:10:04.680 make them all live up to the standards that we set out for how you're supposed to be in 2021.

00:10:10.740 And John A. MacDonald, I've talked about John A. MacDonald's legacy numerous times on the show.

00:10:15.200 Here's a guy who was Canada's founder. Without him, there would be no Canada.

00:10:20.780 This is something that a lot of people who don't understand the country's history do not realize,

00:10:25.440 that John A. MacDonald staked a lot of political capital on the idea of a Canadian confederation

00:10:30.800 and had to continue to do so to his own personal detriment to hold confederation together.

00:10:37.460 And because we are now in this moment, this moment in time where we keep re-evaluating and reassessing,

00:10:44.640 even when no one of substance is really talking about these issues, we now have to continue this defense.

00:10:51.220 Jason Kenney, the Premier of Alberta, was asked at a press conference this week what he thinks of statues of John A. MacDonald.

00:10:59.060 And to his credit, he gave a very detailed answer about the importance of standing up for Canadian history.

00:11:05.100 I'm not going to play the whole seven minutes. If you want to see that, if you're a glutton for punishment

00:11:09.160 and you like watching seven minutes of political press conferences, you can head on over to my Twitter page.

00:11:14.720 I posted it there. But I'll play a snippet here because he actually takes a stand against cancel culture 0.99

00:11:20.520 and is correct to point out that that's what it is that's driving this assault on John A. MacDonald.

00:11:27.160 If we want to get into cancelling every figure in our history who took positions on issues at the time

00:11:38.740 that we now judge harshly and rightly in historical retrospective, but if that's the new standard,

00:11:45.040 then I think almost the entire founding leadership of our country gets cancelled.

00:11:49.560 Tommy Douglas, who recommended the use of eugenics to sterilize the weak, as he said,

00:11:57.780 to if we talk about members of the famous five heroes of Canadian feminism

00:12:04.780 and the fight for equality for women, some of them were advocates of eugenics

00:12:10.580 that we would now regard as deplorable.

00:12:13.920 So if we go full force into cancel culture, then we're cancelling most, if not all, of our history. 0.96

00:12:22.720 Instead, I think we should learn from our history.

00:12:24.580 We should learn from our achievements, but also our failures.

00:12:28.820 So very well said, Premier Kenny.

00:12:30.720 And by sharing that, I got a whole bunch of backlash from people, activists,

00:12:34.200 that were saying that, you know, this is insensitive to the bodies that were just found

00:12:38.460 at that large grave site at the Kamloops Residential School,

00:12:42.260 as though these two things are related.

00:12:44.320 A point that bears repeating here is that the absence of perfection from historic figures

00:12:51.180 does not equate to the presence of evil.

00:12:54.640 And a lot of the folks who are trying to drive these cancel campaigns of historic figures

00:12:59.420 are actually trying to cancel history itself,

00:13:02.180 a phenomenon in most cases they don't seem to understand.

00:13:05.880 We can accept the darkness and dark chapters of Canada's history

00:13:10.040 while also looking at the broader story that is Canada.

00:13:15.140 And John A. Macdonald, in no uncertain terms, cannot be classified as a villain

00:13:20.140 when you have an objective assessment of Canada's history.

00:13:23.460 But that doesn't matter.

00:13:24.540 Like I said, no one's interested in facts.

00:13:26.340 Ryerson University, named after Egerton Ryerson, is going through this.

00:13:30.320 The journalism school's publications are being renamed ahead of the next school year,

00:13:34.940 dropping any reference to the school name itself.

00:13:39.240 There are currently two publications, the Ryerson Review of Journalism and the Ryersonian Newspaper.

00:13:44.980 And because they say that Egerton Ryerson was indisputably one of the architects

00:13:49.280 of the residential school system, they're going to change these names.

00:13:53.420 Now, if you really want to make a stand, why don't you resign from Ryerson?

00:13:56.520 Why don't you rip up your degree with Ryerson on it?

00:13:59.480 Why don't you really go all the way if you're insistent on destroying the legacy,

00:14:05.400 which is now the school's legacy as much as it's a part of the country's legacy?

00:14:10.000 Now, look, I'm a firm believer in the fact that people can make their own decisions

00:14:13.420 to associate with whomever they want.

00:14:15.340 The Egerton Ryerson statue was defaced just a day prior to the news outlets

00:14:21.080 or media organizations at Ryerson making that call.

