Juno News - Carney government DENIES reports of potential X ban

00:00:00.000 is canada about to ban the social media site x formerly known as twitter a liberal cabinet

00:00:11.680 minister came out on the weekend to deny this story but it hasn't stopped the speculation from

00:00:16.800 heating up evan solomon the minister for artificial intelligence and digital innovation

00:00:22.560 took to social media on the weekend to post this contrary to media reports canada is not considering

00:00:29.680 a ban of x earlier he posted deepfake sexual abuse is violence we must protect canadians

00:00:38.960 especially women and young people from exploitation and that followed a story in the uk telegraph

00:00:45.280 this headline starmer rallies international support to take on musk the story read as follows downing

00:00:52.960 street has held talks with like-minded governments about a coordinated response to the controversy

00:00:58.880 which threatens to erupt in into a diplomatic row with the white house australia and canada are

00:01:06.400 both said to share prime minister starmer's concerns over the use of grok x's artificial intelligence

00:01:13.840 tool to generate explicit deepfake images that story was picked up by ctv news global and the globe and

00:01:21.440 who reported canada is in active discussions to ban x for his part elon musk has called the idea censorship

00:01:30.880 but also warned that anyone using grok to create illegal content or to post illegal content on x will

00:01:38.720 face consequences in calgary there was a long lineup of people eager to sign a petition in support of

00:01:46.000 alberta independence let's watch this this is two hours after it started outside the lineup these people

00:01:56.880 are all lined up to uh still sign well a new poll suggests young albertans are the most likely to

00:02:06.080 support an independent alberta overall three and ten are open to the idea and it's been gaining favor

00:02:14.640 an online survey by research co found more than two in five albertans between the ages of 18 and 34

00:02:22.000 are in favor of independence conservative mp roman babber posted video of himself using a picture of

00:02:29.200 iran's ayatollah khamenei to light his cigar let's watch

00:02:45.920 the post included a message f khamenei all this amidst reports that hundreds of protesters have been killed

00:02:52.880 in that country in opposition to the government now conservative party leader pierre polyev posted

00:03:00.480 this on x conservatives stand unequivocally with the people of iran in their fight for freedom

00:03:06.800 against the murderous khemenei dictatorship joining us today is erica brutis the department head of

00:03:13.600 applied politics and public affairs at makamee college makamee college's applied politics and

00:03:19.920 public affairs program is a two-year evening online program available across canada students have

00:03:26.320 the opportunity to run campaigns organize grassroots movements and push policy in the right direction

00:03:34.800 erica is the former principal secretary to alberta premier danielle smith and the founding

00:03:41.120 president of the united conservative party of alberta she's also the co-host of the discourse

00:03:47.040 podcast which dissects the biggest issues in canadian politics she also won alberta's 2021

00:03:55.120 senate nomination election however the federal government as we know is not obligated to appoint

00:04:00.480 the winners of alberta's senate election welcome thank you i think we gotta tighten up my bio a little

00:04:07.440 bit i was like oh my goodness or i'm just ready for retirement maybe well we know a lot about you now

00:04:12.560 and that's not a bad thing i've got to ask you about x.com and just the whole uh denial on the weekend

00:04:21.920 where you had evan solomon come out and say we're not going to do that we're not going to ban x it's

00:04:29.200 almost like why would he feel the need to do that i mean there was of course the media reports on the

00:04:35.920 weekend starting in the uk which on the uk telegraph posted this story that keir starmer the uk prime

00:04:45.120 minister was working with governments in canada and australia possibly to ban x over deep fakes and

00:04:53.840 it just gathered steam from there what do you make of the fact that the evan solomon would want to do

00:04:59.360 that well i think you kind of loaded my question with explaining the details behind it and you know

00:05:05.920 i think saying nothing would have been better for canada um or at least for our confidence in this

00:05:12.160 government i think that to me when you hear someone being oh nothing to see here nothing to see here

00:05:17.040 look over there um that it actually pro you know prods up more questions than bringing the clarity that

00:05:24.560 maybe that statement in a standalone would hold and if he was being asked i don't see many reports

00:05:31.760 or stories saying we reached out to the minister and this was his standing response it's almost like

