Juno News - October 10, 2025Carney Govt sides with BC NDP + Vancouver cancels Harry Potter
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Summary
After the failure of the D.C. trade deal with the Trump administration, the Conservative Party of Canada says it's obvious the whole election campaign leading up to the vote was a gigantic fraud from the start. Canada should end birthright citizenship, and author J.K. Rowling is under fire for her views on gender identity.
Transcript
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And welcome to Straight Up with Mark Petroni. Thank you so much for tuning in, my friends.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney, looking to put his failed trade talks with Trump in the rearview
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mirror as soon as possible, announced measures aimed at helping those who are hit the hardest
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as a result of Canada's economic downturn. The government will roll out an automatic tax filing
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system for low-income Canadians and make the national food program permanent ahead of the
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long-awaited federal budget due November the 4th. In following the D.C. trade talks in which
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Carney came back with nothing, Pierre Polyev, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada,
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says it's obvious the whole elbows-up election campaign leading up to the April election day
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was a gigantic fraud from the start. Let's listen.
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I think we can now conclude that Mark Carney's entire elbows-up campaign was a gigantic fraud.
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He didn't mean a word of it. Since the election has happened, he's done exactly the opposite of
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everything he promised. And I should be clear, this was not a promise. This was the promise. So the
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entire foundation of Mark Carney's election campaign was not only a broken promise, it was a fraud for
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which thousands of Canadians are paying today with lost jobs. We cannot trust anything that Mark Carney
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says. And the Conservatives are reminding Canadians they were sold a phony bill of goods during the
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election campaign. I have personally argued on this show in the past, on my radio show, that the whole
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elbows-up strategy was doomed from the start. For the same reason that a lightweight boxer wouldn't step
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into the ring with Mike Tyson or any other heavyweight. I mean, if you try trading punches with a boxer who's
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ten times your size, you're going to end up knocked out and probably hurt very badly. You've got to figure out a more
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nuanced strategy to avoid trading punches with somebody you can't hope to win against. A bunch of other countries
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realized that from the start. From the UK, the 27 members of the EU, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, they never bothered with
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counter-terrorists because they knew it would only make matters worse. They ended up with trade deals that they
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could live with. Canada took a different approach and it has failed. Momentum seems to be building for Canada to end the
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so-called birth tourism. That's the long-standing policy in Canada that makes anyone born in this country
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automatically a Canadian citizen. Even those born to temporary workers, foreign workers. Even tourists.
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The Globe and Mail opinion page featured this headline. The Conservatives are right. Canada should end birthright
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citizenship. Conservative member of Parliament, Vincent Ho, posted this video.
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I want you to imagine this. You've worked hard your whole life. You paid your taxes, followed the rules,
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and done everything right because you believe in the Canadian promise. But here's the thing.
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Your tax dollars are increasingly being used to pay for benefits of people who have never paid their
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dues. People whose parents just flew in on a visa, gave birth here, and left. That's called birth tourism.
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And it isn't fair. So it's time to close this loophole in our system so children born to temporary
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residents or visitors aren't automatically granted citizenship. Citizenship should mean commitment,
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not convenience. Just like immigrants choose which country to immigrate to, Canada should also get
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to choose who becomes a citizen. Well, the ruling Liberals have shown
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little indication they want to close that loophole, at least for now. Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson
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has waded into the ongoing spat between Alberta and BC over the proposed construction of an energy
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pipeline to the Pacific. Not surprisingly, the Minister, speaking before the Senate, sided with BC Premier
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David Eby saying projects need the support of the jurisdiction you build it through. Here is Hodgson.
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What we have said is to build you need support of the jurisdiction you build through and you need
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the support of First Nations. The proponent, in this case the province of Alberta, needs to get to attract
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that if they want to build. That's something between the province of Alberta and the province of British
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Columbia. We've said we will be a constructive participant in that three-way discussion.
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The province of Alberta has some work to do. This from a government that promised to fast-track
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key infrastructure projects that benefit all Canadians. You would think that a project like this
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would qualify. Apparently, at least according to this federal government, it does not. Speaking of
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British Columbia, the Vancouver Park Board has cancelled the Harry Potter attraction, bowing to
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pressure from trans activists who oppose the views of author J.K. Rowling. Since 2019, Rowling's views about
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sex and gender have drawn widespread condemnation from transgender people. She believes that you are
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born either male or female and that there is no changing that. She's also expressed concerns about
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women's rights and safety around men in women's spaces. Commissioners of the Vancouver Park Board voted
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unanimously this week to apologize and publicly disavow J.K. Rowling.