00:14:23.780 I do not support the vandalism that takes place there.

00:14:27.580 Edmonton's, the Edmonton Eskimo.

00:14:29.340 Oh, no, sorry.

00:14:29.960 You can't say that.

00:14:31.260 Okay, let's try this again.

00:14:33.160 The Edmonton Elks, as they're now known,

00:14:35.900 they just announced the new name for the team

00:14:37.520 a year after announcing they would change the name of the formerly Eskimos,

00:14:43.220 the artists formerly known as Eskimos.

00:14:45.520 And it was odd.

00:14:46.520 This change happened like a lot of other changes

00:14:48.920 in the wake of the George Floyd protests,

00:14:51.160 as though there's a direct connection between this very brutal takedown

00:14:56.180 by police in Minnesota and a longstanding CFL team in Canada.

00:15:01.820 But the problem is that this comes in waves.

00:15:03.880 And I mentioned on the show earlier this week

00:15:05.740 that the activist mob doesn't really care about the individual circumstances

00:15:09.700 that they decide to pipe up over.

00:15:11.960 They see this all as one big prolonged war

00:15:14.920 and any individual battle, no matter how insignificant it may be to them,

00:15:19.380 they will take up.

00:15:21.360 But cumulatively, these things are significant

00:15:24.920 because at the end of it, you have,

00:15:26.920 well, the Ryerson newspapers have changed their name.

00:15:28.940 This is going to apply pressure to every other school newspaper

00:15:31.720 that might have a historic figure in the name to change that and so on. 0.80

00:15:35.620 And eventually there's not going to be all that much left

00:15:38.640 because one thing that the left does very well

00:15:40.960 is move right on to the next fight without losing any momentum.

00:15:45.440 So that's why it's so important to stand up for John A. MacDonald,

00:15:48.300 to stand up for the country's history

00:15:49.920 because it's not just about drawing the line around a few.

00:15:52.860 The word they use is problematic figures.

00:15:56.480 It is genuinely about anyone who had the misfortune

00:15:59.780 of living in a time prior to now.

00:16:01.980 That is no longer compatible with 2021.

00:16:06.060 We've got to take a break.

00:16:07.120 When we come back,

00:16:08.140 more of The Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:16:10.340 Stay with me.

00:16:10.980 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:16:19.940 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:16:22.240 A couple of moments ago,

00:16:23.280 we spoke about Canada's failed bid for a seat

00:16:26.380 at the United Nations Security Council.

00:16:29.320 One of the reasons this is such an interesting discussion

00:16:32.200 is because Canada wants to pretend it is the grand poobah of human rights

00:16:37.260 and talk about all of this soft power it wants to project and all of that jazz.

00:16:41.800 But when it comes to the real things that are happening in the world

00:16:44.520 and the real nemeses of freedom,

00:16:46.900 Canada is nowhere to be found.

00:16:49.340 Canada will not say an unkind word about China.

00:16:52.400 And Canada has, by and large,

00:16:54.000 turned a blind eye to what's happening in Iran.

00:16:56.820 Where I want to turn for this segment

00:16:58.880 because coming up on June 18th,

00:17:01.160 Iran is having a presidential election.

00:17:04.000 And I say election with a little bit of reticence

00:17:06.600 because all of the candidates running for the election

00:17:09.180 have been pre-selected by a council

00:17:11.420 which is selected by Iran's Ayatollah,

00:17:14.640 by the regime.

00:17:15.800 So it really isn't an election at all

00:17:17.760 because you can't vote against the regime,

00:17:20.440 which is handpicking who can stand for election

00:17:22.600 and thus what the election's result is going to be.

00:17:26.420 There have been a number of protests of this,

00:17:29.360 including a boycott campaign

00:17:31.060 from Iranian dissidents and a resistance group,

00:17:33.840 the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

00:17:36.420 Joining me from the NCRI's Foreign Affairs Committee

00:17:39.240 is Ali Safavi.

00:17:40.940 Ali, good to talk to you again.

00:17:42.180 Thanks for coming on today.

00:17:43.700 Of course.

00:17:44.380 Thank you very much, Andrew,

00:17:45.560 for having me on the show again

00:17:46.900 and looking forward to a great conversation.

00:17:49.660 Now, this idea to people who value democracy

00:17:53.200 of candidates being pre-selected

00:17:56.120 by basically the status quo by the regime

00:17:59.820 is quite incompatible with democracy.

