Juno News - December 01, 2023


Canadian journalist warns US about erosion of free speech in Canada


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

187.12828

Word Count

1,290

Sentence Count

88

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.080 I'd like all of you to think of me as a time traveler from the not too distant future coming
00:00:04.640 back to the present to offer you a glimpse of what could lie ahead for America.
00:00:09.180 I live in a time in which, in the name of fairness, you can't share the stories you
00:00:12.840 write for my news publication on social media.
00:00:15.640 I live in a time in which, in the name of the common good, you can be kicked out of
00:00:18.820 your bank and online payment system simply for expressing the wrong political views.
00:00:23.640 I live in a time in which, in the name of social justice, you can commit a serious crime
00:00:27.480 but get a more lenient sentence if you happen to be the right skin color.
00:00:31.440 I live in a time in which, in the name of safety, you can be arrested for exercising your right
00:00:35.400 to peaceful protest, if you happen to be protesting the wrong thing.
00:00:39.680 Of course, I'm not a real time traveler, I just live in Canada.
00:00:43.520 Americans, and perhaps those in this chamber, surely think Canadians are too nice or too
00:00:48.480 polite to embrace this sort of proto-authoritarianism.
00:00:52.400 But it's more accurate to say that our niceness made us susceptible to the new authoritarianism
00:00:57.240 undermining the foundations of our liberal democracy.
00:01:00.560 If it sounds like I'm overstating things, allow me to share three stories that illustrate
00:01:04.600 this creeping authoritarianism.
00:01:06.560 First, a few months ago, I reported a story from my publication, The Free Press, about a
00:01:11.320 high school principal in Toronto who had been humiliated in front of his colleagues by a
00:01:15.800 DEI consultant.
00:01:17.020 The principal's crime, besides being white and male, was that he objected to the consultant's
00:01:22.180 assertion that Canada is a less just society than America.
00:01:25.900 The humiliation he experienced ultimately led him to commit suicide.
00:01:30.160 I wanted to share that story on Facebook.
00:01:32.460 When I tried to, I was barred from posting it.
00:01:34.720 I received a message that stated, in response to Canadian government legislation, news content
00:01:39.660 can't be shared.
00:01:40.980 I was confused.
00:01:42.260 Then I remembered the recently adopted Online News Act.
00:01:45.600 The law forces social media companies to pay online media companies to link to their content.
00:01:50.900 Facebook, instead of paying for that content, barred its users from posting it.
00:01:55.880 Government officials insist that this was only a matter of fairness, a way of making sure
00:01:59.500 that media companies are compensated for the news they report.
00:02:02.840 But really, this new law props up legacy media dinosaurs like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
00:02:08.160 Bell Media and other companies, which are subsidized by the federal government, and all of which can
00:02:13.280 be counted on to echo Justin Trudeau's world view and toe the party line.
00:02:17.960 Not being able to post was annoying, but it wasn't the end of the world for me.
00:02:21.020 I don't depend on Facebook for my income.
00:02:23.540 The same cannot be said of Christopher Curtis, which brings me to my second story.
00:02:28.460 Chris is a 38-year-old renegade journalist entrepreneur in Montreal who runs a digital newsletter
00:02:33.280 called The Rover.
00:02:34.720 He calls himself woke.
00:02:36.520 You might think that he's exactly the kind of journalist the Trudeau government would elevate.
00:02:40.180 On the political left, he publishes stories about the plight of the homeless and police brutality.
00:02:45.140 The problem is that, unlike government-funded news companies, independent media companies
00:02:49.080 are truly independent, which means they report stories that don't comport with whatever the
00:02:53.780 government wants them to report.
00:02:55.820 For example, in September 2020, the Rover reported a story on federal mistreatment of Mohawk Indians.
00:03:01.340 This month, it published a story about migrant workers who had been abused and trafficked
00:03:04.620 with the unwitting help of the federal government.
00:03:07.580 But under this new law, the Rover can't build its audience.
00:03:10.960 Unable to post content on Facebook or Instagram, the newsletter can't reach new subscribers.
