Juno News - February 23, 2026Canadian STRANDED in Puerto Vallarta SPEAKS OUT
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Summary
The violence continues across mexico as members of a notorious drug cartel attack police and civilian targets in retaliation for the killing of a drug lord on the weekend. Joining us is independent journalist in Puertorvallarta, Dan Dix.
Transcript
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well the violence continues across mexico as members of a notorious drug cartel attack police
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and civilian targets in retaliation for the killing of a drug lord on the weekend
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an estimated 26 000 canadians are in mexico some of them are trying to leave the country but can't
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the jalisco new generation cartel one of the most powerful and feared criminal organizations in
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mexico have unleashed a wave of attacks across 20 mexican states they have forged businesses and set
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up blockades all of this followed the government's killing of a notorious drug lord best known as
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el mencho who died in custody sunday shortly after being captured by mexican special forces
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joining us is independent journalist in puerto vallarta dan dix welcome dan hey guys thank you
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so much for having me it's greatly appreciated well we appreciate what you're doing there
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terrific work can you tell us what the mood is right now uh things are relatively more calm than they
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were yesterday certainly uh it was very intense yesterday uh the moment i stepped foot outside
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i noticed the smoke billowing all over the place um cars set on fire left right and center buses
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motorcycles um they had set a costco on fire there was a uh an oxo it's like their convenience store
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which was on fire grocery stores were on fire a gas station was on fire it was just it it was
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absolutely insane around here um and uh logistics were incredibly difficult to get around roads were
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closed uh cartel were apparently going around with uh backhoes digging up the roads just making it
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nearly impossible to uh to get around the scene has changed now things are a little bit more calm
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i believe they are starting to open up the roads uh allowing cars like taxis and ubers to uh start to
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travel again airports are starting to come back around of course yesterday guadalajara was shut down
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and attacked uh the puerto vallarta airport was having a lot of major issues um but things are
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slowly but surely starting to get back on track here i'm at a hotel where the the lineup is going
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out the door hundreds of people lined up trying to rebook because all of our flights have been
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canceled including mine and i still have no word yet from uh from my my airline on when i may be able
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to return home so it's anyone's guess at this point when this thing is going to officially be
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over well i'm glad that things are better now we are hearing some reports dan that americans are
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being targeted probably because americans played a role in the raid that apprehended this individual
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el mencho and presumably led to his death what are you hearing about possible targets against
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citizens in retribution and retaliation for what happened on the weekend well i heard a warning
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that the cartel was suggesting they may come into private homes and potentially even hotels and uh
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much like this one um talks of you know cutting the power we're going around and when i stepped foot
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outside of this hotel yesterday just to investigate the scene i walked out to the road and immediately
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was i came across just a very eerie sight absolutely nobody was out there zero people zero cars except
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for a couple burning smoldering hot cars so when i went out there to do a video report um i uh began
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filming and the only car i saw it was a pickup truck full of about eight or nine guys with huge machine
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guns and black ski masks and camo gear and they pulled right up beside me and slowed right down
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and i gotta say my heart was pounding a few times for a good 10 or 15 seconds there because i didn't
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know if this was the the mexican military or if this was in fact the cartel dressing up look to look
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like the military and either way if it was the cartel that would have been bad news and if it was the
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military well they're the target of the cartel so uh it was pretty scary knowing i probably look
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american uh just being a a little independent canadian reporter sitting out there on the street
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by myself so i was nervous that i might have been targeted for a second there but thankfully they
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continued to drive on i managed to get my report out and uh and and yeah i i think the scene is changing
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out there a little bit but it was pretty scary even for just guys like me trying to cover this
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yeah well you're doing some courageous work being out there putting your life on the line in order to
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bring the story to the people and uh it's very much appreciated but you also raised the issue of
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hard to know the good guys from the bad guys when you're out and about because of course cartel members
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dress the same way as the military people so you really don't know what you're looking at
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they're extremely well equipped and armed aren't they they really are i mean from what i'm seeing
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some of them have tanks um i've heard uh that in the past when these sorts of things have happened
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before um they have shot at military helicopters with rocket launchers these guys literally have access
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to things like rocket launchers and tanks and uh you know they're they're essentially rolling around