00:18:03.800 And this is not just a theoretical value

00:18:06.760 that they have there.

00:18:07.800 They've disqualified dozens of candidates,

00:18:10.480 as I understand it.

00:18:12.940 Indeed.

00:18:13.800 In fact, in the past 40 years,

00:18:16.580 the electoral process in Iran

00:18:20.380 has never been about the Iranian people

00:18:23.460 expressing their opinion freely and fairly.

00:18:27.260 In one word, it has been a travesty,

00:18:30.140 which is neither fair nor free.

00:18:34.360 And as you mentioned,

00:18:36.440 the candidates must be vetted.

00:18:39.260 Interestingly, the body that does the vetting

00:18:42.220 is a 12-member body called the Guardian Council,

00:18:46.960 six of whose members are appointed directly

00:18:50.080 by the regime's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

00:18:53.680 And the other six are appointed

00:18:56.020 by the judiciary chief,

00:18:57.660 who is himself appointed by Ali Khamenei.

00:19:01.300 So, in effect, he is appointed all 12 members.

00:19:05.960 And indeed, for anybody to pass,

00:19:09.800 if you will, reality check test

00:19:13.960 for the Guardian Council,

00:19:15.440 they must prove their heartfelt allegiance

00:19:18.460 and practical obedience

00:19:21.540 to the supreme leader

00:19:23.740 and the principle of absolute clerical rule.

00:19:27.060 This year, there were 592 candidates

00:19:29.880 and the Guardian Council

00:19:31.840 eliminated all but seven.

00:19:35.980 But interestingly,

00:19:39.060 some of the people who were disqualified

00:19:41.600 were not just members of the rival faction,

00:19:44.900 people who identify with Rouhani,

00:19:47.800 mistakenly dubbed by Westerners as moderates,

00:19:52.060 but some of the closest allies of Khamenei himself,

00:19:55.920 members of his inner circle,

00:19:57.780 like Ali Larijani,

00:19:59.700 who was a parliament speaker for 12 years.

00:20:02.260 He was the head of the state radio and television.

00:20:04.620 He is an IRGC Brigadier General.

00:20:08.120 He was the secretary

00:20:08.940 for the Supreme National Security Council.

00:20:11.940 And, of course, he was also,

00:20:14.620 he is actually the head of the headquarters

00:20:17.060 that is negotiating the 25-year strategic pact with China.

00:20:23.460 So, clearly, I think the elimination of Larijani

00:20:26.820 points, if anything,

00:20:29.120 to the kind of, if you will, paranoia and anxiety

00:20:33.460 that Khamenei feels

00:20:35.820 about the prospects of another uprising

00:20:38.520 like the ones we saw

00:20:39.860 in December 2017,

00:20:44.400 January 2018,

00:20:45.660 and November 2019,

00:20:47.400 which basically shook the regime to its core.

00:20:50.240 And so, he has felt that this time around,

00:20:53.900 he cannot allow any divergence whatsoever

00:20:57.420 from the policies that he has laid down

00:21:01.340 and his red lines.

00:21:02.740 When we look at these seven candidates,

00:21:05.200 you would know the players of Iranian politics

00:21:07.940 better than I do,

00:21:08.800 but I have read from various sources

00:21:10.400 that of the seven,

00:21:12.020 most are hardliners,

00:21:13.240 but there are two candidates

00:21:14.580 that are classified a bit more as reformers

00:21:18.080 and a bit more moderate.

00:21:19.600 One of the names that was put forward

00:21:22.040 in a piece I read by one outlet

00:21:23.660 had said that it was a lesser-known candidate,

00:21:26.380 but Abdul Nasser Hamati

00:21:27.960 is one that is a bit more of a moderate.

00:21:30.340 So, they haven't just kept

00:21:32.160 entirely pro-regime candidates, correct?

00:21:36.840 Well, I think calling Hamati a moderate, 0.98

00:21:40.680 I think, is too far-fetched.

00:21:43.500 We call that Hamati 1.00

00:21:44.540 was the governor of the central bank,

00:21:47.060 and obviously he,

00:21:49.180 like other cronies of Rouhani,

00:21:51.340 have been in all of the looting and plundered.

00:21:55.120 That said,

00:21:56.360 he was declared as qualified to run

00:21:59.740 because he has a snowball's chance in hell

00:22:02.940 to come out of the ballot box.