00:05:36.320 he took to ironically using x to make a comment about x that nobody was asking a question necessarily

00:05:44.240 about and so a lot of times when you see that it actually ends up being that that was what the

00:05:49.280 government plans to do or wants to do and i would say the history of this government would lead me to

00:05:54.400 believe that they would take away freedom of expression they would take away and blame it on

00:05:59.520 something that his previous tweets were kind of speaking to but there's been all sorts of vile

00:06:04.400 content posted on other social media sites facebook and others and yet uh for some reason

00:06:12.560 the government of secure starmer and quite possibly if we believe the story in the uk telegraph

00:06:18.160 uh canada and and others australia maybe new zealand why are they so focused on elon

00:06:24.080 musk is it because of his political views do they just hate him because he bought x and because

00:06:30.080 he turned it into a much more free platform you know without all the censorship that we saw

00:06:36.720 before when it was still twitter if there's option c all of the above uh i would go with that one

00:06:42.800 because i do think i mean you look at these other platforms as as you read my bio i have been in the

00:06:48.400 public and political eye for quite some time and i've been hated on all platforms and actually

00:06:54.560 facebook might be one of the worst but when you look at the the leaning of the individuals behind

00:06:59.600 it it seems to be and the conclusion i would reach is oh this is a let our right leaning free enterprise

00:07:07.200 kind of more populist individual versus some of the other platforms that lean more left uh in who owns them

00:07:15.200 maybe we're we're onto something here let's talk a little bit about danielle smith who now has come

00:07:23.760 out and said the venezuela situation has really upped the ante in terms of canada's need to roll out

00:07:31.440 pipelines through northern bc to the coast um you know obviously the need is more pronounced now at least

00:07:41.440 you would think that that would be the case but i mean the feds don't seem to be in any hurry to

00:07:48.400 go in that direction uh i mean what cards does alberta really have to play here if carney says no

00:07:55.760 this is just another day in the neighborhood we don't care about venezuela we're going to move at

00:07:59.920 the same pace that we talked about in the mou well i think it's very telling because if there wasn't a bet

00:08:06.960 like there's this is one of the best times for canada to double down on the fact that we need to

00:08:12.640 get our resources to market there's instability in um the energy sector venezuela and the u.s

00:08:20.400 you know regardless how you feel about that situation you feel about donald trump you feel about

00:08:25.600 is he legitimate or as most people feel an illegitimate uh president i think that there is no better

00:08:33.600 time than for canada to be like look at all this stuff happening the other big players are iran

00:08:40.480 saudi arabia like let's look at the key players oh who is the best with ethical oil who is the best

00:08:47.120 that's going to help our canadian economy who is the one that is actually working with our

00:08:51.520 shareholders our stakeholders across our country and looking at diversifying i mean the premier just

00:08:57.440 did a mission to asia and they're begging for our resources so if you can't if you can't build a

00:09:03.520 better case than now i think it's really telling of what the mark carney government is actually going

00:09:08.880 to do with this opportunity as well as as a government and i was really hoping he wasn't gonna follow in

00:09:16.560 justin trudeau's footsteps i think he was showing optimism by signing this mou but now i'm almost leaning to

00:09:24.240 all the critics that said this mou is nothing we'll see but i think danielle smith is taking

00:09:28.720 the right steps to really call his bluff because if you can't make the argument now when you have so

00:09:34.000 much toxicity and instability um from outside sources i don't know when you could have a better time

00:09:42.160 well the question is i mean you know the do the feds want to move and if they don't want to move any

00:09:48.240 faster then what pre what recourse does she have i mean she's already signed the mou which does not

00:09:57.040 have any kind of you know limits in terms of time or we're talking way off in the distance sometime

00:10:03.840 here she's saying we're going to apply by june and we want a response we want a an approval done by fall

00:10:12.000 i mean that's lightning fast for this government and i think yeah go ahead no i was going to say

00:10:18.080 i think it is lightning fast for any government however no other government prior to this put a

00:10:23.440 mechanism in place that could allow for fast tracking of projects so she's looking at it as

00:10:29.520 mark carney created this entity for fast tracking projects he created legislation to enable it to help

00:10:36.560 our economy and so i agree with her position now back to your question of what other levers could she