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uh like like the military you know so again yeah it does become difficult at some point to try to figure out
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who's who um but uh at at this stage it's tough to say if this is going to continue to escalate to
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you know a military intervention or anything like that but um i've certainly got my guard up because we
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don't know where this is going to go from here um but uh i'll i'll be here for the next you know few days
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maybe longer it's tough to say maybe a day maybe two maybe a week uh we don't know but we'd love to
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check in with you in the future if that's all right with you i know you're very busy but just to see how
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you're doing now uh in terms of canada's official reaction there was the first uh anita non came out
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basically said well shelter in place uh it struck me that their response was a little slow what's your take
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on what canada has been doing up to this point in terms of trying to deal with this i haven't heard
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uh uh anon's response i've uh i've been kind of busy just uh figuring out the logistics of of booking
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this hotel and i've been doing a number of interviews but you know i i i'm not surprised
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really if uh if canada is going to kind of drop the ball on this one i figured maybe i should contact
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the canadian consulate you know while i'm here in puerto vallarta and ask them straight up you know
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do you guys have a plan for something like this are you prepared do you even know what to do if a
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canadian is in a situation like this and i would almost suspect that uh they are probably being
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bombarded right now uh with uh stranded canadians who are are seeking their help and may they may be
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having a rather large backlog right now so uh you know i i'm not overly surprised if they're going to
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uh be a little slow to to react or just say look over here nothing to see there um it's kind of uh
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their modus operandi with these kinds of situations sometimes i'm sure you've been speaking to other
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tourists canadians what are they telling you about what they're going through well it's interesting here
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hearing the tourists like uh at this particular hotel i mean uh i was waiting in line for a number
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of hours just to rebook this room that i'm in and i could hear all the conversations going on all around
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me uh one gentleman was saying that his delta flight uh has informed him that there's absolutely nothing
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going out until saturday and today is monday so that's quite the extension on his stay other people
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were told to uh by the hotel to try contacting third party services like uh expedia or all these
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other companies that do this sorts of booking and the people have done that and they found out that
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everything is sold out because i think there's a lot of backlog of people who were supposed to fly
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yesterday who are now you know being pushed up to the front so uh this it's a logistical nightmare
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right now and uh people here are just kind of forced to hunker down we're we're essentially on
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lockdown in this hotel uh they they are suggesting very strongly at the front at the concierge to not in
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not step outside whatsoever and even if you do go outside there's really no point because all the
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stores around here are completely closed everything is still shut down i'm sure maybe by tomorrow they'll
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start reopening as the roads begin begin to get a little bit more accessible but uh as for now it
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looks like there's hundreds of tourists in this hotel and probably all the ones around around me uh
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who are just hunkering down for the next few days uh staying in their rooms and staying very close to
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the resort itself um because that's pretty much the only option uh that we have at this stage i'm just
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wondering about supplies i mean if supply lines are blocked for instance trucks can't get in and out of
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the city or to the hotel where you're staying i mean is there a danger that some of the food supplies
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and other essentials to come into short supply is there a risk of that i think there absolutely is a
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risk of that that's something people have to be prepared for and have to be thinking about
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um i i certainly have you know i've i've got my uh my my poor mom god love her is is terrified
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watching this you know and and she keeps calling me saying go go stock up your hotel room with food
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go get bottles of water and and stock up because you never know when they're gonna run out and
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they could run out any time now and i would imagine that's what a lot of the people here are
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beginning to realize as well so uh hopefully they get the uh the the road situation figured out
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which i think is is you know kind of being worked on as we speak um and so i i really hope that by
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tomorrow things will be getting a little bit more back to normal here but you know things might never
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get back to normal in mexico when you have an event to this extent uh the powers that ought not be as i
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like to call them will use an event like this to gain order out of chaos they have this down to a science
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it's like problem reaction solution scenario where you have a problem you generate this reaction from
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the people which is often please do something about this for us and then you offer the solution to
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that problem which is something that advances your agenda like digital ids like the more surveillance