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As many of you may be way around liking other-sized comments about transgender people have caused
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significant distress for many transgender and non-binary individuals globally and included here,
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including here in Vancouver. I just had to bring in this particular individuals, transphobic and Holocaust-dening
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us and on a lot of other issues. And J.K. Rowling has been one of, if not the most single
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influential person on earth leading the charge against transgender rights.
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J.K. Rowling, for her part, waited on X with this. To be honest, I didn't even know.
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Vancouver Parks and Recreations had avowed me, so the disavowal hasn't been much of a blow.
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Next time, send me a certificate of avowal and wait until I've proudly framed it,
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hung it over my PC, and taken a selfie with it, then revoke it.
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Columnist and sex-based activist Amy Hamm also weighed in on X.
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Since the Vancouver Parks Board has vowed to never again host a Harry Potter Kids event,
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I'd like to start an annual Stanley Park Harry Potter Meetup and group walk for kids, families,
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and anyone who cares about free speech and reality.
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Amy Hamm is a columnist with the National Post. As a registered nurse based in New Westminster,
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BC, she gained national attention, this was back in 2020, after co-sponsoring a Vancouver
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billboard reading, I Heart J.K. Rowling, in support of the author's feminist views on sex and gender.
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This sparked multiple complaints to the BC College of Nurses and Midwives.
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Amy Hamm. Great having you. Can you give us a little bit of an update on your personal matter there?
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Sure. So, the latest right now is that a decision this March from a panel for the BC
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College of Nurses and Midwives. They found me guilty of professional misconduct for my public
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commentary made outside of work on gender ideology and standing up for women's sex-based rights.
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So, that decision of professional misconduct is being appealed at the BC Supreme Court.
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A penalty decision was also issued that said that I should have a one-month license suspension
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and pay almost $94,000 in cost to the BC College of Nurses for this lawfare that they've put me through
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for the past five years. A hearing spread out over more than a year that was 21 plus days,
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so, you know, longer than a murder trial. It's sort of never-ending. So, that's being appealed
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and I've also launched a Human Rights Tribunal complaint against the College of Nurses and
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Vancouver Coastal Health. I was employed there for 13 years as a registered nurse and fired after
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I was found guilty of unprofessional conduct for my comments.
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That's quite an ordeal you've had to go through. Very disappointing. But I'm glad to see that it
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hasn't discouraged you from speaking out on this issue.
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Not at all. I think it's very important. It's crucial. Women are 50% of the population. So,
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standing up for our sex-based rights, it's very important.
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Now, you were tweeting about this matter involving the Vancouver Park Board cancelling this Harry
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Potter attraction. You were commenting about it, showing where you stand on this. How do you
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categorize what just took place there with the Park Board? Why do you suppose they did what they did?
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I mean, it's such a crazy story. It's been going on for several weeks.
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And sort of the latest is this Park Commissioner, Tom Digby, has, you know, he tweeted about the
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Park Board having a meeting. And these are grown men that were crying over the fact that there's a
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Harry Potter walk for children happening in Stanley Park. They disavowed JK Rowling. They made an apology to
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the 2SLGBT, etc., etc., community. And, you know, again, this is a children's Harry Potter
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walk in the forest. And so Tom Digby's motion, which was passed unanimously to issue this apology,
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was over, of course, his opinion about JK Rowling's views, which it was interesting. He described,
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he said, I don't want to platform her ideas. I'm not going to actually tell you what they are,
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but just believe me that this is a woman with bad opinions and we need to issue an apology and
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counsel her. And then the other, you know, there's another commissioner sitting there who
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didn't even know what her views were and just sort of went along with it, which is quite astounding.
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Just outsourcing his critical thinking, outsourcing his moral judgment to someone else over, you know,
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the views of JK Rowling, which apparently he's never heard and never been made aware of. And if you
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actually know what they are, it's that she stands up for women's sex based rights, she stands up for
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child safeguarding. So this, this situation with the Vancouver park board, it's really just sort of
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a microcosm of cancel culture at large. And it would be hilarious if it weren't so disturbing.