00:22:05.300 So is that,

00:22:06.440 sorry to interrupt there,

00:22:07.340 but is this basically

00:22:08.260 just so that the Guardian Council can say

00:22:11.360 they didn't rig the entire thing,

00:22:13.460 just to put, you know,

00:22:14.260 one or two people

00:22:15.260 that don't have a chance

00:22:16.120 that are not regime loyalists?

00:22:19.540 Well, he is a regime loyalist

00:22:21.500 because remember that

00:22:22.800 everyone within this regime

00:22:25.320 over the past 40 years,

00:22:27.140 whether some people want to call them moderates

00:22:29.960 or want to call them hardliners,

00:22:32.420 when it comes to strategic policies

00:22:34.800 of this regime,

00:22:35.700 namely,

00:22:37.100 domestic suppression,

00:22:39.000 exports of terrorism,

00:22:40.880 the ballistic missile program,

00:22:43.740 the nuclear weapons program,

00:22:46.780 meddling in the internal affairs

00:22:48.660 of regional countries,

00:22:50.360 they are all on board.

00:22:51.960 If there is any difference

00:22:53.520 is in terms of some of the tactics,

00:22:56.280 but when it comes to people like Hemmati,

00:22:59.780 remember the elections in Iran,

00:23:03.160 if you want to call them elections,

00:23:04.700 are determined

00:23:05.640 not but what comes out of the ballot box,

00:23:09.080 but it is the result

00:23:10.980 of the internal balance of power.

00:23:13.940 And so as such,

00:23:15.440 when you have somebody like Ibrahim Raisi,

00:23:18.600 who is currently the judiciary chief.

00:23:21.140 And he's the favorite,

00:23:22.480 the correct,

00:23:23.120 the most likely winner.

00:23:25.320 He's the preferred candidate

00:23:26.960 and Larry Johnny was eliminated

00:23:30.040 to ensure that Raisi

00:23:32.760 will come out of the ballot box.

00:23:34.440 And remember that this man 0.99

00:23:36.900 is a mass murderer par excellence. 0.92

00:23:39.780 Since he was 19, 0.97

00:23:41.700 he became the prosecutor

00:23:43.020 in the province of Hamadan,

00:23:46.100 western Iran.

00:23:46.820 He has no formal academic education.

00:23:50.660 He has no formal,

00:23:51.600 even religious education.

00:23:54.780 And for 41 years,

00:23:56.720 all that he has done

00:23:58.020 has been issue death sentences.

00:24:00.480 I spoke to a former political prisoner,

00:24:04.980 a woman who spent six years

00:24:07.500 in Hamadan prison.

00:24:09.360 And she told me that Raisi

00:24:11.340 was her torturer

00:24:13.300 and she was nine months pregnant.

00:24:15.180 And she ran by me 0.98

00:24:16.860 like dozens of names

00:24:18.540 of her cellmates

00:24:19.560 that Raisi sent to the gallows.

00:24:22.160 And also,

00:24:23.480 worse than that,

00:24:25.000 when Khomeini issued a fatwa

00:24:27.300 to liquidate all political dissidents,

00:24:30.980 particularly the members

00:24:32.760 of the Mujahideen al-Khalgi MEK

00:24:34.580 in 1988,

00:24:36.780 Raisi was the key member

00:24:38.380 of a death commission

00:24:39.420 that sent 30,000 political prisoners

00:24:42.940 who were already serving time.

00:24:44.820 None had been sentenced to death.

00:24:47.040 They pulled them before kangaroo courts

00:24:49.220 and they asked him a question.

00:24:51.540 What is your affiliation?

00:24:52.720 And if they said MEK, 0.99

00:24:55.080 they would be sent to hang. 0.98

00:24:57.360 And Raisi oversaw that 0.75

00:24:59.180 quite diligently,

00:25:01.120 24 hours a day,

00:25:02.740 such that in a matter of

00:25:03.860 two, three months,

00:25:05.740 they wiped out

00:25:06.560 all dissidents

00:25:07.560 within the prisons of Iran.

00:25:08.980 So he is known in Iran,

00:25:10.220 by the way,

00:25:11.040 as the henchman of 1988.

00:25:16.120 And there's a hashtag

00:25:16.980 that has gone viral

00:25:19.400 by Iranians

00:25:21.360 both inside Iran

00:25:22.480 and outside of Iran.

00:25:23.740 So clearly,

00:25:24.980 I want to say that

00:25:26.280 this is not really an election.