00:10:43.760 pull um you know i i suspect there's lots of conversations happening there's not maybe the

00:10:49.840 same legislative process i don't think she can get c69 or c48 repealed in any sense um i think what

00:10:58.480 mechanism she can pull is going to build the case to the the stakeholders along the pathway and get them

00:11:05.280 to validate it i don't see it being unless we want a four-year court case um any of the constitutional or or

00:11:13.280 legislative mechanisms unfortunately so i would think this would be a fantastic opportunity right

00:11:18.720 now because you've got carney going to china and the chinese now have lost venezuela or at least it

00:11:26.400 appears that way we've got the u.s military you know boarding tankers and so forth loaded with uh oil for

00:11:35.520 the east you know to asia and now you've got carney going over there and those discussions could very

00:11:42.320 well go in the direction of look you've got the oil we want the oil we want energy we want another

00:11:47.840 supplier now that venezuela has become tentative for us you know you could be johnny on the spot in

00:11:53.280 terms of supplying that for us and so i mean wouldn't that be a golden opportunity if he is honest here

00:12:02.000 about wanting to expand our energy markets to do so absolutely i think the question is is is he honest

00:12:10.000 about it did he think a flashy mou was going to satisfy alberta i can answer that and he should have

00:12:16.880 known that the answer is no um and so when he's going to the individuals that would be the buyers

00:12:22.480 that already want our lumber they already want our honey in asia like we have a lot of resources that

00:12:29.920 already go there and we have a buyer that's wanting our product like if you can't sell that back to the

00:12:37.360 canadian people and build the case for exactly all of the various reasons we've discussed so far on

00:12:43.280 the show of why you should build a pipeline right now um while still maximizing and increasing

00:12:50.320 production to the tmx although that does take some infrastructure changes but like let's take this

00:12:56.480 opportunity like hold the boat like pull the bull by the horns and leverage this i think he's actually

00:13:02.480 putting himself into a corner because what are you going to come out of your mission to china saying

00:13:07.440 well we had lovely conversations and they want all of our stuff but got to go talk to those three

00:13:12.240 indigenous coastal groups and you know it's them or us you know it just sounds it just he's just going

00:13:18.800 to look silly if he doesn't have a an actual plan because i think people gave him some grace with an mou

00:13:25.200 but now it's like you gotta actually deliver i mean we appear poly of on this show and of course there

00:13:32.160 was today just a story in the national post suggesting that uh he would move he would push

00:13:38.000 through a pipeline over the objections of indigenous groups he certainly would do so over the objections of

00:13:45.920 bc and of course the supreme court ruling has already given them the go-ahead that they can do that

00:13:52.640 um what do you make of that what what a contrast here oh it is an absolute contrast and i'm happy

00:13:59.440 that pierre has come out with this i know i would say is no burden a little bit frustrated a little

00:14:03.600 like when he comes out and says this is a nothing mou and kind of taking away from that moment but

00:14:08.960 he is running to be the prime minister not he's not the premier so i understand why he took that

00:14:14.720 position it just kind of you know we were like yay at least it's a step forward after 10 years of

00:14:20.320 dumpster fire federal government um however you know why are people surprised that pierre poly of

00:14:27.040 would say that we have consultation not consent we have a constitution that gives the federal government

00:14:33.280 the authority to do that with interprovincial resources so if people are causing a huff that

00:14:39.920 pierre's saying that that's how our country is designed he's just using the playbook and the

00:14:45.920 constitution as as as his playbook to be able to get our our pipeline to market like the fact that

00:14:54.560 people even think that that is an absurd or upside or like surprising thing to say it's like no this

00:15:00.480 man just understands how our country's supposed to work and he's building solutions not blockades

00:15:08.480 let's talk a little bit about alberta independence um referendum expected this year

00:15:14.480 all the while the feds are dragging their heels to the pipeline approval at least they appear to

00:15:18.320 be up up to this point which may push more albertans to vote yes we're seeing some of the polling

00:15:23.680 suggests it's three in ten and then interestingly enough young people gravitating towards the idea of

00:15:29.040 an independent alberta i mean there's a lot of things that are converging here i mean if the feds don't

00:15:35.360 move on on pipeline approval in the fall um we've got a referendum i mean who knows what could happen

