Juno News - November 21, 2019


Canadians have no time for the outrage mob


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

187.65639

Word Count

975

Sentence Count

64

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I'd like to steal your ear for a minute today to talk about the curious case of the second
00:00:10.480 Chick-fil-A franchise in Toronto. That's right. A second Chick-fil-A will soon be opening in
00:00:16.260 Toronto in the popular Yorkdale Mall. Now you'll remember a few months ago the first Chick-fil-A
00:00:21.460 franchise opened. This was at the corner of Yonge and Bloor, a flagship location,
00:00:25.740 really one of the busiest intersections in all of Canada. Now this got a lot of people out to
00:00:32.180 protest it and oh boy did the media and the cameras love to show up and highlight these 50,
00:00:37.860 60 or so LGBT activists, a lot of drag queens on hand, to say we don't support this, this is
00:00:44.280 homophobic chicken, boycott it, do not let this business succeed. Their argument was that the
00:00:51.380 head of the organization, the parent corporation and the owner back in the United States had made
00:00:57.080 contributions to a number of Christian charities that are not supportive of same-sex rights. That
00:01:02.860 was their argument. Now that particular location in Toronto, that was a franchise location. So it was
00:01:08.440 put together, run, financed by some entrepreneurs in Toronto. Not the same people making donations but
00:01:15.040 still shut her down they said. Now that got a lot of coverage but an interesting thing happened on the
00:01:20.840 actual day. I went down there because it's just around the corner from my office to take a look at
00:01:25.360 what was happening and yes there were 50 or 60 protesters but there were also well over 100 people
00:01:31.280 in line for over an hour for 90 minutes to be the first people to get Chick-fil-A. I went back the next
00:01:39.180 day because I thought well I want to see what all the fuss is about maybe I'll actually have one of
00:01:42.900 these sandwiches. The protesters were gone on day two but there was still a line of people trying to get
00:01:49.320 the sandwiches. We were told 30 minute lineup from this spot. I said I don't have time for that. Okay
00:01:54.260 I'll come back you know a few days later when it next crossed my mind. I show up. 30 minute lineup.
00:02:00.480 What? Still? I passed by it again because I was walking by it regularly. 20 minute line. I said I don't
00:02:06.140 have time for this. Finally weeks after it all happened there's a pretty small lineup of you know
00:02:11.640 just 10 minutes so I said all right I'll try this out. I got it and you know I gotta tell you
00:02:15.340 it's a damn fine chicken sandwich. As fast food goes it's it's really the best of all of them out
00:02:20.300 there. I've been there twice so far. Wow great chicken sandwich. Now I'm a big supporter of same-sex
00:02:25.460 marriage. I was back in 2005 when Ralph Goodale was voting against it. I've always supported those
00:02:30.980 issues but I think a lot of people had the perspective that I had that you thought this is a bit of a stretch
00:02:36.620 to protest this this chicken sandwich franchise fast food outlet because of some donations the owner made.
00:02:45.040 I mean it's it's really quite a stretch. It's really looking for something to agitate against
00:02:49.440 and a lot of those people in the lineup there these were people of all diverse walks of life. They just
00:02:55.780 wanted this chicken sandwich. Some of them probably knew about the controversy just didn't care had the
00:03:01.080 same view that I had. Others probably just weren't plugged into the day-to-day outrage mob news stories.
00:03:06.680 So it's very interesting to see that despite all these claims that this is this is a bad store and that
00:03:12.720 woke people don't go here. They are thriving in Toronto. They're getting a second outlet. But another
00:03:18.540 funny story cropped up the same day. It was a headline that I read at CBC News although it was an
00:03:22.420 Associated Press story. So a wire story written by an American wire service and they said Chick-fil-A
00:03:28.460 no longer making contributions to three groups that oppose same-sex marriage. So you go okay what's
00:03:34.740 what's this? Maybe they're kind of backing away from that. They want to do a sort of different PR campaign.
00:03:40.580 They don't want the heat anymore. They just want everybody including the drag queens to line up and
00:03:45.240 buy their chicken sandwiches. Okay fair enough. And then I read of these three groups one of them
00:03:51.180 was the Salvation Army. And one of the donations that they will no longer be making is an annual
00:03:58.580 $150,000 donation to give Christmas presents to impoverished children.
00:04:04.960 Really? This is one of their hate contributions? It's never occurred to me to think of what the
00:04:13.440 Salvation Army's positions are on the culture war issues of the day. But I guess when you think about
00:04:19.160 it you go okay it's a Christian-based group. They're generally not supportive of you know official
00:04:23.520 same-sex marriage being law of the land. Okay Salvation Army doesn't support this. But that's not what you
00:04:28.060 think of Salvation Army doing. You think of it being humble people who are out there helping to support
00:04:33.340 the poor and doing soup kitchens and all that kind of stuff and whatever their views are on these
00:04:37.500 issues. Those are tertiary issues. But apparently no. Now Chick-fil-A because of what activists say
00:04:44.060 can't give their money to give kids their Christmas gifts. Odd stuff. Odd stuff indeed. At least an
00:04:50.060 interesting story about how people did not succumb to the mob and just regular folks said no I want my
00:04:57.020 chicken sandwich. Hey I'm a big supporter of same-sex marriage of these issues. I want the chicken
00:05:03.260 sandwich as well. And it seems like the marketplace of well not just the marketplace of ideas but the
00:05:08.460 basic marketplace well they prevailed this time around.