00:25:29.340 And by bringing Raisi

00:25:32.520 out of the ballot box,

00:25:34.940 in some respects,

00:25:36.220 Khamenei has shown

00:25:37.480 what the way he wants

00:25:39.200 to move forward

00:25:39.980 when it comes to domestic issues

00:25:41.600 and, of course,

00:25:43.340 with regards to regional issues

00:25:45.060 and international issues.

00:25:46.260 Well, let's talk about those

00:25:47.420 because I know internally,

00:25:48.940 domestically,

00:25:49.640 the Ayatollah needs to

00:25:50.960 consolidate and maintain power.

00:25:53.320 I know you and I

00:25:53.880 have spoken in the past

00:25:54.860 about how some of that power

00:25:56.620 may be weakening.

00:25:58.300 But globally,

00:25:59.460 Iran cannot put forward 1.00

00:26:01.460 the Ayatollah as its face.

00:26:03.840 And, you know,

00:26:04.280 the Iranian regime right now

00:26:05.840 wants the Iran deal 0.96

00:26:07.440 with the United States restored.

00:26:09.140 They want more credibility

00:26:10.520 on the foreign stage.

00:26:11.940 They want sanctions lifted.

00:26:13.500 All of these factors

00:26:14.620 are not possible

00:26:15.580 if they have someone

00:26:16.520 who is seen

00:26:17.320 as the Ayatollah's puppet. 0.65

00:26:19.240 So how does this

00:26:20.140 kind of manifest?

00:26:21.340 How do they brand

00:26:22.300 the next president

00:26:23.620 to the world

00:26:24.380 to start looking like

00:26:25.660 they are a bit more

00:26:26.940 reform-minded,

00:26:27.800 even if they aren't?

00:26:30.380 Well, for the regime,

00:26:32.080 I must say,

00:26:32.780 in the past 42 years,

00:26:34.920 the number one priority,

00:26:37.320 the number one concern

00:26:38.660 has been the domestic scene.

00:26:41.300 And they have said this

00:26:43.480 many, many times,

00:26:44.640 that the existential threat

00:26:46.920 to the survival

00:26:48.400 of this decadent

00:26:49.500 and medieval regime

00:26:50.720 comes not from

00:26:52.600 the United States

00:26:53.620 nor from any other country abroad,

00:26:57.180 but it's domestic.

00:26:59.640 Why?

00:27:00.420 Because the Mollers, 1.00

00:27:01.980 first of all,

00:27:02.500 they usurp the leadership

00:27:03.580 of a popular revolution.

00:27:04.780 Second,

00:27:07.320 all that they have done

00:27:08.640 in the past 42 years

00:27:09.820 is to murder, 0.84

00:27:11.700 to imprison, 0.52

00:27:12.840 to torture,

00:27:14.280 to loot,

00:27:15.320 to plunder,

00:27:16.580 to incite violence

00:27:18.220 across Iran's borders,

00:27:20.580 and to blackmail

00:27:22.160 and bully

00:27:22.860 the international community.

00:27:25.400 So as such,

00:27:26.820 the Iranian population

00:27:28.060 is very much enraged,

00:27:31.000 and at no time

00:27:32.360 in the history

00:27:33.120 of the regime

00:27:34.080 has the establishment,

00:27:37.360 Khamenei,

00:27:38.400 been so weak

00:27:39.320 and vulnerable.

00:27:40.900 Recall that I mentioned

00:27:42.060 the major nationwide protests

00:27:44.140 in 2017,

00:27:45.920 2018,

00:27:46.820 2019,

00:27:47.660 and 2020.

00:27:49.240 And this is where

00:27:50.060 you had the largely

00:27:51.500 unarmed civilians

00:27:53.500 braving killings

00:27:57.700 in the streets

00:27:58.300 and arrests

00:27:58.900 and torture

00:27:59.460 and coming in droves

00:28:01.280 into the streets

00:28:02.060 in November.

00:28:03.720 They basically

00:28:04.340 were active

00:28:05.540 in 200 cities

00:28:06.660 across Iran

00:28:07.440 and the mullahs

00:28:09.420 felt that they

00:28:10.420 might be overthrown.