00:15:43.920 how do you see this playing out well it's a tough one i wish i had a crystal ball because i would know

00:15:50.640 how my province is uh going to decide i am happy to see a referendum i think because there is so much

00:15:56.560 frustration um amongst albertans in particular reason uh regions more so or create potentially

00:16:03.760 um demographics more so but i'm not surprised to see that the youth feel this way one thing is that

00:16:11.040 the conservative movement has spoke more to i guess i should call them youth but i'm no longer in that age

00:16:16.960 group um but the you know the younger populations that are coming out of school can't find a job can't

00:16:22.080 afford a home can't are still living with their parents not that they want to and all of these

00:16:26.480 things that like i think pierre in the last election did a really good job of highlighting like

00:16:31.200 your parents bought a house and they got married at 20 and they were able to provide for themselves

00:16:36.640 they had good jobs you have those good jobs but you can't get anything that they would have got and

00:16:41.200 that's not realistic of how society should work you should be able to not have to be a renter forever

00:16:47.600 unless you want to be and so i'm not surprised that that population is fed up and feels like

00:16:53.680 the federal government isn't working for them or this country isn't working for them um i think when

00:17:01.040 a lot of other people outside alberta think of separatists they probably think of like joe farmer

00:17:05.920 and with his picket um his pitchfork yelling at you know with overalls or whatever stereotype the rest of

00:17:12.720 canada likes to use for us but it is actually average average people i was very hopeful um that

00:17:20.800 i would be confident in voting no to separation with this mou and i think that every day it's starting

00:17:29.440 to to claw back that my uncertainty is coming like is rising again and i think that that's what we saw

00:17:36.000 when you look at polls from june i thought that that was the peak of separation where you're seeing so

00:17:41.600 much frustration um lack of budget lack of vision lack of direction and i never thought that we would

00:17:48.560 get past that 33 percent um that kind of loomed around that period we always hover as a province

00:17:54.560 around 22 24 and to see it now spiking again i think it is because of the lack of action by the federal

00:18:03.200 government um and and promising it like over promising and what appears to be under delivering

00:18:09.760 currently i would love for carney to prove me wrong but i think that that's probably the general

00:18:15.200 sentiment and the the roller coaster of ups and downs with separation in alberta that we're we're

00:18:21.680 currently seeing i don't know how it's going to turn out but i do think that for the benefit of alberta

00:18:26.240 to move forward in our relationship as part of confederation which i think many people would love

00:18:31.600 in different settings um and in a in a constructive not toxic relationship is that at least this vote

00:18:40.160 will provide us with clarity of what the actual population of alberta wants and when i mean

00:18:45.760 population i mean real residents and real canadian citizens last question yeah you think that the

00:18:53.040 carny government gets it though i mean do they look at the situation in alberta and dismiss independence

00:18:58.800 to say it'll never happen we got nothing to worry about we're not going to move one way or another

00:19:03.040 any not going to move any faster on pipelines than we were going to you know a year ago or two

00:19:09.040 years ago or do you think something in there yeah i feel like a month ago i wouldn't or two months

00:19:14.880 ago i would have said no i don't think they get it a month ago i thought that maybe they understood

00:19:18.880 it do i think that carney's will to put enough political capital to satisfy alberta um do i believe

00:19:27.760 that that is like he's willing to use that political capital i don't think so i think what

00:19:32.960 they think is alberta's pissed off alberta's angry but there's probably only 33 percent i don't think

00:19:40.480 that they're looking at this like quebec with a 50 50 very close margin i think that they're looking at

00:19:47.600 it as we'll let these people have their say or at least the premier of alberta will let them have

00:19:54.400 their freedom to have their say in a democratic process and that it won't pass and we'll move on

00:20:01.360 that's truly if i i had to say today i think that that's probably how he wakes up in the morning in

00:20:06.560 his thought process unfortunately erica brutis thank you so much for coming on the show we really

00:20:12.720 appreciate it thank you see you soon see you that is it for this edition of straight up appreciate you

00:20:18.640 tuning in my friends let's do it again soon shall we bye bye for now

Juno News - January 12, 2026

Carney government DENIES reports of potential X ban

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