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Yeah, absolutely. There was also a reference to Holocaust denial,
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where I found rather shocking. What was that about? Do you know?
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You know, I, I don't even know where that accusation came from, but again, to see
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that you can throw an accusation like that out and then you have commissioners just accepting it at
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face value and agreeing to denounce this woman without asking to even see, can I see some evidence?
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What did she say at all? It's really astounding. And this is, these are elected officials in Vancouver.
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It blows my mind that anybody would vote for these people again, that are going to disavow someone
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publicly and agree that someone is a Holocaust denier without even seeing a shred of evidence.
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Yeah. And then Rowling responded to it, which is surprising. And this is a very high profile person
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who has done a lot, but she obviously noticed and heard what had happened. And she responded in a way
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that's kind of humorous poking fun at what had happened to her in the first, in the first place,
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in terms of being avowed. She says, to be honest, I didn't even know the Vancouver parks and recreations
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had avowed me. So the disavowal hasn't been much of a blow. So obviously she's managed to keep her
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sense of humor around this. Of course. Yeah. And it's, you know, her fans love it when she gets
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involved in comments on these things, because people around the world are saying these sorts of things
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about her all the time. She doesn't always notice, but when she does, you know, you don't take a shot
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at the queen because she, she doesn't miss when she hits back.
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Yeah, she's yeah, absolutely. She's great with a response. And then your tweet,
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since Vancouver parks board has vowed to never again, host a Harry Potter kids event. I'd like
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to start an annual Stanley park, Harry Potter meeting and group walk for kids families for
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anyone who cares about free speech and reality. Were you serious about that? Or was that kind of a half
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joke? You know what? I am serious about it. I would like to start doing that. So if, if this event doesn't
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come back next year and there hasn't been a shakeup at the parks board, then sure, I would love to host
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an event like that. Well, because it's the kids who are suffering as a result of the cancellation,
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isn't it? Ultimately, those are the people, you know, although it doesn't change, her views don't
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change anything about how loved her work has been, you know, her books have been, how popular they have been
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and the movies and everything else. I mean, this is a multi-billion dollar cottage industry around
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these books that she wrote and kids love them. And so the idea that you can do this, punish kids
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at the process just to go after her and diminish hers is I think ridiculous and cruel for the kids.
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It is. And she does so much, you know, she has Lumos, a children's charity. She runs a rape, sorry,
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crisis shelter called Beera's Place in Scotland. This is a woman who has, does an enormous amount of
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philanthropy. And then you, as you said, this is an event for children to have fun
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with stories that they grew up on and love immensely. And there are adults, grown men,
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a couple of them apparently identifying as females standing there and talking about,
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they're saying that actual harms have occurred because of JK Rowland's opinions, actual harm in
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Vancouver. Again, without quantifying what harm has happened. And the only thing that they can come
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up with is it's been emotionally difficult. So, you know, and we know that's what, that's all they
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mean is hurt feelings. And, you know, if you're a grown man who's offended by a grown woman's opinion,
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and that's more important to you than the enjoyment of hundreds, maybe thousands of children in Vancouver,
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you need to take a look at yourself and, you know, sort yourself out because that, that is incredibly
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self fish. Yes, absolutely. Now it's been about five years since you first sponsored that billboard,
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I heard JK Rowling, and you're still making your way through the legal process with appeals and all of
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this. You've been attacked, but has anything changed in terms of leniency towards people with
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views like yourselves who believe in free speech? I mean, or are we still continuing down that rabbit
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hole of punishing people whose views don't necessarily correspond with the, with the woke East is out there?
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I think that on a population level, most Canadians know what the truth is. They are, they're sick of
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this stuff. However, our institutions are still very captured and run by people who not only fervently
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believe in, but are enforcing this ideology. And I think it's sort of the end of their reign of power,
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or reign of terror, because their, their control over institutions won't last forever. But clearly,
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you know, the, I'm a case in point that it's this ongoing lawfare is still happening. They do still
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have some, some power, even though most people don't like it. And so I think the important thing is that
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people need to stand up and say, I'm sick of this, I'm not going along with it, so that we can hasten
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sort of the demise of this institutional takeover by, by these woke ideologues.
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Now, besides the lawfare that you've had to go through, your activism has drawn attention
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to you and people have gotten to know you and what you stand for. How do you describe the
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interactions that you've had with people that, you know, people that you don't know? Has that been
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tough or has that been encouraging? How do you characterize that?