00:28:11.420 That is why Khamenei 0.67

00:28:12.360 ordered his henchmen

00:28:13.300 to open fire

00:28:14.800 and they proceeded 0.78

00:28:15.680 to kill 1,500 protesters,

00:28:18.360 mostly young people. 0.95

00:28:19.460 So for Khamenei,

00:28:21.500 holding on to his hegemony

00:28:23.300 takes precedence

00:28:24.720 over everything else.

00:28:26.360 Naturally,

00:28:27.240 he milked

00:28:28.260 the Western countries

00:28:29.300 by this so-called

00:28:30.560 moderate hardliner narrative

00:28:33.280 and the Westerners,

00:28:35.660 some bothered wholesale,

00:28:37.380 some deliberately

00:28:38.500 looking for some

00:28:40.380 petty economic interest,

00:28:42.840 promoted that.

00:28:43.900 But now Khamenei

00:28:45.260 has realized

00:28:46.080 that this game

00:28:47.480 will no longer work.

00:28:50.000 He cannot tolerate

00:28:51.400 any schism,

00:28:53.020 any fissures

00:28:54.960 at the top

00:28:56.040 and that is why

00:28:57.620 he has decided

00:28:58.260 to do this

00:28:59.000 basically

00:28:59.980 in the futile

00:29:01.860 hope and expectation

00:29:03.360 that he can

00:29:04.740 stem

00:29:05.780 the coming tsunami

00:29:07.700 which is basically

00:29:09.360 simmering

00:29:10.440 beneath the ashes

00:29:11.840 in Iran

00:29:12.440 and it will come

00:29:13.460 and when it comes

00:29:14.440 it is going to be

00:29:15.860 far more ferocious,

00:29:17.820 far more widespread

00:29:19.220 than anything

00:29:20.060 that we've seen before

00:29:21.020 and you can see that

00:29:22.200 in lots of videos,

00:29:24.600 video clips

00:29:25.220 that are coming out

00:29:26.300 of Iran now.

00:29:27.760 You talked about the MEK

00:29:29.060 and what it does

00:29:29.900 well inside Iran,

00:29:31.560 the resistance units

00:29:32.660 that are affiliated

00:29:33.980 with the MEK

00:29:34.860 have been active

00:29:36.000 in virtually every Iranian city

00:29:38.100 calling for the boycott

00:29:39.700 of the elections

00:29:40.380 and there are lots of videos

00:29:41.820 that have come out

00:29:42.740 that people say

00:29:44.260 on camera

00:29:45.040 that my vote

00:29:46.580 is overthrow,

00:29:48.260 my vote

00:29:48.860 is regime change.

00:29:50.340 There was a hashtag

00:29:51.060 this weekend

00:29:52.480 that went viral

00:29:54.020 became a trend

00:29:55.060 200,000 or more

00:29:57.600 tweets

00:29:58.300 saying boycott

00:29:59.780 Iran-Sham election

00:30:01.000 and so in this context

00:30:02.960 is a long answer

00:30:04.920 to a question

00:30:05.720 for Khamenei

00:30:07.120 the number one priority

00:30:08.760 is the domestic scene

00:30:10.100 is the Iranian street

00:30:11.700 and what he needs to do

00:30:13.560 to prevent another outbreak

00:30:16.080 of an uprising

00:30:17.540 especially since

00:30:18.780 even people

00:30:20.240 within his own ranks

00:30:21.320 within his repressive forces

00:30:22.820 have defected,

00:30:24.660 they are demoralized

00:30:25.720 and you are very fearful

00:30:27.400 of their future

00:30:29.160 and they're thinking

00:30:29.860 that the day of reckoning

00:30:30.860 is coming fast

00:30:31.820 and that is why

00:30:33.300 for him now

00:30:34.320 his international standing

00:30:36.580 is not at all

00:30:38.780 a priority.

00:30:40.360 That boycott movement

00:30:41.560 you speak to though

00:30:42.800 I think is significant

00:30:44.000 to observers

00:30:45.220 like myself

00:30:46.180 but in a practical

00:30:47.880 tangible sense

00:30:49.140 it reaffirms

00:30:50.500 the status quo

00:30:51.240 because the Ayatollah's

00:30:52.300 preferred candidate

00:30:53.080 is re-elected

00:30:54.400 if voter turnout

00:30:55.360 is low.

00:30:56.340 Does it make a statement

00:30:58.120 that is significant

00:30:59.340 if voter turnout

00:31:00.880 is low

00:31:01.520 if the outcome

00:31:02.440 is the Ayatollah's

00:31:03.960 chosen president?