00:03:16.460 It cannot grow its subscriber base.
00:03:18.820 This is a slow death, says Chris.
00:03:21.340 For now, he's unsure how he's going to support his partner and their three-year-old daughter.
00:03:24.980 He's thinking of going back into construction.
00:03:27.340 Which takes me to my third story.
00:03:29.380 Danny Bulford, now 41, used to be an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the equivalent
00:03:34.060 of the FBI.
00:03:35.060 For years, he was a sniper in the Prime Minister's protective detail.
00:03:39.360 Then in 2021, Danny quit because he didn't want to get his COVID vaccination.
00:03:43.680 In early 2022, truckers descended on Ottawa to protest new COVID vaccine requirements.
00:03:49.600 Danny joined them.
00:03:50.660 The government declared a state of emergency.
00:03:52.440 Danny, like many demonstrators, was arrested and later released without charge.
00:03:56.940 Then something chilling happened.
00:03:59.180 On February 17, 2022, Danny logs into his bank accounts, starting with his checking and
00:04:04.180 savings accounts at the CIBC.
00:04:06.580 But instead of seeing his balance, he had about $160,000 in there.
00:04:10.760 The only thing he saw was a dash.
00:04:12.740 Then he logs onto Scotiabank to see about an additional checking account.
00:04:16.300 Once again, there was no sign of any money in his account.
00:04:19.040 Finally, he logs into the Royal Bank of Canada, which handles his MasterCard account.
00:04:22.940 When he was told he had no access to any credit, Danny's wife was also unable to access any
00:04:28.020 of these accounts.
00:04:29.020 Suddenly, they were worrying about how to cover their next mortgage payments and how
00:04:32.480 to feed their three kids.
00:04:34.880 That is what it means to be debanked.
00:04:37.200 Debanking has been one of the Trudeau government's weapon of choice.
00:04:40.080 Since 2018, it has frozen the accounts of more than 800 Canadians who did things it didn't
00:04:44.620 approve of, including those of 280 who took part in the truckers' protest, which the government
00:04:49.840 regarded as illegitimate.
00:04:51.840 Soon after, Danny moved his money out of the big banks and into local credit unions, hoping
00:04:55.440 it would be safer there.
00:04:56.760 The worst part of this, Danny told me, is not believing in the country I spent my career
00:05:00.520 serving.
00:05:01.520 It's this feeling that we're being watched, torn apart, made to feel like the much-hated
00:05:05.460 other in our own country.
00:05:07.520 Canada was once a bastion of free expression, but now not so much.
00:05:11.120 Consider that at the same time the government and its corporate allies are curbing the free
00:05:14.240 expression of truckers and journalists, the government is defending the rights of pro-Palestinian
00:05:18.420 demonstrators, many of whom traffic in what can only be called anti-Semitism.
00:05:22.960 Think about that.
00:05:24.020 Vaccine skepticism, not okay.
00:05:27.100 Peddling medieval blood libel legends about Jews, okay.
00:05:30.100 I'm all for protecting free speech.
00:05:31.700 I'm from the free press.
00:05:33.700 I just want that protection applied fairly.
00:05:35.700 I also want to be clear.
00:05:37.700 These are just a handful of hundreds of stories I could have picked.
00:05:40.920 What is happening in Canada is a gradual suffocation of free expression.
00:05:44.620 It is draped in a cloak of niceness, inclusivity, and justice.
00:05:48.580 But it is regressive, authoritarian, and illiberal.
00:05:52.120 I came here today, not simply to warn you about what lies ahead, but to plead with you
00:05:56.380 to do something about it.
00:05:58.180 Now is not the time to be polite.
00:06:00.200 Now is the time to defend, loudly, the liberties and rights that have given us the greatest freedoms
00:06:05.460 in human history.
00:06:07.140 Across the world right now, governments, in the name of the good, are considering or adopting
00:06:12.100 measures like we have in Canada.
00:06:13.960 Look at Dublin.
00:06:14.960 We're about to enact a draconian hate crime bill that poses a dire threat to free speech.
00:06:20.500 In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron has called for censoring online speech.
00:06:24.620 This is to say nothing of Russia, China, and Iran.
00:06:28.080 America is so exceptional, indispensable, really.
00:06:32.120 Please do not succumb to the same illiberalism, authoritarianism.
00:06:36.080 Please keep fighting for what you know is right.
00:06:39.500 Canada is watching.
00:06:40.500 The world is watching.
00:06:41.500 Thank you.
00:06:44.960 Canada is beating.