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It's, it's overwhelming support, especially in recent years, you know, when this started,
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because I've been talking about women's sex-based rights for almost a decade now. And when it started,
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there was the ratio of sort of support to abuse was a lot higher. And then as time goes on, it's
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overwhelming, overwhelming support, which matches with what I said about, I think most people are
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sick of this nonsense. We just still have an issue where not enough people have the courage to, to speak
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out about it. It's, and I think, you know, it's not enough to just do it privately. We do really need
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people to take a stand because this is, you know, this has wide ramifications. And I think people are
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starting to understand that when it hits you, but like, let's say you have a daughter who's in sports
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and suddenly competing against males. There are so many ways that this ideology can personally affect
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people. And, um, it's, it's unfortunate that generally what it takes for someone to speak out is
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that it hits them personally. Um, but it's so, it's taken over so much of our culture that I think
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it is, it's starting to impact more and more people. Yeah. I mean, I think the country owes people
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like you and billboard Chris, a huge, um, thank you, you know, for your activism, for what you've done.
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It takes such courage. I mean, you look at what billboard Chris has put up with, you know, and he continues to do that. Just,
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talk to people stand there with his billboard and put up with things that nobody should have to put
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up with. And then you contrast that with what you've seen in some of the schools, for instance,
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that allow biological males, you know, to compete with, with women and the parents who just sat there
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and kind of put up with it as if it's perfectly normal, you know, and running the risk, of course,
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that their daughters might get hurt. You know, you have to wonder whether or not there's a level of
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Stockholm syndrome there amongst these people who've just so bought in to this attitude that
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they're even willing to have their daughters potentially get injured in a sporting event
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in order to continue on with this charade. Any thoughts about that?
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That's not something that I can personally understand. You know, I have two sons, they're six
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and eight years old. And, you know, it would be different, of course, if they were girls competing
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against boys, but were something, you know, were the school to start using different pronouns for
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them or something, I would, I would be irate, I would immediately step in. So I don't understand the
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parents that sort of let this slide. I think, you know, 20, even 20 years ago, this is something that
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people would have dealt with on a, on sort of a personal, not to say that I'm not talking about
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violence, but just people speaking and saying, this is not okay. And for some reason, people are
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terrified. They're terrified of speaking out now. And, you know, I guess I'm, what happened to me is
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part of the reason is people understand that if you speak out against these ideologues, they will try,
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they'll seek and destroy your entire life. And they have way too much power. It needs to be taken
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away from them. You may very well have seen the statement that Trump made to Mark Carney when the
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two of them were chatting. Trump did in fact bring up this whole issue around trans rights fight for
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them and the fact that males were participating in women's sports. I mean, it's nice to see that at that
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level. Did you have any thoughts about what Trump said, assuming that you heard it? I'm pretty sure
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you did. I actually missed that. Okay. I mean, it wasn't a lengthy discussion, but he did bring it up
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and Carney didn't seem to acknowledge it all that much. He didn't really say anything to counter.
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Carney seems to be good at dodging topics that he doesn't want to speak about. I actually encountered him
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in person on the campaign trail in the US shortly before he won the election. And I attempted to
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bring up sex based rights as an issue, you know, approached him, introduced myself. And he was open
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to taking my question. As soon as I said what it was, he just sort of laughed, flipped his hand at me,
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turned around and walked away. Unbelievable. Yeah. But not entirely surprising. He was avoiding a lot of
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controversial topics. How can people support your work? I'm one of the co-founders of a group called
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COSBAR. It stands for Canadian Women's Sex Based Rights. And we are causebar.ca. So definitely going
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to our website is a great way to support the women in Canada who are fighting to protect and retain
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women's sex based rights. And our group right now, we have a lawsuit actually against the federal
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government to remove biological males from women's prisons. So that's really important. And then the
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other way I would say is my legal fight for the last five years has been funded by the Justice Center
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for Constitutional Freedoms. And they're always taking donations. They do so much great work in this
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country. So that, of course, is another great way to not only just to support me, but to support
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rights and freedoms for all Canadians. They're just, I can't say enough about what an excellent
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organization they are. Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really do appreciate it.
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Thank you for having me. All right. And that is it for this edition of
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Straight Up with Marc Bertrone. Appreciate you tuning in. Let's do it again real soon,