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cameras going up left right and center and all these sorts of things may be in the very near future
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for mexicans here as the government figures out how to deal with this current situation and i think
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that's what they might implement on people very very soon so um this came as a shocking rude awakening
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for people and they may soon realize that it's not necessarily going to get better when the big brother
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orwellian surveillance state shows its ugly face here in mexico soon true enough as it has in other countries
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like the uk but let's talk a little bit about what your expectations and hopes are that the government
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of canada does i mean would you like to see an airlift uh a government airlift of of people staying
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there i mean there are thousands of you but i'm talking about people who aren't you know particularly
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hard-get communities is that a possibility that the government will be coming the cavalry will be coming
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you know i i i i highly doubt that um it it would be nice but canadian so-called humanitarian uh
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missions are are often not actually to benefit the canadian people but more so to to to benefit the
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the system in some way shape or form um so i i really don't think we're going to see something like
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that and and that really speaks to the the the fact that you you need to build a community you need to
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network with like-minded people thankfully you know i was here for the last five days working
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at a conference um building connections meeting people in puerto vallarta who are like-minded
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individuals and i've already made a great deal of friends here where if things really go awry i've
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already have some some contacts and and locals in the area who i've made friends with uh who could
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probably help me out of scary situations and that's what we need to focus on moving forward we we can't
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look can't keep looking to the government to help solve us save us from the problems that are created
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by the government essentially because let's face it these drug cartels are often in bed with the
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government you look at the cia drug running uh back in the clinton era like this is time and time again
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we find out after the fact that that's what's going on so we can't rely on them anymore we have to rely
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on ourselves and we have to build communities with one another so that we can um help each other when
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the time comes i've heard uh as we wrap things up i've heard no word of casualties i don't know if you
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have people injured whether people are at the hospital that sort of thing i am hearing that some
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senators for instance excuse me are saying that if any americans are killed uh then that you know
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there could end up retaliation by the u.s military is a possibility and that means soldiers i mean that
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so things could get worse before they get better although i take your point that things appear to be
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getting better any of that factor into your thinking right now well you know i just spent a few days
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speaking at a conference and meeting all kinds of wonderful people and there was a a an aussie a
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couple from australia who i met and i just found out uh recently yesterday that uh there was some
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australians who left the conference they got in their taxi cab and they witnessed they they they were
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captured by the cartel and the taxi driver was killed murdered right in front of them uh and then
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the car was set on fire and their luggage was burnt and their passports were in there and they
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lost everything in this fire thankfully they survived but uh all i know is that it was an australian
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couple who were attendees of the conference who got caught up in this and i met some australian
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people who were attendees at the conference and i i really hope it's not the fine folks that i met but
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either way some people's lives have been completely flipped turned right upside down uh people are
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dead um there's you know we we have to pray for the people of puerto vallarta because there are victims
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family members of victims right now uh who are who are suffering unimaginable loss and um that's
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something we have to remember uh moving forward on this that uh yeah some some really bad things did go on
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here and uh i just hope it gets much much better from here on in you're doing fantastic work how do
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people find your work online well i post to a number of platforms uh ever since i've been banned from
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youtube and then reinstated and then taken down again and then reinstated so you can find me on my
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rumble channel or bit shoot or odyssey or minds or hive or band i'm on nine or ten different platforms but
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the best way to find them all is just to go to pressfortruth.ca that's my website or you can go
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to pressfortruth.ca slash subscribe and there will be a list of all the different platforms uh that i
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post on i've been sharing a lot of up-to-date stuff uh first on x x.com slash x.com slash dan dix pft
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that's where most things go first but uh if you want to get it elsewhere you can go to pressfortruth.ca
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pressfortruth.ca dan uh take care of yourself be careful we'd like to have you back on yeah we'll
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do thanks again for having me thank you thank you if you enjoyed this show consider supporting great
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independent journalism where breaking news stories are told by going to junonews.com backslash straight
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up that's the name of this show straight up junonews.com backslash straight up that was a great deal