00:31:04.860 I think that the boycott

00:31:09.120 will serve several

00:31:10.980 if you will

00:31:11.740 send several signals

00:31:13.340 one

00:31:14.220 and this is I think

00:31:15.820 the most important one

00:31:17.260 is to the international community

00:31:19.620 that this regime

00:31:21.560 is illegitimate.

00:31:22.600 look

00:31:23.600 when Bashar al-Assad

00:31:25.760 they had

00:31:27.080 so-called elections

00:31:28.240 in Syria

00:31:28.880 and Assad won

00:31:30.860 with 95%

00:31:31.940 of the vote

00:31:32.840 American Secretary of State

00:31:36.700 and I think

00:31:38.360 the French

00:31:39.160 and the Germans 0.51

00:31:39.940 they issued

00:31:40.840 a joint statement

00:31:41.800 rejecting that election

00:31:43.420 as illegitimate.

00:31:45.280 I think that

00:31:46.340 the boycott

00:31:47.020 of the elections

00:31:47.900 obviously

00:31:49.340 will send a signal

00:31:50.540 that they should do

00:31:51.740 the same

00:31:52.360 vis-à-vis Iran.

00:31:54.220 Secondly

00:31:54.760 it basically

00:31:56.960 removes

00:31:59.000 any justification

00:32:00.600 whatsoever

00:32:01.520 to engage

00:32:03.380 this regime

00:32:04.040 to interact

00:32:05.000 with this regime

00:32:05.820 and to offer

00:32:06.980 concessions

00:32:07.720 whether political

00:32:08.380 or economic

00:32:09.040 concessions.

00:32:09.880 How can you deal

00:32:11.180 with a regime

00:32:12.480 whose president

00:32:13.780 has had a hand

00:32:17.160 in the killing

00:32:17.960 of tens of thousands

00:32:19.420 of political presidents?

00:32:20.540 How can you justify that?

00:32:23.400 Are you going to shake 0.91

00:32:24.340 his bloody hands?

00:32:26.660 And so in that sense

00:32:27.960 I think

00:32:28.780 that the international community

00:32:30.120 has to look at itself

00:32:31.840 in the mirror

00:32:32.360 and see what they want to do

00:32:33.600 and how they want to proceed

00:32:34.560 because this regime

00:32:36.140 it has never had

00:32:37.360 any legitimacy

00:32:37.980 but it tried

00:32:39.800 to pose itself

00:32:41.040 as a legitimate one

00:32:42.820 by playing

00:32:43.900 this moderate

00:32:44.600 versus hardliner game

00:32:46.200 but now

00:32:47.080 that game is over.

00:32:49.000 Remember

00:32:49.260 in 2017

00:32:50.460 Iranians 0.58

00:32:52.040 in the millions

00:32:52.820 were chanting

00:32:53.540 hardliner

00:32:54.600 reformer

00:32:55.360 the game

00:32:55.720 is not over.

00:32:57.420 Obviously

00:32:57.840 the West

00:32:58.340 chose to ignore

00:32:59.140 that rallying cry

00:33:00.800 but now

00:33:01.620 with Raisi

00:33:03.140 becoming president

00:33:04.060 it's evident

00:33:05.100 to everybody.

00:33:06.500 The boycott

00:33:07.500 of the election

00:33:08.120 will send

00:33:08.720 a definitive message

00:33:09.640 to all bodies

00:33:10.640 concerned

00:33:11.160 and all parties

00:33:12.120 concerned

00:33:12.640 that it is time

00:33:13.920 to shift

00:33:14.500 the policy

00:33:15.180 it is time

00:33:16.140 to stop

00:33:18.160 ignoring

00:33:19.220 and closing

00:33:19.980 eyes

00:33:20.780 to the treacherous

00:33:22.760 conduct of this regime

00:33:23.940 both within Iran

00:33:25.020 and of course

00:33:25.840 beyond its borders.

00:33:27.680 Thanks very much

00:33:28.380 and before I let you go Ali

00:33:29.900 I should ask you

00:33:30.720 about the big event

00:33:32.200 that the NCRI

00:33:33.600 has coming up

00:33:34.440 in just a few weeks time.

00:33:36.360 July

00:33:36.700 from July 10 to 12

00:33:38.320 there will be

00:33:39.380 a major

00:33:40.300 international gathering

00:33:41.620 it is called

00:33:42.460 Free Iran World Summit 2021

00:33:45.320 with the theme being

00:33:47.540 the democratic alternative

00:33:49.300 on the march to victory

00:33:50.720 which will bring together

00:33:52.540 tens of thousands

00:33:53.740 of Iranians

00:33:54.620 and others

00:33:55.120 from all over the world

00:33:56.980 with some of the most

00:33:58.660 distinguished dignitaries

00:34:00.040 lawmakers

00:34:00.640 dignitaries from Canada

00:34:03.120 from the US

00:34:04.040 from Europe

00:34:04.780 basically for them

00:34:06.720 to echo the call

00:34:07.920 on the international community

00:34:09.720 that one

00:34:10.340 they stand with

00:34:11.500 Iranian people

00:34:12.180 in the struggle of freedom

00:34:13.160 and two

00:34:13.800 that the international community

00:34:15.780 must change

00:34:16.980 its approach to Iran

00:34:17.980 and stop appeasing

00:34:19.700 the murderous regime

00:34:21.420 that rules Iran today.

00:34:22.500 Well I covered that

00:34:23.360 conference last year

00:34:24.440 and look forward

00:34:25.040 to doing it again

00:34:26.120 this year.

00:34:26.620 Ali thank you very much

00:34:27.440 for your time.

00:34:29.200 Thank you for your time.

00:34:30.520 Thank you very much Andrew.

00:34:32.000 That was Ali Safavi

00:34:33.760 and you know

00:34:34.180 it's interesting

00:34:34.720 I did cover that

00:34:35.700 conference last year

00:34:36.700 and the number of Canadians

00:34:38.600 mostly conservative

00:34:40.100 but it wasn't just conservative

00:34:41.520 Judy Scrooge

00:34:42.340 the liberal was there

00:34:43.300 and from the US

00:34:44.480 Democrats

00:34:45.020 Republicans

00:34:45.560 a lot of people

00:34:46.280 rallying behind that idea

00:34:47.740 that the Iranian regime

00:34:49.120 has got to go

00:34:49.880 yet it's amazing

00:34:50.900 to see even with that

00:34:52.420 cross-partisan support

00:34:53.700 how much appeasement

00:34:55.160 there is of that regime

00:34:56.400 at the same time

00:34:57.140 so I appreciate the chance

00:34:58.540 to speak with Ali.

00:34:59.940 That does it for me

00:35:00.700 for today

00:35:01.200 we'll be back tomorrow

00:35:02.200 with a special edition

00:35:03.900 of the Andrew Lawton Show

00:35:05.620 trying out a little bit

00:35:06.520 of a new format

00:35:07.200 for our Friday shows

00:35:08.920 that you'll get a sense

00:35:09.680 of tomorrow

00:35:10.220 so you'll have to tune

00:35:11.160 into that

00:35:11.660 in the meantime

00:35:12.500 my thanks to you all

00:35:13.640 from True North

00:35:14.520 this is the Andrew Lawton Show

00:35:15.820 thank you

00:35:16.300 God bless

00:35:16.860 and good day Canada.

00:35:17.800 thanks for listening

00:35:18.740 to the Andrew Lawton Show

00:35:19.940 support the program

00:35:21.000 by donating to True North

00:35:22.240 at www.tnc.news

00:35:25.420 I stimulate the real content

00:35:26.160 to improve our Food

00:35:27.880 afterwards

00:35:28.900 we'll have to tune

00:35:30.980 again

00:35:31.120 We'll be back down

00:35:31.880 we'll be back

00:35:32.840 along

00:35:33.180 we'll be back

00:35:33.460 by

00:35:34.940 we'll be back

00:35:35.740 at the Times

00:35:36.360 because we'll be back

00:35:37.140 with our host

00:35:37.760 internacional

00:35:38.740 of course

00:35:39.320 at the reuse

00:35:40.220 that we can

00:35:41.040 use

00:35:41.920 Holly

00:35:42.340 the

00:35:42.940 site

00:35:43.060 of course

00:35:44.120 we'll be back

00:35:44.720 gibi 1.00

00:35:45.040 thatließen

00:35:46.100 all

00:35:46.400 our

00:35:47.080 our

00:35:48.980 wow

00:35:49.560 we'll be

00:35:50.060 on

00:35:50.840 all

00:35:52.160 from

00:35:53.000 the

00:35:53.260 our

Juno News - June 03, 2021

Canada’s $8.6 Million Misfire

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